Saturday night we partied at the Brooklyn Museum to help kick off its newest exhibition, Killer Heels: The Art of the High-Heeled Shoe. From the mid-seventeenth century to the modern day, the exhibit features some of the most want-worthy shoes ever created—like Marilyn Monroe’s Ferragamo stilettos and Lady Gaga’s 8-inch platform booties.

Check out a few of our snaps from the launch party. Killer Heels will be on display Sep 10–Feb 15 at the Brooklyn Museum.

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To help simplify your summer-fun choices, we hand-selected a few art, food, music and film events across the country for you—and paired up two different go-to looks for each category. Find out what’s happening near you this summer, as well as the perfect outfit to arrive in style!

ART & CULTURE

Jeff Koons: A Retrospective & Edward Hopper and Photography
Koons: June 27-Oct 19 | Hopper: July 17–Oct 19
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York City

Outfit Inspiration:
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We’d like to offer our congratulations to all the winners and nominees at the 2012 CFDA Awards, with a special shout-out to those winners who are a part of the Nordstrom family. 

Billy Reid – Menswear Designer of the Year

Reed Krakoff – Accessories Designer of the Year

Phillip Lim – Swarovski Award for Menswear

Tabitha Simmons (middle) – Swarovski Award for Accessory Design

Images courtesy of BFA, CFDA and Parsons.

The trailer for Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby starting Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio was just released this week. Now, a 7-month wait until it opens. Jeepers creepers.

We already know we’ll be seeing it, because we can’t stop staring at the costumes—all that classic glamour and flapper-chic. We also couldn’t stop wishing this movie had been out back during high school American literature class.

Image © 2012 Warner Bros. Ent.

The trailer got us thinking: What would we wear to a Great Gatsby party? We did a little online window shopping and found a handful of Art Deco- and Roaring Twenties-inspired pieces for putting on the Ritz. We’re sure Daisy and Gatsby would think these are the bee’s knees.

Our favorite nonagenarian style icon, Iris Apfel is making headlines again. The Boston Globe reports that she’s donating over 600 articles of clothing and accessories (we’re talking the likes of Lagerfeld, Dior, McQueen) to the Peabody Essex Museum in Massachusetts.

All 600 enviable pieces were already lent to the museum during its 2009 exhibition, “Rare Bird of Fashion: The Irreverent Iris Apfel.” After reading the news of her collection’s permanent return to the museum, we thought it a perfect time to open our treasure chest and relive our interview with Apfel—shot as she as she marked the exhibition’s opening by styling our Nordstrom Northshore windows.

“If you can have one good little black dress and have a lot of accessories, you can change the look of the dress, and you can have umpteen outfits and always look good.”—Iris Apfel

This rare bird of fashion is sheer delight.

In case you can’t get enough of the 2012 Met Costume Institute Gala, or you saw the sneak peek of the guests at our table and around the scene in The Cut and are waiting for more, we thought we’d share our candid shots snapped with the help of Jennifer Wheeler, our Designer Corporate Merchandise Manager.

Karolina Kurkova and Arizona Muse

Lana Del Rey and Joseph Altuzarra

Azealia Banks and Alexander Wang

Christina Ricci

Karolina Kurkova and Pete Nordstrom

Arizona Muse and Erdem Moralioglu

Jennifer Wheeler and Olivier Theyskens

Rachel Zoe and Rodger Berman

Alexander Wang and Thakoon Panichgul

Jeffrey Kalinsky, Rachel Zoe, Jennifer Wheeler and Pete Nordstrom

The de Young Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco and Nordstrom present The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: From the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, showing now through August 19.

With 140 haute couture and ready-to-wear designs, along with sketches, archival documents, photography and video clips, this exhibition showcases the masterful craftsmanship and rebellious spirit of fashion’s “enfant terrible“, starting from the launch of his first collection in 1976.

We were thrilled to speak with Gaultier about his works on display, his design philosophy and his thoughts on beauty and individuality.

Learn more about the exhibit and ticket information. “There is no one type of beauty.”—Jean Paul Gaultier

Not that we need an excuse to go back to Venice (though this time we know to pack the Dramamine for any all-day canal tours), but this exhibit is a definite motivator. The life and work of Diana Vreeland—one of the 20th century’s most influential tastemakers—is now on display at Palazzo Fortuny.

Starting her industry career as a fashion editor at Harper’s Bazaar, and moving on to Vogue as editor in chief for almost a decade, Vreeland helped to revolutionize the world of fashion. The exhibit celebrates Vreeland and her contributions to the industry, and displays a collection that drops the names of the era’s most important designers and couture.

Now through June 25 at Palazzo Fortuny: Diana Vreeland. After Diana Vreeland. Also, check out DianaVreeland.com for a host of beautiful images showcasing her style and work.

Our Nordstrom Michigan Avenue store played host to a personal appearance from the always elegant and poised Ivanka Trump, who joined us to celebrate the launch of her spring 2012 collection.

We love the ladylike elegance of her collection—so like its namesake. We’re eyeing the pretty pinks and covetable mix of slingback wedges and pumps, but we especially adore how every piece of the Ivanka Trump brand makes ‘effortless chic’ easy for everyday.