Catwalking. Through the Lens of Chris Moore - exhibition at Bowes Museum

Between Christmas and New Year,  David and I visited the exhibition ‘Catwalking. Fashion Through the Lens of Chris Moore’ at Bowes Museum. I missed a visit with my sewing bee buddies because of my foot but wanted to see it before it ended on 6 January.

Museum poster

I thought David would be interested in the photographs while I was more interested in the actual garments on display. He also has photography class homework for the new term and thought he might complete that between the grounds and photographing the famous silver swan. His key task was to provide an element of location to his photos. He thinks he has achieved that.

The famous silver swan - not in operation here.

I bought the book ‘Catwalking’ that is associated with the exhibition - it's a huge book well worth the price tag.. It's fascinating that this 84 year old man is still active photographing twice a year in 4 cities. The exhibition, and his book, catalogue the changes to the catwalk, the fashion show, fashion itself and particularly attitudes towards photographers etc over 50 years. Not to mention the change from film to digital. Photographers were banned originally.

The Book

The exhibition was a combination of Chris Moore's photographs, displayed n the walls (over 400 of them), loaned designer garments on mannequins, video presentations, posters and there was description of each piece and photo. These were alongside the museums display of textiles. 

We were allowed to take photographs of everything except the Alexander McQueen garments as long as we didn't use flash. They said they didn't have copyright for the McQueen garments.  It was really quite dark inside the exhibition and I'm not sure how well my photos will come out. These are for record however and I hope that the book will contain some of the iconic images. I focused more on the garments and details of the garments while the photographs are more about the model showing the garment and the experience of the catwalk. The book of course can't recreate the actual seeing (not feeling) of the garments loaned by the designers for the exhibition. It’s interesting, actually, that the reproduction of the photos in the book just doesn’t come up to the quality of the real photographs displayed on the walls

I said we couldn't touch. The museum has put up two pieces of embroidered fabric specifically for touching as they want to see the effect on the fabric. I thought I had taken photos but I can't find them

Supermodel

Super boobs - but they're at the side

Can you see from this image? weird!

I found a couple of designers that I really liked - confirmed my previous thoughts - and a couple that I’d never heard of (Bill Blass, ‘87, New York - well I had heard of him but that’s about all). I love Chloe by Karl Lagerfield (1973), Giorgio Armani, Chanel by Karl Lagerfield, 80s and 90s, Azzedine Alaia, Alexander McQueen of course, Margaret Howell,  I didn’t enter the Designin’ December run by Linda of ‘Nice Dress Thanks I Made It’ - however, I will look through the book and start planning to enter one for next December. That might give me enough time. I have some beautiful dupion silk that I really want to use before it reaches school age! I have images of most of the names I have mentioned - and a lot more - but they're not great.

Comme Des Garçons

Close up of front

Close up of detail

As is always the case, some of the fashion was horrendous, while some I would have worn. I had the opportunity to examine the finish up close - and decided it’s not better than mine in some cases. I have huge issues with fit - but when I saw a pair of trousers on one of the models on the catwalk (on big screen) I couldn't believe just how bad the fit was. It was one model only, really - but she should never have been in those pants if they were such a bad fit. Mine are wonderful in comparison! I know that garments are made to a particular size and not custom made for the models - but really! I don’t know if I will be able to reproduce the image I took.

That back view of the trousers!!

Apparently this was Prada's 'Ugly Period' evoking 70s uphostery

The photo looks better than the reality!

Maybe I should practice my embroidery

Front view

I have lots of images but my favourites wouldn't be yours - and you'll get a better reproduction from the web!!

It’s clear that Chris Moore was one of the first catwalk photographers - in fact he started before the catwalk existed. I hadn’t heard of him. Photographers from the 60s are better known (eg David Bailey) and the fashion models from that era (Jean Shrimpton, Twiggy) and from the era of the ‘supermodel’ are more recognisable. But he started it.

