Fashioning a Reign: 90 years of style from the Queen’s wardrobe

Excellent exhibition at Buckingham Palace showing clothes from throughout the Queen’s life.

The Palace need to rethink their exhibition space and how they manage flow through it. Because all visitors go to the show as well as seeing the house they are dealing with very big numbers with mixed levels of interest in the items on show. There is a lovely big room to start but it gets full quickly and most of the people in it are unable to get a good view of the display or read the labels. If you really want to see the exhibits you have to queue up at each one which gets very tedious.

Anyway moan over! I loved the fact the show started with an outfit from nearly every decade of the Queen’s life including her christening gown and the beautiful dresses she and her sister wore to their father’s Coronation. As with most of the displays each outfit was shown with a photo of her in it and in all cases they looked much better on her and animated.

There was a nice section on her uniforms and discussing how male uniforms were adapted for her. Also a good section on clothes for overseas visits, showing evening dresses designed to flatter the host country in their colours and symbolism. One corridor showed a lovely display of hats and told you about the various hat designers over the years.

It was great to see iconic outfits including her wedding dress and the Coronation dress but also ones that we remember from major events viewed on TV like that for the investiture of the Prince of Wales, the Silver Jubilee outfit including the hat with bells down the back and from just a couple of years ago the “Good evening Mr Bond” outfit from the Olympics.

Closed on 2 October 2016.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thomas Becket: Murder and Making of a Saint

Image
Stunning exhibition at the British Museum on the life and afterlife of Thomas Becket. I studied Becket both at A Level and at university so I was really looking forward to this show and it did not disappoint. From walking in to see an old friend, the early Limoges casket showing the murder from the Victoria and Albert Museum, I was gripped. The show told the story well using fantastic objects and led you through his life, the murder, the political aftermath, his sainthood and miracles, and how Canterbury became a major pilgrimage site. It is hard to pick out the best objects as so many were wonderful. I loved that they had early copies of some of the five eyewitness accounts of the murder which made you fell you were almost touching the event. I liked the manuscript on his time in exile which was almost like a comic strip. How wonderful to get a 13th century font from Sweden which shows how far and how quickly the news that Henry II had integrated the murder spread. I think my
Read more

Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year Exhibition 2019

Image
Delightful exhibition at Clarendon Fine Art showing pictures from the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year TV series. I had loved the series which had set nine artists, both professional and amateur, to paint one of three celebrities. It then had a semi-final and final with them all looking at one sitter and in the final they also took on a commission. I loved the way you watched a picture build and how some were then made or spoiled by one stroke of paint.   Finding these pictures I knew so well in the flesh was therefore fascinating. None of them disappointed. My favourite artist from the final, Tom Mead, works looked just as good in real life if not better as you could see the detail. The show included his impressive self-portrait which he submitted to enter the competition, a wonderful fragmented picture of his reflection in a mirror giving a sense of movement. I loved that it included a large version of him and a miniature. His commission for the final of Jazzie B was
Read more

The Renaissance Nude

Image
Beautiful exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at the nude in Renaissance art. The show was gently themed but mainly let the pictures speak for themselves. It began by looking at the subjects, both religious and secular, which include nude figures then examined techniques and models used in these works, finishing by looking at more personal pictures. This is a period I’ve studied a lot so there were a lot of old friends and it was quite fun predicting what might appear. There were a few surprises too such as the rather surprising drawing of the Ecstatic Christ. I liked the fact the show included lots of different art forms not just paintings including sculpture, etchings, drawings and illuminated manuscripts. There were some fascinating hangs to draw comparisons particularly two sets of pictures by Giovanni Bellini and Hand Memling from almost exactly the same date. These were shown back to back in a display cabinet down the middle of one room. My favourite work was
Read more