The Glamour of Bellville Sassoon!

I love the Fashion and Textile museum in Bermondsey! Their exhibitions are a real indulgence of colour, lush fabrics, prints and design! Focusing on the glamour of the couture label Bellville Sassoon, including Irish designer Lorcan Mullany, the current exhibition is no exception. I took a few pics of my favourite "details" from some of the many beautiful gowns.  



Rose printed satin ball dress with ivory tulle skirt A modern bustle!

A sculpture!. No need for a necklace with such a detailed neck line! Many dresses had to be designed for a clients specific piece of jewellery with the designer visiting vaults to view the jewels in person as they were too valuable to bring to the salon! One lady visited with  a pen line on her neck showing where her necklace would sit as the insurance would be too expensive to remove from the vault!! 

It must have taken hours to hand embroider and bead these exquisite corset type tops!

I love bows, especially a quirky oversized one tipped upside down to great effect!
I thought the clever woven fabric detail on the chest of the chiffon ball gown gave it a Grecian feel!

Virginal, lady-like and slinky! The blue frock had such elegant attitude!!

Very similar designs....yet the difference a colour can make!

The beading!! And the flattering swathe of fabric in the body....must have taken days to design and actually create!

Princess Diana's going away outfit after her wedding - the simplest and least fussy garment on display. It seemed very forlorn and plane on the dummy...yet worn it came to life.

The exhibition is on until January 2014

  

Functional dresses!

Judson Beaumont
Drawer set carved in the shape of a black dress

The Conran shop
A mirror shaped in the form of a dress on a hanger

Map dresses!

Susan Stockwell beautifully glues together military and political maps to create stunning gowns that mimic those worn by women during the 1870s. The drawing and colors of the atlas gives the art pieces a mesmerizing pattern that she highlights through delicate folds and beautiful details. Wonderful!

 

 

 

 

All the world's a stage!

At Vintage 2011 during the summer, I noticed this dame wearing a gorgeous cherry head piece. It may be a Piers Atkinson creation. I enjoy his quirky, surreal and daring millinery, aswell as more dainty, conservative hats.  

The Paris collection

The frog and the princess collection

All the world's a stage collection

Pigalle

Department store collection

  

His n' Hers!

It's currently London Fashion week and there are some very intertesting characters walking around the city - obviously dashing from one show to the next. I spied this lady in Clerkenwell. I was attracted to her tattoos - a lady and a gentleman. I would have preferred them to be more colourful, but still found them quite quirky and cool!

Illuminated necklaces

These lovely, giant illuminated necklaces, by Penelope Batley, made me smile when they were displayed earlier this year in the Gallery of costume in Manchester.

Vintage 2011

Vintage 2011 came to the Southbank this week-end. A music and fashion led celebration of food, drink, dance, art, design, comedy and everything else british, creative and cool from the 1940's-80's.

Red or Deads, Wayne Hemingway was behind the colourful event which saw the Southbank come to life with bunting, glitter balls, sandy beaches, live music and stalls selling all things vintage!

Hetty Rose shoes made out of vintage kimonos

 Hetty Rose kimono shoes suspended from the ceiling of Yo Sushi!

Sara Tiara headpieces crafted from vintage fabrics

Bunting and Glitter balls hanging from Festival hall

One of many stalls selling customised and recycled garments

Ti amo!

On the tube from Ealing Broadway to Sloane Square, this comical looking, yet stylish Italian couple sat opposite me. She had the most amazing, bronzed pins. Her effeminate "amor" spent the entire journey animatedley and tunefully chatting on his mobile whilst trying not to neglect sulky signora. (It looks as if she caught me snapping her, but I pretended I was texting!!)

Where are you going?

I spied these two chaps, deep in conversation, in Clerkenwell. (Unfortunately the traffic was too noisy to hear what they were discussing!) How ever, it was not the lilac socks that initially caught my attention, but the retro red granny suitcase that was being carried with such panache! I'd love to know who they were, where they were going and what was in the suitcase?!

Fabhatrix!

A couple of years ago, when I went to the Edinburgh festival, we popped into Fabhatrix, Edinburghs independent hat shop in the heart of the vibrant Grassmarket, selling designs by both local and global designers. Although I don't suit hats, the quaint, old fashioned boutique was like one big dressing up box with customers trying on beautiful head wear, ranging from retro styles to modern handmade felt creations. A charming wee place! 

When you can't afford a wooden one and a polysterne one won't do....

I needed a stand for my new summer hat. I am currently lusting after an antique wooden hat block in one of my favourite haunts off Chapel Market in Islington. Sadly, it is too expensive and this polysterene one just didn't hit the mark! So for fun, I decoupaged it with the Irish Times, giving it a new, quirkier lease of life!

Before

Papering

Varnishing

OT gives his seal of approval to the finished product!

The Bag Lady!

The special dress modelled by a Sainsburys
employee in the Islington store

Last year, whilst in Manchester, I visited the newly refurbished Gallery of Costume in Platt Hall, primarily to see it's vast collection of beautiful buttons. However, I was distracted by a stunning orange flamenco dress! On closer inspection, it was revealed  that the garment was hand crocheted using nothing but recycled carrier bags from Sainsburys!

The dress was commissioned by the supermarket in the run up to Xmas to encourage shoppers to reuse their bags and was part of an installation at the gallery focusing on the beauty of reusing every day items. The vibrant, plastic frock was created by acclaimed designer Adnan Bayyat and took him just one month to make! Taking haute couture to a new level!   

A very regal breakfast!

Leather Lane market, rush hour and the heavens were about to open. Yet these two stylish chaps, clad in their matching flat caps & espradrills, didn't seem to have a care in the world, as they tucked in to their al fresco breakfast at "Le Regal"! I was almost tempted to ask if I could join them! 

 

Vivienne Westwood shoe porn!

"Shoes must have very high heels and platforms to put womens beauty on a pedestal!" So says Dame Vivienne Westwood, fashion designer of garments and shoes that have become famous british icons. Last year, I enjoyed an exhibition celebrating the designers creativity, focusing on her shoes from 1973-2010. Pure shoe porn...!

Mock-Croc

Ultra Girl

Flame

Melissa