The best part about The Royal Ontario Museum is you can have as much fun going with your boyfriend/mother/dog-walker as you did back in the day on school trips. Unlike many other attractions in the city, The ROM does not lose its ‘mystique’ once you’ve mastered tying your own laces.
 
The museum stands tall in its slick, renovated glory as it dominates the St George Bloorscape. How many times have I passed by in the last couple years, never quite managing to make the commitment? Too embarrassing to count. But I’m glad to tell you I’ve finally broken my ROM dry spell.
 
It was The Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles and Costume that brought me to The ROM, but it was the bat caves, Darwin, and dinosaurs that kept me there till closing, as I eagerly tried to soak up every last tidbit of dino trivia.

 
The Gallery of Textiles and Costumes left me in awe. The last permanent addition to the Lee-Chin Crystal, this new wing displays close to 200 pieces ranging from the 1st millennium BC to 21st century AD including Chinese imperial costumes, early Islamic textiles from Egypt, and immaculately tailored cocktail dresses from premiere European fashion houses.
 
The presentation is immaculate and all items are showcased individually, allowing for multiple vantage point ogling. Also ogle-worthy, the gorgeous collection of textiles, which ranges from hand painted fabrics to larger-than-life quilts, hand painted silks, and batik.
 
But most exciting of all are the ultra glam gowns, suits, and corsets. One of the biggest stunners is a cocktail dress by Dior called Delphine from fall/winter 1956/1957. The dress is fire engine red, to the knee, features an inner boned corset and five levels of petticoats – heavy.
 
Another highlight is the Vivienne Westwood toga dress from 1941 – the first collection she designed under her own name. The dress can be worn in a variety of ways – wrapped, tied, twisted or flowing, like an oversized tee and is printed with a Matisse lithograph.
 
Transporting us even further into a fairy tale world from a Disney movie are stoically displayed formal evening/ ball dresses from Europe (1950) in Rococo silks characterized by brocaded peonies, pomegranates, and pineapples.

Also in the show, a two-piece day suit by Azzedine Alaia from a couple years back; absolutely stunning. The seaming is a dream, cut on a bias, moves with the body, I had to bite my lip to stop from drooling. There’s even a piece from Comme des Garcons circa 1998 – 1999. In case you didn’t know, they are next in line to collaborate with H&M this coming fall – CAN’T WAIT!
 
Next it was time to explore the dinosaurs – and I was very excited. With The Flintstones theme blaring in my head I began admiring the beasts. One of the major differences is the presentation. There’s no more dark room with shrubs and sound effects. Instead, they are displayed in a slick NYC fashion along with white walls, chrome detailing, and tons of visual aids in the form of LCD monitors with touch-tone screens. One can only hope the kids won’t destroy them all.
 
The videos are super cute and teach to properly pronounce dinosaur names, size and weight of dinosaur, eating habits, and “additional notes.”  I learned (along with a group of 10 years old who were just as fascinated by the gadgets as me) that the Parasaurolophus is 10m long, weighs 4.47 tonnes (the equivalent of 153 humans), eats plants and is the museum’s most popular skeleton. Take that Lara Flynn Boyle.
 
And then, as luck would have it, I bumped into an old friend from film school. He was visiting The ROM on assignment, and was supposed to be recording atmospheric sound for a documentary he’s working on. Much to his dismay, there were crazed children running amuck the space yelling at the top of their lungs. By the time we were done with the bones, we wanted nothing more than to escape the crowds, stickiness, and screaming, and we did, by heading to the bat caves. SO much fun – but to be honest, less impressive than when you’re tiny and scared making your way down, grasping at the walls fearing a bat attack.
 
Then we stopped to check out the biodiversity in a mixed forest. This I liked very much, Kind of like a game of Where’s Waldo where you can try to pick out all different bird species. I love games so naturally this was a good time.

Lastly we hit up Darwin: The Evolution Revolution exhibit, which did not disappoint. We enjoyed learning about his personal life, and quizzing each other on the laws of Natural Selection and Recessive Genes (grade 11 Biology anyone?).
 
This is a loaded exhibit and follows Darwin from his childhood to well beyond his death as esteemed scientists explain his theories and relevance to this day. From the glyptodonts (amazingly large armadillos) to the Ornate Frog which essentially looks like a great big mouth on legs (Julia Roberts comes to mind), we were entertained every step of the way as we attempted to decipher his personal diaries (highly illegible) and impress each other with evolution trivia.

While the exhibit is so large, it manages to feel focused, intimate, and you definitely leave the museum with a newfound desire to learn the man’s teachings, although I was certainly not thrilled to learn he used to shoot at cats and dogs for fun as a teenager. Sick puppy.
 
What I learned at The ROM:
 
• The ROM opened in 1914
• The ROM welcomes between 750,000 and 1 million visitors each year
• Currently houses 6 million artifacts
• Crinolines are much lighter than petticoats even though they contain hoops made of wool and metal
• Darwin married his first cousin because he wanted a “nice wife on sofa”
• The bony plates on a stegosuraus’ back were used in sexual displays to attract a mate, not during fights (as previously believed)