Archive | May 2019

Risk it, go for it!

Mary Quant once said “Risk it, go for it. Life always gives you another chance, another go at it. It’s very important to take enormous risks.” That’s exactly what she did in the Swinging Sixties, redefining what it meant to be young and seizing every opportunity that came her way.

The Fashion and Textile Museum’s latest exhibition; ‘Swinging London: A Lifestyle Revolution’ explores the design and the fashion of the Chelsea Set, in particular Mary Quant and Terence Conran, but touching on the work of other designers of the era, who worked with them such as Laura Ashley and photographers of the time.

I visited with my Mum, who grew up during the wonderful Sixties in London. I often think it must have been a fabulous era to be a teenager in. Taking Mary’s philosophy of risk, I chose a different outfit to something I would normally wear which also gave a nod to the Sixties/Seventies, along with embracing the current trend of co-ordinates. The skirt and top were from River Island, the beige mac was M&S (I was channelling my inner Mod here) as well as the orange espadrilles. The bag I styled it with was also River Island – a great copy of the Dior saddle bag. I tied in the orange shoes by also wearing orange hoop earrings from Accessorize. Unfortunately, the risk didn’t really pay off as the outfit was not a great choice for my fuller figure. Fashion is about having fun and Quant certainly promoted fashion as a game, but we have all had our fashion fails. Why not share some of yours below?

While a relatively small exhibition, Swinging London gives a great overview of fashion from 1952-1977, displaying homewares, fashion, furniture, lighting and ceramics and is very reasonably priced to visit at less than £10 per ticket. Visit before the exhibition closes on 2 June 2019.

Mary Quant was born in Blackheath, London in 1930 and was instrumental in the Mod and youth fashion in the sixties, along with being one of the designers accredited with the mini skirt and hot pants. She opened her first shop, Bazaar in Chelsea in 1955 and two years later a second branch, in Knightsbridge, designed by Terence Conran.

Terence Conran was born in Kingston Upon Thames, London in 1931and started his own design company in 1956, designing a shop for Mary Quant. He is most famous for the household and furniture store, Habitat, opening the first branch in Chelsea, London in 1964. Involved in other retail businesses, along with architecture and interior design; more recently he is known for a number of London restaurants which he has created.

The below photo shows the co-ord set designed by Quant in 1965. The design of the fabric was a textile from Liberty of London, originally an early twentieth-century block-printed fabric, which Liberty converted to a screen-print. The ‘Sgt Pepper’ coat is by Michael Mott for Paraphernalia, a leading boutique in New York who acknowledged the influence of Mary Quant and her boutique.

The shoes below, came with a carry bag and are from a 1967 range by Quant when she collaborated with G.B. Britton – a work boot manufacturer. They proved to be unpopular, given that like wellies, they were too hot and sweaty in summer and too cold in winter.

Part of the exhibition was Elizabeth Suter’s sketches which captured the designs from the sixties catwalks. What makes these sketches all the more brilliant is that they were drawn mainly from memory, as sketching during the shows was not allowed. These were captivating and showcased such a wonderful talent. I would love to have some of these framed on my walls at home.

Following the exhibition, Mum and I explored some previously unvisited corners of Bermondsey and discovered a lovely parade of cafes and shops which included Kat Maconie the shoe designer and London Glassblowers where they display glassblowing as well as selling signed decorative pieces by Peter Layton. We went on to discover Vinegar Yard, an urban garden and street food market that has pop up shops selling vintage clothing, antiques, records and art, amongst other things. Vinegar Yard only opened in April this year and you can’t miss it, due to its art installation of a train carriage with giant ants crawling over it. Artist Joe Rush created the ants and has a working studio within the yard. Just round the back of London Bridge station, this is a classic example of what I love best about our Capital, there is always something new to discover around the corner!

We finished the day in the vibrant Borough Market with lunch at Fish! which served delicious fish and chips in the heart of the market.

We had a lovely day out, proving that South London has just as much to offer as the more central and traditionally tourist parts; after all Mary Quant herself was a South London girl!

Why not take a leaf out of Quant’s book and take a risk, after all when you die you always regret the things you didn’t do.

J’adore Dior

May28

When I think of Dior I think of femininity, luxury and class. When Dior launched his first collection in 1947, he created The New Look – the hour glass silhouette. The press dubbed the collection The New Look because of its revolutionary nature. In contrast to wartime boxy styles, his designs emphasised the curves of the female body.

Born in 1905, Dior retrained as a fashion artist in 1935. Tragically, he died of a heart attack in 1957, just ten years after the launch of his first collection, however the legacy left by Dior continues to inspire some seven decades later, through the six artistic directors that have succeeded him in the fashion house.

The V&A’s biggest fashion exhibition since Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty in 2015 Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams, has been a sell out for the London Museum, leading them to extend the exhibition for a further two months until 1 September 2019. The exhibition was inspired by the Christian Dior: Couturier du Rêve in Paris and also explores the designer’s fascination with British culture. Dior is quoted as saying: “There is no other country in the world, besides my own, whose way of life I like so much.” He was fascinated by England’s great houses, ocean liners, Savile Row tailoring and royalty. He often showed his collections in grand country houses, such as Blenheim Palace in 1954 in aid of the British Red Cross.

