Style and Fashion
Textile Exhibits, The British Quilt, 1700 - 2010 and Japanese Sashiko Textiles
Jo Budd’s diptych was bathed in soft light, accentuating the stitches and ripples, the shadows and softly curvaceous contours of ‘Female/Summer’. In ‘Virtue and Virtuosity’, Dinah Prentice was installing ‘Billowing Maenads’, seductively draping and illuminated against the peachy tones of the walls. We have won over the lighting engineers who want to know more about the Mary Parker quilt made from silk ribbons from the 1720-40s. more »
The Big Cover-Up
I see I really had great legs and a nice figure. But all that changed before I had a chance to fully appreciate these attributes — and before I had the opportunity to display them to the world at large since bikinis had not yet made their appearance on American beaches. I saw my first one in 1960 in Nice during my first jaunt to Europe. I couldn’t believe how daring its young wearer was — parading around in public, practically naked! I still have the picture I sneakily took of her with my telephoto lens, and I can’t imagine why I was so shocked. Her suit looks practically puritanical, compared to today’s shoe-string thongs and barely-there tops, often worn by many who should be following my example and covering up unsightly body parts. more »
V&A's Costume Cleaning Conundrum, Manchu 'Horse-Hoof' Shoes and The Invisibles
"The condition of the costume at the time of purchase was startling. The hem of the skirt was black inside and out. All parts were soiled. There was extensive water-borne staining throughout; the proper left sleeve of the jacket and front of the skirt both had large stains down their entire length that had hardened to the consistency of cardboard. The whole ensemble was very heavily creased and misshapen. The waist of the skirt had been taken apart and cobbled together again in haphazard gathers. As one of my colleagues succinctly put it — it was a mess!" more »
Are Those Two Senior Women Models We Spy?
Now that editorial content is reminding people to a nauseating degree that the 'boomers are coming' (could we just lose that overworked expression), why are we not seeing more older women in clothing, hairstyle and makeup layouts? more »