60s & 70s fashion talk, September 13th, 2013

A Flare for Fashion

A Flare for Fashion

The swinging 60s and spangled 70s were an exciting time for clothes. New boutiques popped up and made celebrity style available and affordable to the young and fashion conscious for the first time. Join fashion historian, Suzanne Rowland for a journey into the sartorial world of minis, maxis, kipper ties, bell-bottoms and platforms. 60s or 70s attire optional.

About Suzanne Rowland

 

Suzanne Rowland teaches 20th Century Fashion History at Worthing Museum using garments and objects from the costume collection to bring the social and cultural history of the last century to life. The course will start again on September 28th 2013.

She also teaches fashion students atSussex Coast College, Hastings and designs and makes projects for Making Magazine. For information on this course, please contact Worthing Museum and Art Gallery on 01903 221448 or email museum@adur-worthing.goo.uk

Feedback from 20th Century Fashion History course

“I loved the trip down memory lane which covered the lives of my mother and grandmothers.”

“A mixture of information – eloquently and professionally delivered and the joy of a group of like-minded souls.”

“The chance to see actual clothes from the museum anchored the talks.”

“The visit to the costume store was brilliant."

Postgraduate Design History Symposium

All welcome to the symposium, to book a free place contact 

brightonpostgraddesignresearch@hotmail.com

Review: David Bowie Is

I was going to write an objective review but it's just not possible, I'm too much of a fan, so instead here's a brief list of my highlights...

1. Seeing the Kansai Yamamoto costume at the entrance and seeing that it had fastenings down the arms. Reading that it was hot and uncomfortable to wear on stage.

2. The Kansai one legged knit jumpsuit. Fancy thinking about putting a rock star in a patterned knit?

3. Listening to Starman on headphones while reading Bowie's handwritten lyrics.

4. This Terry O'Neill image

5. The McQueen coat

6. Those huge floor to ceiling screens near the exit. Impossible not to sit and wait for Jean Jeanie to come round  just one more time.

huge screens

David Bowie Is, 23 March – 11 August 2013. The V&A has been given unprecedented access to the David Bowie Archive to curate the first international retrospective of the extraordinary career of David Bowie. David Bowie is features more than 300 objects that include handwritten lyrics, original costumes, fashion, photography, film, music videos, set designs and Bowie's own instruments. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/david-bowie-is/

Guest blogger: Review of Hollywood Costume

Following the success of Hollywood Costume at the V&A it's not surprising that the exhibition is now on tour, currently staged in Sydney http://www.acmi.net.au/hollywood-costume.aspx

Guest blogger and dress history writer Stephanie Richards shares her thoughts on the V&A blockbuster

HOLLYWOOD COSTUME

V&A LONDON 2012

Hype and Hollywood go hand in hand.

But as far as this exhibition is concerned, it wasn’t hype, it was all Hollywood.

The first display included a jewel encrusted evening dress and stole worn by Marlene Dietrich, Chaplin’s iconic suit, and the GWTW ‘curtain’ dress. Then there was Indiana Jones. The whip, hat and jacket will be familiar to all. News to me was that his bag was a gas mask case. There was a sumptuous display of gowns that had been worn in costume dramas. Camelot, the Elizabethan court and France before the Revolution were all there.

Although all recognisable as in period, some were more detailed than others. The 1938 Marie Antoinette costumier had used a microscope to get the pattern match correct.  To emphasise her stature, one of the Elizabeth 1 costumes had been made with a wide sweeping skirt to help define the characters space. There was a set piece giving the illusion of costume designers sitting at a table having a conversation about their designs. All due to the magic of computers, but very impressive.

Next, some of the huge changes that cinema took on, adapted to and survived.

Sound.

Colour.

Digital techniques.

Sound meant fabric shouldn’t rustle and jewellery couldn’t rattle. Colour meant finding out which ones photographed well. Digital techniques changed everything. From being able to add a costumed cast of thousands at the click of a mouse to designing clothes for a very tall avatar.

When a film was remade, costumes were subtly updated to reflect the period of the remake. Costume dramas have to tread the line between being attractive to contemporary eyes whilst remaining authentic. (In 1934 a version of Cleopatra incorporated art deco Egyptian costumes.)

We saw what a red dress (Joan Crawford 1937) looked like in black and white when the light shining on it changed and suddenly it was slate grey. On past Darth Vader and we learned how to dress an avatar and what Andy Serkis gets up to in a onesie for motion capture.

Icons and others best sums up the final room.

A white jersey Katherine Hepburn dress from the 1940s.

A lavender chiffon dress with sequins and knots of cloth flowers. Barbra Streisand. Funny Girl 1968.  