Some fabric stalls and shops, vintage sewing books and exhibitions at Bowes Museum

On Friday morning just gone, on route to Bowes Museum, I planned to go to the market at Chester-le-Street to pick up some fabric for my moulage class next week and have a look for some suitable MOB fabrics as the ones I have don't work as well as I'd hoped. There are a couple of good fabric stalls - they're different from each other and each has its advantages. There is also a Boyes department store which sells fabric and haberdashery. I hadn't worked out that the very heavy winds we've had would mean the market couldn't open because it wasn't safe. Sad. All those empty (permanent)  stalls.  I bought some practice polyester jersey in Boyes, and some glue to mend my boots (another story).

Later, I found a second hand bookshop with some great vintage sewing titles. It was a lot cheaper than Barter Books in Alnwick and I bought a few titles. You know how much I love books! Looking through these books, I've already picked up some great tips. I think my best buys were a Threads book from 1995 'Beyond the Pattern' - I recognise contributors like David Coffin but the others were,  I guess,  before my time; 

and Claire Shaeffer’s Complete Book of Sewing Shortcuts. 

One title which appealed to me originally doesn't work for me and I'll recycle that. And I accidentally bought a duplicate.  I've gleaned some great information about thread types and have come across what I consider to be,  for me,  the best explanation about easing and how and when to do it that I have seen. Previously I was confused;  now I see the light!

Despite my purchases, we ended up at the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle  earlier than we had planned. David wanted to visit the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibition and I joined him on that. The display concentrated on his portraits including self portraits.  None of his still life photographs. David had showcased Mapplethorpe as one of the photographers for his course, showing one of the still life photos for which he justifiably received great acclaim,  a self portrait (this one not in the exhibition) and a portrait of Patti Smith which was used on the cover of her debut album ‘Horses ‘ - this latter was also featured in the exhibition.

I wanted to see the Quiltscapes and Quiltline exhibition by Pauline Burbridge. These are inspired by nature for example, sand ripples,  wheat ears. I enjoyed seeing the process and handling the materials. I loved the Quiltscapes and would have bought one but for the hefty price tags - the one I liked was £15,000. There were a few smaller pieces but I was spoiled after seeing the larger ones (and they were still very expensive). We don't use quilts, so this would have been a wall hanging I guess. Though I have a beautiful machine embroidery wall hanging that hasn't made it to the wall yet so perhaps it's just as well!

We had a lovely lunch in the cafe there. Last time (first time) we were there was for the YSL exhibition  when it was very busy indeed - not so this time. David had chestnut mushroom and blue cheese tarts with walnut salad and I had a variant of Welsh rarebit with treacle cured local bacon.  Both lovely. David liked the look of the green tea and raspberry cake (green!) and enjoyed it but I found it too floral for my taste. I enjoyed my cappuccino cake.

Afterwards, we visited the New Light exhibition which showcases local North East artists and offers prizes in various categories. The exhibits were varied. They were mainly for sale and I absolutely loved one and would have bought it in a second - but it was already sold:

Poor photo and reflections, sorry.
Dunstanburgh, February Rain

I've found out a bit more about the artist, Debbie Loane and hope to visit her studio which is open the first full weekend of each month, between Hartlepool and York. 

I found this dice picture amazing.

Yes, the face is made up of individual dice.

Unfortunately, most of the paintings, some of them huge, were presented in one of the rooms in three tiers but even for me the top pictures were difficult to see and light was glancing off them in an unhelpful way and some filming was going to be taking place and I couldn't get in front of the pictures that were blocked off.

Although I have so much sewing to do, it's important I feel to try and keep some balance in my life. On Saturday I managed a few holes of golf for the first time in many weeks; I desperately need the fresh air and exercise. I realised that I'm only now beginning to recover after having been ill for more than two months!

More fabric shopping (or attempts at least)

I had heard of a new fabric shop in Sunderland  - BST Fabrics in Southwick Industrial Estate (they were previously involved in baby goods) and we decided to detour there on our way home. The prices were excellent and I got some gingham for class cheaper even than the market. There was a great stock of fleeces, though I'm not in the market for those at present. They didn't have the types of fabric that I was after but they offer to look for them. I did buy some more practice fabrics for the bridesmaids’ dresses. It'll be worth going back in the future but probably not for my current projects.

