Friday 12 April 2024
Museum and gallery visits
I went to London and had a couple of days with our elder daughter before Mothering Sunday and the photos that I took have been sitting in my phone ever since. I'm posting them here and shall clear my phone space ready for other things.
London is lovely in the spring, the weather was dry although bitingly cold. The first exhibition that we saw was the Chanel at the V&A. It was soon to close and we attached ourselves to a very long queue. It was clear that a great many women had had exactly the same idea as us. Was it worth the wait? Yes, it certainly was. Coco Chanel has been the greatest influence on the way women dress. There were many timeless pieces in the show, styles that I remember both my mother and I wearing, other items that I would still wear today. My going away outfit was a navy Chanel-type collarless suit with a white trim - very Jackie O, all that I needed was a pill box hat! It was interesting to be able to study the fabrics and detailing close up, they looked easy and comfortable to wear and were very desirable!
The exhibition ended with an interpretation of the famous Chanel staircase.
It was a delight!
The following day it was off to the Tate to see yet more white dresses, this time the work of Singer Sargent. There were old favourites to see and new surprises. In the middle of the exhibition my phone rang and I was asked if I had just spent £700 and if not to press '1' immediately. Needless to say I did NOT press 1! I had only used my card that morning on the underground. I know that travel is expensive, but, blimey! Nevertheless it gave me quite a wobble.
This striking painting was new to me, and I'm most envious of the dress that she is wearing!
I think that this painting is unusually ugly for a piece of work by Sargent but I am interested in it because it was painted while the Scottish novelist R. L. Stevenson was living in Bournemouth, which is where I now live. His house no longer exists, having been bombed during the Second World War.
Back in Bournemouth my Scottish cousin came to stay for a few days. (See the link!) Good Friday brought blue sky and sunshine and we walked along a crowded seafront the the town art gallery and museum.
I've posted the museum before so shall only add one or two images of a ceiling and it's history. If you google the artist, Anna Zinkeisen, you will discover a very elegant woman. She and her sister are an interesting pair.
Not all the museum is in good repair!
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The Chanel exhibition would have been exactly my cup of tea, too. Those dresses look like "normal" women could wear them.
ReplyDeleteThe portrait of Elsie is beautiful, but can you imagine wearing white satin as your standard home wear?! It certainly was a different era then, and of course a different class of people - Elsie probably never had to do the washing up, or cooking, or put out the garbage...
I have problems with some current style trends. I can't stand big cuffs on dresses and jumpers that get in the way of my life - all the tasks you have listed above!
DeleteI don't think I would have gone to the Chanel exhibition being less interested in women's dresses than what they contain, but it is interesting what you say about her influence, which clearly comes across in your photographs. With that insight, I might even have gone.
ReplyDeleteSorry, that sounds a bit creepy. I meant of course to say I'm more interested in what people say and do rather than what they wear.
DeleteI wouldn't have been able to drag Himself screaming to the Chanel exhibition,so you are not alone. There were very few men at the show. BUT her influence is seen all round us still and clothing is a fascinating historical document.
DeleteOh, you are so lucky to have seen these exhibitions! What a wonderful post, Rosemary. We are finally coming to London after yonks and will miss the Singer Sargent by a couple of days, boo hoo. I absolutely adore his portraits and was amused to read a Guardian reviewer gave it one star! His rendering of fabric and intricate clothing is exquisite.
ReplyDeleteI had two delightful days in the company of our elder daughter, but you will have an equally good time in London, I'm sure. There is always something good to see. My favourite gallery is the National Portrait Gallery, always worth a visit.
DeleteOh, I would have particularly enjoyed the Chanel exhibition. I love her dresses. It reminded me of when, in my mid teens, I did an exchange with a French boy from St. Remy-de-Provence. I wore a Chanel style suit to travel in (not suitable for getting into high carriages).
ReplyDeleteOh, la la! Hope you have photos!
DeleteI'm not sure what function a "going-away outfit" fulfills and the nearest I can approach this mystery is by recalling my "coming-together" outfit bought specially for our wedding on a date that is easily remembered (1/10/60). All in black, it cost £21 and came from the chain-store men's outfitters, Burtons, whose slogan was, I think, "the tailors of taste". Nothing could be further from the truth and the photographs of the wedding (with me looking like a beached porpoise) suggest it was put together from insufficiently stiff cardboard. I also bought new shoes and then began to worry in advance. At one point in the service I was required to kneel and realised this would expose the shoe soles to the congregation as newly bought. Would this offend some previously unknown fiat of wedding etiquette?
ReplyDeleteAll these minor details pale into insignificance compared with the fact that our wedding took place in a church. This was insisted upon by my atheist mother-in-law who said that a registry-office wedding (our preference) would suggest the bride was pregnant. Not true, in fact.
The church, by the way, was perched on top of a cliff at Folkestone, eternally the target of strong winds. At the end of the service it began to rain heavily and this led to the only wedding photograph I approved of. Blasted by the elements I am umbrella-ing my bride through the lych gate and she (Far more fashion-conscious) is lifting up her elegant wedding dress to keep it out of the muck. Wiser by far than me she had hired her dress and this had raised eyebrows among those who thought they knew what was what. It proved to be our only unequivocal fashion statement.
All this took place three generations ago. As octogenarians we now simply slough around.
Going-away outfit does sound very last century, or earlier! I suppose the idea was that you would be leaving home and name and all that you formerly were. I had already left home and was living in a grotty little flat in the Midlands. It wasn't half as grotty as the house in Liverpool where my soon-to-be husband was living. I refused to go there so he came and lived with me.
DeleteLove the description of your wedding. It poured with rain on our wedding day also, stopping just as we left the church. My wedding dress did not avoid the muck and is forever mired with a dirty hem.
I am an octogenarian but I am NOT sloughing around!
All the photographs are good and interesting, but the Chanel dresses are amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this exhibition with all of us.
ReplyDeleteSo glad you enjoyed the photos, Colette.
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