THE MUSEUM of COSTUME

Bath, Somerset, England

The Fashion Museum collection was started by Doris Langley Moore, a collector, costume designer and author. She gave her collection to the city of Bath in 1963, and Bath City Council used it to found the Museum of Costume. The collection is now three times its original size and the museum changed its name to the Fashion Museum in 2007.

Dresses from history
Georgian - Regency - Victorian

Fourteen historic ensembles from the Fashion Museum’s world class collection of original dress are on display in the museum galleries from 16 February 2008.

Specialist textile conservators Julie Travis and Lindsay Shephard have prepared the dresses, which have been carefully selected for display. Different dresses require different conservation treatments. For example, a white muslin dress with pale blue embroidery which dates from 1815, was laid out full length on a washing table and gently cleaned to remove nearly 200 years of dust and grime.

The fashions in the new display date from the Georgian, Regency and Victorian periods. An extra feature of the display is the inclusion of one or two pieces associated with Royalty at the time, for example, the ceremonial ensemble worn by the Duke of St Albans as Hereditary Grand Falconer at the Coronation of George IV (he was previously the Prince Regent) in 1821.

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17th Century Gloves

22 September 2007 - 31 December 2008

Pair of cream leather man’s ceremonial gloves with
silk gauntlet cuffs embroidered in silk and gold
metal thread and seed pearls.
Early 17th century. ©The Gloves' Collections Trust

The Fashion Museum is delighted to announce that some of the oldest, rarest and most precious objects in their care will be shown in a new display at the end of September 2007.

All of the gloves are on loan to the Fashion Museum from The Gloves' Collections Trust, a special body set up by the Worshipful Company of Glovers of London to care for what is possibly the finest collection of historic gloves in the world.
The display at the Fashion Museum includes twenty pairs of gloves from this outstanding collection, all intricately embroidered in a variety of materials from tiny seed pearls to sparkling metal thread.
Some of the gloves are patterned, some show figures and animals (such as the mythological motif of the'pelican in her piety'); all are highly decorative, and all have to be seen to be believed.

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1977

until 31 December 2008

Debbie Harry, © Ian Dickson

Fashion is not just about couture, ready-to-wear and big name designers. It’s also about putting a look together, about style, about making a point, about belonging.

For a museum, it’s difficult to capture this phenomenon because by it is nature it is fleeting; it is here today and gone tomorrow. But one way to capture this is through photography.

Not just photographs taken for glossy fashion magazines but images produced for all sorts of other purposes, to be published in the music press, for example, in skate magazines, and even family snapshots.

So in the re-vamped Fashion Museum we have set aside an area to display fashion through images. '1977' is the first of these displays.

Thirty years ago this year, punk and new wave bands played music and wore clothes that expressed their identity and demanded attention.

The images in this exhibition were taken by young, talented photographers all making their names by capturing the energetic and edgy cultural explosion known as punk.

Their photographs were printed in the music press of the day - NME, Melody Maker and Sounds - and helped both to record what was happening musically and to disseminate new ideas about dressing and behaving.

The display features photographs of the following punk and new wave bands:
The Clash, Johnny Rotten, Ari Up, The Jam, Debbie Harry, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, The Only Ones, Buzzcocks, The Ramones, The Rezillos, X-Ray Spex, Tom Robinson Band, Ian Dury, Hugh Cornwell, Elvis Costello, Gaye Advert, Don Letts, Siouxie and the Banshees, Paul Weller

FASHION, JEWELLERY & ACCESSORIES

NEW YORK FASHION NOW

17 April - 23 September 2007
Free admission, room 40

Victoria & Albert Museum, London

How does a designer go from being a relative unknown to becoming a tastemaker? New York Fashion Now explores the stories of twenty designers who launched their own labels in the five years between 1999 and 2004. Key to the early success of some has been the focused support of the fashion press, retailers and manufacturers, as well as the funded design competitions that help the winners pay their bills.

For many of New York's young fashion hopefuls this support has been essential. Young designers shoulder significant economic burdens, along with the expectation to deliver creatively each season. Further, many of the featured design labels were founded around the time of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The designers, along with their staff, factories and retailers, struggled in the resultant economic downturn. Still, the number of designer-led fashion businesses founded in New York City at the turn of the 21st century is remarkable.

New York Fashion Now captures this significant moment of design productivity, both within the city's mainstream fashion culture and outside it. The twenty featured start-up stories provide insight into how so many young hopefuls have prevailed at this particular moment.

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SURREAL & DESIGN

SURREAL THINGS

29 March 2007- 22 July 2007

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The Art of Lee Miller
15 September 2007 - 6 January 2008
Admission charge will apply

Lee Miller is one of the most renowned female icons of the 20th century - a unique individual admired as much for her free-spirit, creativity and intelligence as for her classical beauty.

This exhibition will cover her extraordinary career as a photographer and is the first complete retrospective of her life and work, exploring her transformation from artist's muse to ground-breaking artist.