Still on the look out for a particular fabric, we went home from BST via Dainty Fabrics in Washington. Unfortunately, no joy and I went away empty handed.

I then spent some time evaluating my design and fabric options.

On Sunday  I went to 1st for Fabrics in Benton (was out in that direction on another chore - returning a dress I bought in Boundary Mills but decided it just didn't work). No joy there, either. I had already looked in the other local options - Fenwick and John Lewis, both in Newcastle city centre. I'm not keen on the fabric market stall in Grainger Market and find it difficult to get there when it's open, so I haven't tried that.  Another local option, in Wallsend this time, is totally hitty missy. I've seen others with fabulous buys but I haven't managed this. I'll probably pop in on Wednesday as it's across the road from Rory and Dan's studio. I've recently heard of another new fabric place - I don't have details but plan to find it,  you can be sure of that! There is also a sewing machine shop in Whitley Bay which carries fabric; I haven't been for a while as they don't cover my machines so I'm not sure what their fabric stock is like and I'm not too often out that way these days.

A fair bit of travelling between these different places - that's why I always tend to tag them on to something else. BST Fabrics is fairly close to college but closes at 4pm which is really too early for me to get there. If I was also visiting my Bernina dealer,  Tully’s in Sunderland city centre (doesn't sell fabric), which closes at 5pm, that would work.

My problem is I don't want to buy without seeing and feeling the fabric. One of the fabrics I want is viscose with elastane. I want to copy a RTW dress I have which is 92% polyester and 8% elastane, but using the more breathable fabric option. No joy anywhere with the viscose jersey but I did pick up some poly elastane with the right composition - trouble is, it's much too shiny for my taste. It'll do to practice the process; I have two sessions next month on ‘Pattern Hacking’ with Dan and Rory at their Centrefront Studio in Wallsend. Dare I order viscose jersey on line?

I'm going to Dewsbury next week on the Yorkshire Spoolettes meet-up organised by Ali of Thimberlina. I'm an honorary Spoolette despite not living in Yorkshire.  This is my last chance before going the online route, I feel.

Tonight, I worked on the bridesmaid dress pattern and did a toile. Really quite successful and I'm feeling a lot better about it! I'm going to start on the wedding dress first toile on Wednesday. In class on Thursday, it's moulage.

Yves St Laurent - Style is Eternal Exhibition at The Bowes Museum

Yves Saint Laurent Style is Eternal

I've lived in the North East of England for 28 years now, yet I'd never visited the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle although it is only 90 minutes away.

The museum was purpose built by John (1811 - 1885) and Joséphine (Coffin Chevalier, 1825 - 1874) Bowes as a public museum and was stocked by them with artefacts they had collected over a period of many years in Paris; the museum took 30 years to build and during that time they broadened their scope. The family is Bowes as in Bowes-Lyon with all its royal connections. The collection includes textiles, antique tapestries, furnishings textiles and needlework, with later additions of dress and accessories, quilts made in north-east England and the Blackborne lace collection. The information about the fashion and textiles collection points out that it is something of a paradox that they have many items from the wardrobe of the Empress Eugénie of France, a contemporary of Joséphine, yet no costume belonging to the museum's founder; they have only dress bills and fashion magazines. This may be because she predeceased her husband.

I missed the Feathers exhibition held there a few weeks ago but was determined not to miss the YSL exhibition, the first retrospective in the UK. Demand for tickets was going to be high, so I bought early.  The exhibition started last Saturday and is on until October.  

I booked for 10 am, opening time, and we had to be there 15 minutes before that. Barnard Castle isn't far but rush hour traffic can extend the journey time by a lot, so DH and I drove down early this morning, taking more minor roads across the moors, as recommended by friends, avoiding rush hour traffic. The views would have been terrific and were when we could see them, but the weather was awful; the roads are very narrow, windy and hilly and we decided we would return home by more major routes. We made it to the museum in good time.

The museum is very impressive from the outside, in the style of a French chateau (Joséphine was French). It also has acres of ground with walks.

In 2010 the museum opened a new permanent gallery for Fashion and Textiles.  Five of YSL's creations/collections were placed among the items in the gallery, establishing a dialogue between the historic pieces and those of YSL.

