Notwithstanding the skilled brush strokes of a master artist, some of the techniques of John Singer Sargent’s trade are similar to those employed by contemporary fashion stylists and online content creators.
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You've Come a Long Way, Barbie: The everlasting power of pink
Barbie’s colourful cinematic world and powerfully pink wardrobe rekindle memories of my playdates with the original 1968 talking version of the doll.
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Life as Legacy: how would you like to be remembered?
Reflecting on our mortality can put life into perspective and help give meaning to our existence. A thought piece on death and remembrance. How rich is your legacy?
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Dress Codes, Gender and the Power of Subversion
People who transgress fashion norms are often viewed with suspicion, distrust, or even disgust. Yet going against the grain can also empower, by getting us and our causes noticed…
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19th Century Mourning dress: clothing customs to commemorate the dead
Formal rituals of bereavement became a yardstick of behaviour. The study of mourning dress provides an insight into the social position of women, in particular. Women bore the heaviest burden of the mourning ritual, becoming social outcasts for their first year of widowhood.
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Craft, Colour and Phenomenal Style: Zandra Rhodes Retrospective at Fashion and Textile Museum
By way of dreamlike inspiration, intoxicating colour combinations and towering displays of spectacular gowns appear on this journey through the realms of a legendary creative force.
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Playing Grown-Ups: Mary Quant Comes of Age
The collision of girly innocence with the overt sexuality of a newly liberated age that radiated through Quant’s products and their promotion was simultaneously borne out in my generation’s experience of growing up.
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War Against Fear: FOMO, FOLO, FODO and 21st Century Phobias
We live in precarious times, with the ever-present threat of revolution, a worldwide pandemic, or nuclear war. Every human being has an innate fear of death, yet today we also seem to struggle with a fear of life itself.
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Marvel, Magic and Mastery: Christian Dior at the V&A
There is a sense of timeless elegance - even Galliano’s boldly coloured kneepads and Chiuri’s sci-fi-style ‘mystic masks’ sit happily alongside Bohan’s delicate costume jewellery and the more classic millinery of early collections.
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Feminine Design Icon, or Symbol of Female Oppression?
Just as an online photograph today might show an attractive woman beaming behind a bowl of salad, an advertisement in the 1940s or ‘50s may have depicted a pretty, apron-clad woman smiling alongside a packet of soap powder.
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