Cathy's Art Diary

Fun discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of their literature festival looking at the link between how we see ourselves and what we wear and how this is reflected in literature and culture based on a quote from Virginia Woolf. The speakers were Justine Picardie , editor of Harper’s Bazar and Linda Grant, who has written novels about clothing. Justine talked about how Woolf had written articles for Harper’s and why the magazine has used Charleston as a backdrop. Linda talked about the role of clothes in our life and although fashion can seem trivial clothes are seen as a definition of humanity, think of the saying “all he had left were the clothes on his back”. There was some talk about how fashion is a major industry in the UK but the BBC does not have a fashion correspondent and how interest in clothes is often seen as anti-feminist.

Interesting discussion at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival looking at the role of clothes and fashion in the contemporary world. It was chaired by Justine Pacardie, editor of Harpers Bazarre who interviewed three designers Bella Freud, Roksanda Ilincic and Erdem Moralioglu. Unlike a lot of the authors we’d had during the festival, the designers seemed less used to talking about their work in this sort of environment. They all had interesting things to say about their work and influences and there were some wonderful images. However I felt the talk lacked a narrative, was it about current influences, was it about how we choose what we wear or was it about how social media is changing the fashion industry? All these were touched on but not

Fabulous discussion at Charleston Festival between Grayson Perry, looking stunning in neon pink with lime green platform shoes, and Justine Picardie, the editor of Harper’s Bazaar. Grayson Perry led the discussion with a wonderful series of slides and discussing his own clothes and the work of various designers. However Justine more than held her own and the ensuing conversation was wonderful. They were both quite rude about the current wave of exhibitions showing clothes as works of art. They also gave interesting examples of where fashion had used art in its design. The general conclusion was that fashion isn’t art but why would it want to be, it is a fascinating genre in its own right and should be admired as such not try to be something else.