Miller was born in New York in 1907 and modelled for Vogue before meeting Man Ray in Paris in 1929. She became both his lover and muse, and inspired by his work, started to develop her own images.

She became war photographer for London Vogue and was the only woman in combat photojournalism in Europe. After the war she returned to fashion photography and portraiture, photographing key figures of the day including Picasso, Man Ray and Miro.

The exhibition will celebrate the centenary of her birth

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KYLIE: The Exhibition

Kelvingrove Art Galley & Museum, Glasgow

21 September 2007 - Sunday 13 January 2008

200 objects including 45 costumes and 60 photographs will be on display, from the overalls Kylie wore as Charlene in Neighbours and the gold lame hotpants she wore in her Spinning Around video in 2000 to costumes from her latest Kylie Showgirl: Homcoming Tour. Hats by Stephen Jones will also be featured.

The exhibition is created and designed by the Arts Centre, Melbourne, home to Australia's most significant performing arts collection, including material generously donated by Kylie Minogue.

KYLIE: The Exhibition
Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum
21 September 2007 - 13 January 2008
Free entry.

The Golden Age of Couture:

Paris and London

1947- 1957

22 September 2007 – 6 January 2008
Admission charge will apply

V & A, London

This glamorous exhibition will focus on Parisian and British couture between 1947-1957, a decade that Christian Dior described as the ‘Golden Age’ of fashion.

Dior’s launch of the ‘New Look’ for his first collection in 1947 shocked and delighted the fashion world, creating a new style that symbolised femininity. The full skirts and hour-glass silhouettes were considered highly decadent, synonymous with luxury, opulence and prosperity, following the austerity of the war years.

The Golden Age will display stunning gowns and exquisite tailoring from designers such as Balenciaga, Norman Hartnell, Balmain and Givenchy, as well as Dior. It will explore the creation of couture design from the post war era to the global success of the major fashion brands by the late 1950s, at which point fashion began to change, influenced by the ‘youth-quake’ of the early 60s.

The skill and craftsmanship of haute couture will be revealed, showing a glimpse of the lost world of the exclusive design houses, and the inspiration behind some of the most famous styles of all time

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SHOCKING - THE ART OF ELSA SHAIPARELLI

online exhibition

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THE WARHOL :Time capsule 21

online exhibition

Vintage Wisdom - Jo-Anne Lauzer - Savvy Media - www.secondhandsavvy.com

Vintage, Retro or Antique...which is it???

Sara says....'I am often asked how I define items as Retro, Vintage or Antique...and in general my yardstick is...that Retro is round about the last 25 years 1975-2000, Vintage is between 1920-1975 and anything before that I classify as Antique!'

'THEN AND NOW'

Please send us a photo of yourselves all dressed up in your glad rags and handbags, doesn't matter if its an original photo from way back when or a recently taken photo!! We will post them up on this page.......

AND THE SURVEY SAID

A recent survey revealed that some women pack as many as 44 items into their handbags! The average bag contains 14 items! Liz Hurley is regularly seen with one of the worlds most expensive handbags; an £8,000 rhinestone encrusted clutch bag by Judith Leiber! While 50% of the women surveyed believe that headache and indigestion tablets are essential items, only 5% carry contraceptives in their handbags, 2% carry a personal alarm and 2% carry an emergency teabag!   source: Daily Express Newspaper.

Book Reviews
As well as a Fashion Buyer, and Manager; l have also been a book buyer, a book seller and I am an avid reader! So l will try and provide you with news and reviews of some great relevant book titles...please send me details of others you feel should be included here!
	VINTAGE: The Art of Dressing Up by Tracy Tolkien   Covering the decades of the 40s to the 90s this is the best source book for fashion and its key moments that I've come across, it's full of photo's, information and written with a wry humour by a vintage enthusiast, who also happens to run a successful shop! She is generous in sharing her expertise which can benefit all those who share the vintage habit and to others who share an interest in fashion and design. Highly recommended !!
	MILLERS-Collecting the 1950s by Madeleine Marsh £15.99  Fashion, household objects and many other collectibles are thoroughly covered in this essential book for all vintage enthusiasts. Hints on values and where to find these incredible items which can still be bought at bargain prices.
	MILLERS-Collecting the 1960s by Madeleine Marsh £15.99 Covering fashion, home-style and leisure collectibles such as rock & pop records and memorabilia, books and  toys. This book is required reading for all budding collectors of this decade Bargains can be found from well under £10!.
	MILLERS-Collecting the 1970s by Katharine Higgins £15.99            Now that the 1970s has recently joined the rank of 'vintage' collectibles it is essential to have a book as comprehensive as this one to guide would be collectors on the values of the fashion, household and leisure collectibles from this decade. Many items still found in many homes and attics are practically discussed and displayed to help the enthusiasts source items quickly and easily.