I had long anticipated the release of tickets for this exhibition and finally got to visit in March with my friend. For the visit I wore a red t-shirt from Topshop with J’adore on the front to emulate an actual Dior t-shirt worn by Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City Movie 2.

I paired the t-shirt with a black satin, bias cut skirt from New Look. A similar skirt produced by Topshop was an Instagram sensation and therefore a sell out. The weather still being somewhat chilly, I also wore my trusty New Look faux leather biker jacket that is one of my go to pieces. To really set the outfit off, I wore black suede heels that I purchased in Belgium some years back and accessorised with an Asos bag which I thought had a look of a Dior saddle bag and actually appeared in Fabulous magazine sometime after I had purchased it. The only true Dior I wore was my mascara, Diorshow which I can’t rate highly enough. A lady on the tube commented on how beautiful my shoes were but after a whole day in London in them, I can assure you I was using a rather different word to describe them!

The exhibition has over 500 objects, including over 200 rare Haute Couture outfits, displayed with accessesories, original drawings, perfumes, magazines and photographs. The exhibition is set out over different themed rooms and is a display of absolute beauty, curated perfectly to take you on the Dior artistic journey. It looks at where Dior found inspiration for his designs from the eighteenth century, to travel to gardens.

The entrance to the exhibition looks at Dior’s life and then focuses on The New Look, particularly the bar suit, acquired by the V&A in 1960 and considered to be a key piece of his first collection, reimagined subsequently by many artistic directors.

Dior in Britain’s main attraction was the dress designed by Dior for Princess Margaret to wear in her 21st birthday portrait in 1951. Dior said of the princess: “she was a real fairy princess, delicate, graceful and exquisite. The same adjectives could be used to describe Dior’s own creations.

The next room is historicism and looks at the influence of the eighteenth century on Dior and subsequent artistic directors.

Dress to the left is Christian Dior – Raf Simons part of Haute Couture Autumn-Winter 2014 – The skirt emulates the style of an 18th century court dress

The pink jacket to the right is again Christian Dior – Raf Simons and part of the Haute Couture Autumn-Winter 2014 collection. The cut and embellishment clearly echo 18th century court attire

Me in the historicism room

Christian Dior enjoyed travel and took inspiration from art, landscapes and architecture in different countries. The Travel room looks at how travel inspired his, and future designs of the fashion house. My favourite outfits in the room are shown below. On the left an Egyptian inspired piece by Christian Dior – John Galliano and part of the Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2004 collection. This is purely art, if totally unwearable. On the right, the dress was for the Tokyo presentation of the 2017 Spring-Summer haute couture collection and I just adore this Christian Dior – Maria Grazia Chiuri creation, which with the trailing cherry blossom, encompasses the femininity of Dior.

The next room was by far my favourite, The Garden, and I could have spent hours in there. It truly felt like a secret garden, which is exactly the feel Maria Grazia Chiuri wanted to create in the Musee Rodin where she displayed her first couture collection, as homage to Dior’s love of gardens. Flowers influenced both Dior’s designs and his wonderful perfumes. He would often sketch in the garden and as a boy he loved to study his mother’s plant catalogues. Dior said: “After women, flowers are the most divine of creations.” The room was simply magical. The centre piece gown, seen top right in the below collection of photos is Christian Dior – Maria Grazia Chiuri and part of the Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2017 collection. The detail is phenomenal with the petal-like decoration created using layers of dyed feathers.

The centre bottom photo of the collection above is a dress by Dior – Raf Simons and part of the Haute Couture Autumn-Winter 2012. The dress was worn by Natalie Portman as the face of the Miss Dior perfume. The bottom right picture of the above collection shows to the far right a dress by Christian Dior – John Galliano, which was part of the Haute Couture Autumn-Winter 2010 collection and is hand painted silk, clinched at the waste by a green bow representative of garden twine.

The Ateliers room demonstrates how test garments are made in white cotton fabric so the fit and shape of the design can be checked before making it in the actual fabric and adding embellishments.

The exhibition concludes with The Ballroom which was where Dior could really allow his imagination to run free and showcase extravagance. Dior once said that: “evening clothes are the most glamorous and fascinating things a woman can have as the evening is the time when you escape the realities of life.” This room was really atmospheric with relaxing music and lighting moving it between day and night.

The dress to the bottom right of the collection above is Christian Dior and part of the Haute Couture Autumn-Winter 1949 collection was embroidered with thousands of shimmering sequins and has to be one of his stand out pieces.

The final dress we see is the below creation by Christian Dior – Maria Grazia Chiuri and was part of the Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2018 collection. The inspiration for the dress was an original 1950 hand-painted fan by Christian Dior, held by the mannequin. Having his signature embroidered in the skirt is symbolic of his lasting legacy.

