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Fizzy, Bang, POP!

I merrily swooshed down to my most favourite place, the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey for the opening day of their new exhibition POP!

I adore this place, it’s a great size and it has a really genuine, informal vibe. This latest exhibition has been curated to perfection by Dennis Nothdruft, of the Fashion and Textile Museum, with guest curators Richard Chamberlain and Geoffrey Rayner of Target Gallery. The exhibition takes a good look at the way music, art and celebrities from the late 1940’s to the late 1970’s influenced fashion, as well as attitudes, ideals and desires. It takes us from the glee of Rock ‘n’ Roll through to anarchic Punk Rock, via, Mod, Psychedelia, and Kitsch. As usual with this lovely place, the exhibition is a visual delight! It’s been displayed so beautifully and precisely, the sleek Mods, the black and white of Quant, the neons of the Psychedelic; it’s glorious to say the least.

Skirt fabric for Elvis fans, 1956.

Men’s Slicker jacket, 1957.

Martini label skirt, 1956.

I love this Martini skirt, which demonstrates the early use of commercial advertising as a decorative form, it’s gooorgeous! The exhibition has fashion and home wares from each era as well as some cute quirky pieces of consumer goodies.

Potato Sack dress, C.1960.

This sack dress is ace, a witty satire of Pierre Cardin’s radical Sac dress from the 50’s, implying that anything can be turned into fashion.

Part of the exhibition….

Mary Quant dress, 1961.

Part of the exhibition showing monochrome Mary Quant

My favourite bit was the late 60’s, early 70’s kitsch and cartoony part of the exhibition, great to see some prints from Zandra Rhodes in there too!

A pair of shorts by Sylvia Ayton, 1967, using Zandra Rhodes ‘Lipstick’ fabric

Wedge shoes and belt by Mr Freedom, 1970.

Cruise Dress by Sportaville, 1969.

Terry De Havilland snakeskin platform peep-toe shoes, 1971.

Fiorucci ‘Cherries’ platform sandals, 1971.

This Pop! exhibition sure does make your eyes pop, it’s so startlingly colourful and effervescent, and translates magically the potent influence that modern popular culture had on the designs of fashion. So much to look at, loads of classic iconic pieces to gaze at as well as loads of cute unusual discoveries too, pop along and give your eyes a feast!

http://www.ftmlondon.org

Pop! is on until 27th October 2012

 

 

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Sweet Sanctuary

The house that James, I, and our furry friends reside in is very lovely. It’s a do-er-upper for sure. The kitchen and bathroom are like a scene from a bad 80’s sitcom and the sauna style extension on the back of the house is rather alarming, but it’s home, it’s our very first own home and so we love it! One day when we have time and money it will get nicer and way more beautiful but until then, my bedroom is my most favourite place in the house. It’s one of the only parts of the house we have been able to make nice, it’s pretty feminine by my standards, I like that about it though, and I adore hanging out in there. The silver spotted chair at my dressing table is a 1950’s chair that James lovingly reupholstered especially for me with a vintage fabric I chose…what a darling he is…the cats have scratched at it a little but it really is my most treasured item in the room! My bedroom is my big dressing up box, I have clothes all over the house and in boxes and rails in the loft but my everyday clothes are in the wardrobes, poor James, his clothes have all been demoted to the wardrobe of the spare room! I’m kinda smitten with this room, to be honest, it’s MY room really, James just happens to sleep in there with me!

 

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Divine Grace (an Ode to my ‘two Glasgow Grannies’)

My heart is a little heavy this week as my family have just lost a most precious member. Just a few months ago we lost my dearest Great Uncle Bill, and this week, his wife of 70 years, my Great Aunt Grace, followed him. In a truly bittersweet sense, I don’t think she could bear to live without him and so it is only just that they died so closely in time to each other. I barely knew my beautiful, maternal Grandmother, Rita as she died when I was just 3 years old and so her sister Grace, who lived nearby as I grew up, was a surrogate Granny to me, I will greatly miss having her in my life.