The themes for the exhibition were

Haute couture - linking a 1932 Elsa Schiaparelli bias cut gown with YSL's 'Broken Mirror' surrealism-inspired evening ensemble from 1978.

Masculin/Féminin - YSL's first trouser suit from 1967 is placed with tailored skirt suits from 1916/1919

Model: Viveke Knudsen. Photo by Helmut Newton from catalogue

First trouser suit: Spring-Summer Hate Couture Collection 1967

Transparence - YSL had many daring designs and one from 1970 was shown alongside the lace which inspired the theme; from their Blackborne collection and from leave when by the Empress Eugénie of France in the mid 19th century.

from catalogue (my picture poor)

Art - YSL was influenced by many artists. One of his dresses inspired by a Picasso painting was paired with a 19th century patchwork quilt and an 18th century lozenge print dress. YSL liked using patchwork fabrics. He designed a patchwork print blouse and an evening skirt for the Duchess of Windsor in 1969.

Spectaculaire - YSL's flamboyant wedding gown tribute to William Shakespeare was paired with rich gold and silver embroideries and woven brocades of the 17th and 18th century.

The fascinating thing was how well YSL's pieces integrated with the historical pieces.

Each of the themes also had a linked collection, including the famous Mondrian inspired dresses in the art/pop art section.  

I might not add the heart, but I loved the design

Each of the collections also had collections of the croquis, atelier's specification sheet, collection board and fabric swatches.

In addition, there were videos of fashion shows, interviews with YSL and Pierre Bergé, and YSL's way of working. This last was truly fascinating; YSL would sit down to draw, without knowing what he was going to draw and a design would flow from his pen. So quick too! Early in the exhibition, there was a collection of hats, hat bases and pictures. I hadn’t previously associated him with hats.

My husband is very interested in photography and of course there were many photographs of YSL’s work by famous photographers, ones that DH knew well. He felt, however, that some of those famous photographers were producing photos very relevant to them rather than to the garment being photographed - in other words, someone could look at it and say ‘oh that’s a so-n-so’s photo’ rather than ‘what a great dress’. I knew what he meant. I was reminded of a blog post a few weeks ago from Peter Lappin, where he posted as episode of his ‘name that pattern’. In one two little girls look like characters from a horror movie (I forget the name - the one with loads of children). I assume this wasn’t recognised at the time as presumably the designer was trying to sell play clothes for normal children.

One of the photographers was Helmut Newton. DH and I went to visit his permanent gallery in Berlin a few years back. I rather like his fashion photography, which is striking and bold, but not his later work; perhaps I’m a prude.

His clothes are very accessible. Of course, his input more or less set off the ready to wear revolution. He valued the female body and his garments show that; he wanted to empower women. The garments on display were all beautifully made. He was a perfectionist and would have a garment remade for even a slight imperfection.

We were permitted to take photographs provided we didn’t use flash. The garments in the earlier part of the exhibition (where they were being twinned with historic garments) were in glass cases and the light wasn’t that good, so my photography attempts haven’t come out well; one of my favourite dresses was black and that simply hasn’t come out.

One of the things I was fascinated by was that his toiles were made up with buttons cut from calico, with stitching lines drawn on, and belts likewise with buckles drawn on.

It was also fascinating to see that from being an adolescent, he used paper models cut out of his mother's magazines and put paper clothes onto them - just like we used to get in the Bunty or Judy. Some of these were on display but my photos haven't come out well.

I feel I gleaned a better understanding of his work and its place in history.

I loved these items, and others which didn't come out:

The exhibition was smaller than that of Alexander McQueen that I went to a couple of weeks ago. This meant that afterwards we had a chance to look around the rest of the museum. We had lunch there and were able to view the historic mechanical musical silver swan which is only operated once a day. It cost £200 in 1872 - it is made of silver and is probably priceless now. The swan is life-sized and controlled by three separate clockwork mechanisms (one for the music, one for the swan's movements and one for the water). When started, the swan preens itself, then bends its neck to take a fish from the moving water with moving silver fish, (the fish is actually concealed in the swan's beak).

All in all, if you can get to the exhibition I recommend it.