If you can get to the exhibition, I highly recommend it. Additional exhibition tickets will be released on the 15th day of each month for the month ahead and limited tickets are available to purchase daily at the museum on a first come, first served basis. Dior remains one of the greatest designers and his creations are often seen both on the red carpet and in the fashion magazines.

The shop at the V&A also has an impressive range of books on the designer and souvenir drawings, photos and stationery from the exhibition.

Sadly my finances will probably only ever extend to the makeup and perfume of the fashion house, but his influence can often be found in high street designs. He was a true God of the fashion world. Long may his legacy continue.

Hearts and flowers

May3

First thing on a Sunday morning, London is like a ghost town, quietly waiting for its admirers. A short walk from Old Street tube station, takeaways and bus routes give way to older streets with more historical buildings and over sized greenery seems to be heading towards us, as people struggle home with a new pot plant or two. Where are we heading? Columbia Road flower market.

The flower market began as a Saturday market but was later moved to a Sunday to accommodate a growing number of Jewish traders, for whom Saturdays were a day of rest. Moving it to a Sunday also allowed traders from Covent Garden and Spitalfields to sell off stock left over from Saturday trading. Following a demise in the seventies when there were suggestions of demolition, the locals fought to save the market and the surrounding Victorian shops and since then it has gone from strength to strength. The market now attracts people from around the world and as well as being a great place to pick up a cheap bunch of quality flowers, or a pot plant to transform that awkward corner of your home, the market also appeals to photographers and film makers.

The market is a feast for all the senses, with flowers in every colour of the rainbow available, their sweet scents filling the air, blending with the waft of freshly brewed coffee coming from the many cafes. The day we visited, the air was filled with the sweet scent of lavender. The second or third generation market traders call out their deals in cockney accents and there is a general hubbub as people squeeze their way along the stalls. Music can also be heard from the street buskers.

When you have had your fill of the plants, the Victorian shops behind offer vintage crockery, gifts and art. Then it’s time to chill in one of the cafes. We accidentally stumbled into a vegan cafe and I can tell you a vegan pain au chocolat doesn’t quite hit the spot, but I did feel like a hip east Londoner!

My husband bought me the most gorgeous roses which lasted way longer than your average bunch, despite being carted round London with me for the rest of the day.

It might mean an early start but the market is well worth a visit on a Sunday morning.

This was Valentine’s weekend and so after the historic market, we headed to the modern Shard to experience the view from the top, whilst sipping champagne. I of course dressed themed for the weekend, in a top with hearts on the collar, paired with skinny jeans – both Oasis and complimented it with red ballet pumps by Mauro Leone purchased in Milan and a red heart bag by Floozie. I wore my trusted faux leather jacket from New Look as despite the sun, it was a chilly day.

At the beginning of any romance, it’s all hearts and flowers but once you have been together a few years, that all falls by the wayside, only to be replaced with the day to day routine. It’s important to still appreciate each other, so this year we decided to celebrate Valentines Day like we did in the early days.

The trouble with going out on Valentines is you are usually faced with an overpriced fixed menu and crammed in so tight that you virtually bash elbows with the person next to you every time you lift your fork to your mouth. Maybe we have just been unfortunate with our choices in the past, as this year we booked our local restaurant, Eight and although it was a set menu – the price was reasonable and we were in no way crammed in.

I wanted to get proper dressed up, just as you do in the first flourish of dates. I decided to embrace this year’s animal print trend and wore a jumpsuit from Oasis with some red wedge LK Bennett sandals. I even had my nails themed for the day.

Rather than just cards this year, we also did gifts. Men being notoriously hard to buy for, I got my husband some clothes from Superdry. He got me the best kind of chocolate – one that doesn’t get you fat! Have I discovered the holy grail I hear you ask? No just some fantastic eyeshadow by Too Faced that is scented with chocolate!

Love comes in many shapes and forms and needs to be nourished. Many of us spend the best years of our lives searching for our Mr Darcy, just like Bridget Jones. When we find him though, do we forget to appreciate what we have and take it for granted?

At the location used as Bridget Jones’ flat in the films

Along with romantic love, one of my other great loves is London. It is such a fusion of all the cultures and traditions of the world. It doesn’t matter how many times you visit, there is always something different to see and old and new blend together seamlessly. I particularly like the creativity it unleashes. A wander along the Thames from London Bridge to Blackfriars is made all the more beautiful by the entertainers. This particular day, there was a poet, typing you an instant poem on an old typewriter and a bubbleologist. A painting by Jimmy C of Shakespeare reminds us that London’s relationship with culture and the arts dates back centuries.

London’s people are what makes the city so wonderful and we all pull together when our centre of multiculturalism is threatened by extremists. The love Londoners have for each other is perfectly depicted in the street art of hearts created in Brough Market by the artist Jimmy C following the terror attacks there in 2017. Each heart represents one of the eight people who lost their lives that night. There is so much hate in the world but ultimately love will conquer all.