Great Aunt Grace

 

I adore looking at old photographs of my family, it’s so funny when someone has been present your whole life, but to you they have always been older, to see them young and eager and in love, to see them as you never knew them, how others still remember them, it’s magical. My friends who I have known since we were all young, they always look like their young selves to me regardless of how aged they become. I love seeing photos of my Mum and Dad when they were, what looks to me like, the coolest couple on the Earth, before they were parents, before I knew them. To see people you have always seen as older in their most beautiful prime kinda shows you the real them, them as they see themselves and how they want to always be seen. I’m not saying that beauty only exists in youth, heaven forbid that I could be so crude, but I do love beauty, and there is a certain age in life when you are at your most beautiful. I would be so bold as to say that age is around 25-35 years old……

My Dad takes photos, he always has and so I grew up with family photos all over the walls of our house, but it’s really only as you get a bit older and actually take time to sit and look at old photos of the generations before you that you really get a true sense of where you come from, why you look the way you do and why you are the way you are. It’s fascinating and very very lovely!

Great Uncle Bill, Great Aunt Grace, Granny and Gramps!

Because my wee Glaswegian Granny died way too young, I have no memory of actually being with her which breaks my heart, but I’ve grown up with stories of her and have always been told I get my style and love of glamour, and possibly my vanity, from her. I LOVE looking at Granny’s clothes in old pictures, in this photo above she looks so utterly chic, her accessorising works a charm! I really wish I had just a few of the clothes from the 40’s and 50’s that my Granny or Grace wore, but alas, gut wrenchingly, none of it seems to have survived.

‘My Two Grannies’ Granny and Great Aunt Grace!

My beautiful Granny Rita!

My Granny and Gramps at their wedding!

My Gramps is 90 this year, he’s only just starting to show some ailments from a long life but he continues to be the most legendary and stealth man I have ever known, long may he continue. I often wonder how he has managed to live such a large part of his life as a widower, without the love of his life, I just adore the old photos of himself he sent to my Granny whilst he was away in the RAF.

My most stylish Granny and Gramps…and a mystery lady!!

Granny and Gramps, I get my love of accessorizing from her!!

My gorgeous Granny, a poser like me!

My Granny in the middle, looks so much like me, her dress is amazing!

My Great Granny Anna, Grace and Granny’s Mum, who I never met but looks a lot like me!

These beautiful ladies are such an important piece of me, their glamour, wit, independence, strength, love, and their perfect dress sense will stay in my heart always. Grace lived in the same house since the 1950’s and I loved the fact it was like walking into that era whenever we visited, she always had boiled sweets in a glass bowl on the table and always had a big tin of freshly made shortbread ready to offer. These ladies had well lived and well loved lives and in missing them greatly, I also carry great pride that they are part of my story. When we bid Grace farewell, as an ode to both her and my Granny, I shall ensure that I accessorize my funeral dress to perfection!

 

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Johnny be mine….

A somewhat nostalgic pictorial post today, an ode to possibly the coolest guy on Earth and his ridiculously beautiful girlfriends……alas, news has broken today that Johnny Depp and his girl of 14 years, Vanessa Paradis, are no more. Johnny is pretty much as good as it gets when it comes to handsome men, and obviously, the women in his life are equally stunning. My gosh was there ever a couple as enchanting to the eyes as him and Miss Moss, and of course Miss Winona Ryder is as gorgeous as the man himself. I figured him and Vanessa were as close to a perfect match as you can get, but hey, nothing can be promised as forever and permanence is a rare and less expected thing in love these days…….whoever he is sharing his kissing time with, at least we can oooh and ahhh at the sheer beauty of it all……

 

 

 

….so Johnny is now a single man…..oh.

 

 

 

 

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Allo Darlin’, I Love You.

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I have gone and fallen hard and fast in love, I’m that kinda girl. The object of my mass affections is the band Allo Darlin’. They rock. I only stumbled across them a few weeks ago and their music has literally not been out of my ears since…..I found their first self titled album from 2010 and adored it from the very first moment, then oh my goodness, they just released their new album; Europe. I didn’t think I could love any album more than the first but, now I have two albums that make me wanna jump up and down ever so high, yay.

Elizabeth Morris has a gorgeous velvet voice and the lyrics are the cutest and most sincere darn words, gee whizz, I wish I could be in their band.

See and hear more at allodarlin.com

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