 

Audrey Hepburn. How ordinary her black dress from Breakfast at Tiffany’s looked on a mannequin. A vivid illustration of how much the person in the dress matters. Puddles of glass beaded fabric spread onto the floor from a reclining Carole Lombard figure clad in a 1936 silver dress and cape….

But let’s not forget the men… The Blues bros were there. Batman, Superman and Spiderman were hanging around. So was a Terminator in his leather outfit.

For some reason the Kill Bill track suit got a big plinth to its self and I wondered why Borat was there. At all.

The only costume behind glass was the white Marilyn Monroe dress from the scene over the subway vent. She must have had a figure like a doll. Big bust, small waist and big hips. Hard not to look at that little gingham dress and think JUDY GARLAND wore this. In The Wizard of Oz. Seventy three years ago.

Film is a subjective experience. Each visitor will take away the memory of their own favourite from the exhibition.

Mine was the GWTW green ‘curtain’ dress.

I have actually stood right in front of it.

Gentle reader, never has the temptation to reach out and touch a costume been so strong. (I didn’t.)

To me, this dress sums up the magic of the exhibition…. Legendary costumes, worn by icons who appeared in fabulous films. And all right here in this room.

Oh if only the idea of ‘talkies’ could be applied to costumes….. 

restored GWTW dress

Email Stephanie Ladyscribe@btinternet.com

V&A study session: Ballet Russe and The Rite of Spring

A few weeks ago I went to a study session at Blythe House, an archive and outpost of the V&A located opposite Kensington Olympia, London. The purpose of the session was to celebrate the centenary of Stravinsky's opera The Rite of Spring by examining, first-hand, original costumes and accessories from the 1913 production. Curator Jane Pritchard told us that the costumes were mainly acquired by the museum in a sale which took place at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane in 1967. The costumes were sold cheaply at auction and some people bought them to wear as clothes because the designs tied in with the late 1960s aesthetic. Tunics were sold for about £3! Although we were allowed to take photographs for personal use we were not given permission to publish so here are a couple of photos from newspaper articles.

The Rite of Spring, 1913

"Knock-Kneed" Lolitas from The Rite of Spring

The Rite of Spring was choreographed by Njinsky with design by Nicholas Roerich. Roerich drew upon influences from Russian folk art and the costumes are hand painted in a naive style. The long tunics were pulled up and gathered into a belt. Crinkled socks were made from non-stretch cotton and had a seam from centre front to centre back which must have been uncomfortable for the dancers. The costumes were roughly made and it is therefore surprising that they are still in such good condition. It was a fantastic opportunity to see the costumes, they intrinsically communicate a history of manufacture, the wear and tear of life and they leave you pondering the status of their current position as museum objects.

For a 2013 tour of the Theatre & Performance Galleries at Blythe House click
 http://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/event/592/theatre-performance-galleries-tour-1282/

Picasso's designs for the Ballet Russe performance of Parade

During my days of working in the tailoring dept at Glyndebourne I was lucky enough to get my hands on David Hockney's costumes for A Rake's Progress (for alteration purposes, I don't have them stashed away in the attic!) A Rake's Progress, 1975, is a visually stunning opera and it made me consider the added value an artist can bring to costume and stage design. Hockney has also designed Parade for The Metropolitan Opera, New York, and so here are some thoughts about the original production of Parade designed by Pablo Picasso, 1916-17.

Background
Serge Diaghilev commissioned Jean Cocteau to write a new ballet with the brief  ‘astonish me,’ the result was Parade (sideshow). With designs by Pablo Picasso, a score by Erik Satie and choreography by Léonide Massine, the ballet opened at the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris, May, 1917. Parade was the last of 4 ballets (the others were more traditional) to be performed in an afternoon as part of a war benefit fundraiser. Parade is important because it was the first modern ballet to bring cubism to the stage. It was an artistic interpretation of modern, popular entertainment; the circus, the variety theatre and the cinema. Cocteau and Picasso both shared a view that the ballet should represent the vulgarity and vitality of the modern age.

Curtain

The curtain was Picasso’s largest work, a stretched canvas measuring 17m x 10m. The drapery of the curtains position the show inside a theatre, without them it could just as easily be an outdoor scene. The curtain can be read as an allegory of Picasso’s life; there are motifs in the painting that recur throughout his work such as the harlequin (Family of Saltimbanques, 1905). The foreground harlequin is a self-portrait. The monkey is said to be Picasso’s alter ego representing his hyper-sexuality. The equestrian is possibly Olga (In 1918 he married Olga Kokhlova a dancer in the Diaghilev Company).

curtain

Costumes

1.   Chinese conjurer Ocean waves, sunlight and clouds are depicted on this costume. An exotic figure, it is based on a music hall magician or illusionist, popular at the time. The vibrant use of colour is evocative of Picasso's native Spain.

