Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival on the social and historical role of fashion. Ably chaired by journalist and broadcaster Bidisha Mamata, designer/artist, Osman Yousefzada and x editor of Vogue, Alexandra Shulman, discussed their relationship with clothes. This then branched out into current sociological and economic impact of the fashion industry from the fact we have invented fabrics that can take 500 years to decay to the role of second-hand clothes. Charleston Festival had over 40 talks over nearly two weeks and I booked to go to them all! If I blog all of them I’ll be here for ever so, as last year, I’ll cover events on art, fashion and design in the blog. That’s not to say ask the others weren’t fabulous too. It was also sometime hard to find an appropriate picture so I’ve used photographs I took of the garden instead.

Fun author talk at Charleston Farmhouse looking at the intersection of art and clothing. Alexandra Shulman, x-editor of Vogue, talked about her new book “Clothes … and Other Things That Matter” which is a memoir told through clothes. She said it had begun when she counted the number of items of clothing she owned, which is a sobering thought for someone who owns far too many tops! Charlie Porter introduced his book “What Artists Wear” in which he has investigated what clothes have meant to 20th century and contemporary artists. It sounds a fascinating piece of research work. The talk was well chaired by Amber Butchart who amongst other things is the historic expert on The Great British Sewing Bee. She was very good at bringing them themes of the books together and getting interesting discussions going on dressing gowns, the difference between clothes and fashion and Porter’s donation of some of his clothes to the Victoria and Albert Museum after he discovered how few contemporar...