fashion
Charlie Porter: Bring No Clothes - Bloomsbury and the Philosophy of Fashion review - dress to impressThursday, 26 October 2023![]() It’s not hard to miss the fact that Bloomsbury is back in fashion at the moment. This summer, it felt like everyone’s Instagram story showed a trip to Charleston (the home of Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant). In the last month alone, the Charleston... Read more... |
House Of Gucci review – gloriously gawdy trashThursday, 25 November 2021![]() Back in 2013, Gina Gershon chewed up the scenery in the daytime movie House of Versace. Focusing on the murder of Gianni Versace, it was a tacky, cheap drama that knew what it was, and was all the more entertaining for it. The same can’t be said of... Read more... |
Quant review - Sadie Frost's debut documentary skirts the genius of Mary QuantWednesday, 27 October 2021![]() As a teenager in 1967, I asked for a Mary Quant make-up box for Christmas and my parents reluctantly complied. It was so thrilling to hold that plastic white box with the black daisy in the middle and the big mirror in the lid and to be able, at... Read more... |
Cruella review - fabulous fashions, creaky narrativeThursday, 27 May 2021![]() Is Cruella the escapist blockbuster the Covid-blighted world has been waiting for? Well, it’s a feast for the eyes but 20 minutes too long, and for an origin story of the despicable Cruella De Vil of The Hundred and One Dalmations fame, it lacks the... Read more... |
Beauty Laid Bare, BBC One review - a facial peel for the cosmetics businessWednesday, 04 March 2020![]() In this aptly-titled series (BBC One), four British 20-somethings visit the USA to investigate the inner workings of the beauty industry. Perhaps not surprisingly, they discover that it’s a hotbed of greed and exploitation.Their first stop was the... Read more... |
Madonna, London Palladium review - a fiesta of the surreal and the fiercely fabulousFriday, 31 January 2020![]() The first time I heard Madonna, I was 8 years old at a school disco. Horrified parents, who came to pick us up as we jumped up and down yelling along to “Like A Virgin” in a fluorescent flurry of topknots, puffer skirts and lace gloves, subsequently... Read more... |
Svetlana Zakharova, Modanse, London Coliseum review - impeccably chic but soul-lessThursday, 05 December 2019![]() What price a pair of seats at the ballet? If you’re talking the latest starry Russian import then, with a few perks thrown in, you might not see much change from £800. And yet the size of the first-night crowd queuing for Modanse, a double bill... Read more... |
Tim Walker: Wonderful Things, V&A review - a bracing full-body immersionTuesday, 24 September 2019![]() If leafing through the pages of Vogue is a soothing balm, Wonderful Things is a bracing full-body immersion. Though it builds on the V&A’s reputation for blockbuster fashion exhibitions, this show, dedicated to one of the most celebrated... Read more... |
Jean-Paul Gaultier’s Fashion Freak Show, Southbank Centre review - c’est chicThursday, 25 July 2019![]() What does one wear to watch a Fashion Freak Show, FFS? On the eve of London’s hottest day probably ever, the fashion faithful still turned out in sequins, PVC jackets, knee-high lace-up boots, turbans, wigs and floral headpieces, a skin-tight... Read more... |
Mary Quant, Victoria & Albert Museum review - quantities of QuantSaturday, 06 April 2019![]() Mary Quant first made her name in 1955 with the wildly fashionable King’s Road boutique Bazaar. Initially selling a “bouillabaisse” of stock it was not until a pair of pyjamas she made was bought by an American who said he’d copy and mass produce... Read more... |
Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams, Victoria & Albert Museum - sumptuousThursday, 31 January 2019![]() The heart of the V&A’s sumptuous Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams is a room dedicated to the workmanship of the fashion house’s ateliers. A mirrored ceiling reflects dazzling strip-lit cases which hold the ghosts of ballgowns, slips and... Read more... |
Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up, V&A review - appearances aren't everythingTuesday, 03 July 2018When in 2004 Frida Kahlo’s bedroom – sealed on the command of her husband Diego Rivera for 50 years from her death – was opened, a trove of clothes and personal items was discovered. They shed new light on the life of this iconic Mexican... Read more... |
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