Chinese conjurer

2.   The Little American girl Picasso drew several sketches for this costume which were not used, instead this black and white outfit was bought in a shop the day before the premier. The girl was based on silent movie stars like Mary Pickford who were thought of as innocent and optimistic. It was intended that she would charm the audience.

little American girl

3.   The Acrobats (male and female) They wore white scrolls and stars on their cobalt blue outfits which echoed the Chinese conjurers costume. The woman was originally to duplicate the male outfit but Diagliev thought this was too revealing for a woman to wear so instead her costume was modified.

acrobat

4.   The managers these characters were Picasso’s idea, originally Cocteau wanted disembodied voices offstage to introduce each act but Diaghilev said that the spoken word had no place in ballet. Picasso envisaged these characters to be like sandwich board wearers, advertising their acts. In Rome Picasso collaborated with the Futurists Giacomo Balla and Fortunato Depero and they helped to construct the frames for the large-scale manager’s costumes.

Audience reaction
The ballet apparently opened to an ‘unforgettable scandal’. It seemed that the creators of the ballet had misjudged the conservative wartime audience. Jean Cocteau reported that the audience only refrained from lynching Picasso and the others because Appolinaire was in uniform and had been wounded and had written the introductory notes in the programme.

Impact of Parade

Gertrude Stein wrote in her biography of Picasso, that Parade which is ‘completely cubist…marked the beginning of the general recognition of Picasso’s work.’[1] 

Picasso’s success led the way for other artists to design for the ballet: Braque, Juan Gris, Sonia Delaunay-Terk and Ferdinand Leger.

These images that seemed so outlandish were soon adopted by Hollywood musicals and by the 1920s and 30s chorus girls were dancing in some spectacular costumes with some pretty outrageous scenery!

Gold Diggers of 1933. "We're in the Money" production number

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[1] Stein, G. The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas. 1932

Fashion and me, the early years

Meeting Barbara Hulanicki recently made me think about other people who have inspired my interest in fashion.

One of my earliest memories is sitting on a swing admiring my patent Mary Janes, I think they were purple or burgundy, maroon maybe. In my mind they looked something like this.

The shoes would have been chosen either by my mother or grandmother. My grandmother, my nan, was not someone who thought that clothes mattered ('clothes don't make anyone, well that's what I think anyhow') although she placed great emphasis on cleanliness and tidiness. I often wore my hair in plaits or bunches as a child and the straightness of my parting was a source of concern, on a bad day she would tell me that it looked like 'a dog's hind leg'. Nan wore work clothes around the house and best clothes for going to town and on special occasions she wore a fake fur coat which I thought looked really glamorous.

Ah, my red crimplene trousers and floral nylon anorak 

My mom on the other hand has always known that clothes do matter, she could sew and has always been interested in fashion. We had fashion magazines at home so I read about Ossie Clark and Biba. Mom taught me to knit and sew and has tried to teach me to crochet but I just can't get the hang of it! She is an amazingly creative person. Dad was a bit of a mod in his younger days and played in a band, I love this picture of them.

My parents looking cool in the 1970s

At school I had a really good French teacher who taught us about French culture and talked about looking 'chic'. We all liked Richard Shops and I remember going to the shop and buying wide striped socks. (link to Richard Shops advert on Youtube)

reblogged from link

After school I went straight to a 2 year foundation course and explored my arty, hippy side. I had a long hair fake fur jacket that caused boys from the local tech to bark at me when I got on the bus. I also was fond of my bright yellow wellies and thought they looked amazing with my Fiorucci T shirt which was white with large yellow hearts. 

After this I went to study fashion and discovered a whole range of designers who were inspiring. Zandra Rhodes used colour and print in a daring way. Her Bond Street shop was so lovely. 

Jean Muir didn't design clothes that I wanted to wear but I admired her cut and attention to detail and also her personal style, I wish I had thought to always wear navy and to only wear red lipstick.

My absolute design heroes were the Japanese designers starting with Kansai Yamamoto and Kenzo. I loved Kenzo's mix of prints and his insane use of colour. Then there were the sculptural shapes of Issey Miyake and Commes des Garcons. The rise in popularity of unstructured shapes must have been a nightmare for my tailoring tutor who tried in vain to teach me traditional tailoring methods, thanks for trying Tony Holland! And thank you to all of my fashion mentors.

Comme des Garçons, 1983