Beyond Biba

On Thursday night I attended an event at Brighton Museum & Art Gallery to coincide with their new exhibition Biba and Beyond: Barbara Hulanicki. Fashionably Late, was an evening of cocktails, dressing up, nail art and general vintage fun, as well as the chance to wander round the exhibition at night to the sounds of indie pop provided by DJ Dynamite Sal. The exhibition celebrates the work of Biba designer and creator Barbara Hulanicki, her work at Biba, as well as her work before and since.

Before there was Topshop there was Biba!

Biba was one of the first examples of fashion created for young women. We take for granted the availability of young fashion in today’s youth obsessed culture, however in the 60s and 70s young women and teenagers tended to go straight from children’s clothing to a version of the styles worn by their mothers. Biba was differnet, the clothes were cut close and short, originally to suit Hulanicki’s own narrow frame and appealed to the tastes of teenagers and young women. The Biba ‘Dolly Girl’ originating in Hulanicki’s idiosyncratic illustrations and brought to life in iconic photography by Sarah Moon, was a dreamlike girl influenced by ‘Art Deco, Victorian and Hollywood glamour all combined in striking, romantic and sensual designs’  and captured the imagination of a generation of girls. The Biba world was one of the first examples of a ‘lifestyle’ brand, so common on todays high-street. Biba sold make-up, accessories, stationary and everything else the Biba girl was likely to ever need. Biba’s influence is still felt on the British high-street, without Biba there would be no Topshop, the inspiration is seen in the highstreet mecca, a one-stop shop for everything a young fashion obsessed girl could dream of.

Biba Make-Up: Metallics, jewel-tones and Art Deco style packaging

Everything under the sun: Biba Stationary and Accessories, signature black and gold

Hulanicki’s long standing relationship with Brighton makes this exhibition particularly special. Hulanicki studied Fashion Illustration at what is now The University of Brighton’s art school, which she visited last year to give a talk in the Sallis Benney theatre which I was lucky enough to attend and meet the lady herself. The first Biba shop was opened on Queen’s Road, a photo of which is included in the exhibition. The exhibition also includes some sweet personal stories from women who remember shopping at Biba.

Biba and Beyond: Barbara Hulanicki – Brighton Museum & Art Gallery till 14th April 2013

CLAWS BEAT SKIN

This summer has once again seen a rise of comic book movies and with them a whole host of swoony male leads. With Christian Bale reprising his brooding role as Batman in The Dark Knight Rises, Andrew Garfield adorably webbing up in The Amazing Spider-Man and fellow British actor Henry Cavill playing Superman in The Man of Steel, to be released 2013. However my personal hero from the recent geekfest is Anne Hathaway’s character in The Dark Knight Rises, Selina, or masked up, Catwoman.

Catwoman’s role in the film added a lightness of touch that the otherwise dark and brooding tale desperately needed. Her Femme Fatale performance had all the wit, sex and glamour of a Film Noir villainess, whilst also conveying a vulnerability that suggested that she was equal parts damsel in distress needing to be saved from a good girl gone bad cliché. Throughout the film striving for a ‘clean slate’ Selina stresses that her cat-burglar routine is done for reasons of necessity only, however unlike Batman/Wayne, she takes no prisoners during a fight and will sell out till the end to save her skin. Her costumes throughout the film make her my summer movie style crush and she will be my no.1 inspiration when Halloween roles around. In uniform black throughout, as Selina she’s all Breakfast at Tiffany’s prim, cocktail dresses and (stolen) pearls, with blood red lips and nails, as Catwoman she’s leather clad and catsuited. At a masked ball she hides behind a lacy eye mask, and subtle cat ears peak above a sleek chignon.

The fashion world has long been a graphic novel fan girl. There’s the cinderella aspect of mask wearing transformation, the Ghost World geek-chic appeal or leather clad spiked heel badgirl image, all to play with. For her S/S08 show Luella Bartely showed a gloriously geeky collection, which wore it’s bat logo on it’s sleeve.

This year in keeping with the filmfest Lazy Oaf launched a Batman themed womenswear collection, complete with Bat logo leggings and backpack and is available at www.lazyoaf.co.uk.

These are my picks for pulling off Catwoman’s look, cat ears not included.

The Dark Knight Rises is in cinemas now.

Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950

Ballgowns: British Glamour since 1950

The V&A is the perfect place to escape to on a rainy Saturday in July, many happy hours can be spent getting lost in the museum and when that gets tiresome the coffee shop has fancy over priced cake to be eaten in an excellently grand chandeliered tea room. On this rainy afternoon we were on a particularly escapist mission, planning on immersing ourselves in a world of glamour, royalty, debutantes and layers and layers of tulle. The exhibition Ballgowns promised ‘British Glamour since 1950’ and in a year when our Queen celebrates 60 years on the throne and a year on from the wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton, a true Cinderella story and the most fairytale royal event in recent years, I had high hopes for a truly spectacular celebration of British pomp and ceremony and all things tiaras.

Ballgowns since 1950

Held in the newly renovated Fashion Gallery, the downstairs of the exhibition was a standard museum set up, dresses on mannequins in glass cabinets with brief explanations about who they were made and worn by, this area held ‘Ballgowns since 1950’, while upstairs contained ‘Contemporary Ballgowns’. There was a selection of dresses worn by royalty and debutantes and information about the tradition of couture, in which a designer makes a dress for a particular client, incorporating their ideas, fit issues and adaptations. The dresses themselves were utterly gorgeous frivolities and we spent a happy time seriously considering which would be our deb dress of dreams. However the set up was strangely clinical and did nothing to capture the mood of the dresses themselves.

Contemporary Ballgowns

Upstairs was a different matter, after ascending a sweeping double staircase, which was fully worthy of a tumbling taffeta train, we entered the mezzanine level which was all Tim Walker wonders, giant pearl necklaces, fallen oversized white chandeliers and mannequins wearing the avant-garde, outrageous and most dazzling creations the world of contemporary British fashion has to offer. The dresses included a wispy floral beauty by Hussein Chalayan, Alexander McQueen’s iconic swan dress, an understated embroidered jumpsuit by Stella Mccartney and other works of wonder by the likes of Christopher Kane, Giles and Erdem. This area, although visually stunning, lacked the nostalgia of the previous selection, the photographs of the dresses in action displayed them on red carpet celebrities, on loan from the designer for one night, rather than capturing a story or event with real personal meaning.

Ballgown by Alexander Mcqueen

I felt that the exhibition was inconsistent and if the two set ups had been better integrated it would have been a whole lot more magical. Understandably the dresses downstairs were far more precious and thus behind glass, but what was great about upstairs was being able to get a really close look at the dresses, without also seeing the reflection of yourself (dressed in jeans and t-shirt) in the glass. As a recent fashion graduate and knowing the intricate detail and work that goes into the simplest garment it would have been good to see more information on the making of these masterpieces and those who made them. However it was entertainment enough for a Saturday afternoon and just enough escapism, with my mother engaging in a faux-serious discussion with another visitor about how one might accessorise a giant meringue of a dress by Marchesa and in the end deciding that it just didn’t leave enough room for jewels!

Ballgowns: British Glamour since 1950 runs at the V&A until 6 January 2012

University of Brighton, Graduate Fashion Show 2012: Backstage

Dressing room

Dressing room view from above

The day of the show started early and was spent mainly running around in awe of the immense venue we suddenly found ourselves in charge of, I had previously viewed the space but to have control over how to use it was an exciting prospect. We arrived at the venue mid morning and waited for the arrival of our brave classmates who had been charged with driving our precious final collections in the van up from Brighton. Meanwhile we assembled benches, began putting together the exhibition and carried a couple of seriously heavy tables up two flights of stairs. Once the collections (and our classmates) had arrived safely we began arranging the dressing room and organising models through hair (which was kindly provided by the team at Charles Worthington) and makeup. The day went fairly smoothly with only minor moments of panic and the dress rehearsal allowed more time for changes than we’d expected. The first show was over before we knew it and then we had a brief time slot in which to mingle with industry members at the drinks reception in the gallery space. Then it was onto friends and family, this show was more relaxed with large amounts of wooping and celebration after we took our final walk around after the models. We then joined our friends and family in attending to the drinks upstairs, before hurriedly packing up the collections, washing out the 500 glasses and shoving everything back into the van and jumping on a train back to Brighton to meet the van at the other end. The day was an exciting, challenging and exhausting experience, a fitting end to our four years studying Fashion at the University of Brighton.

Brianna in hair and makeup

Male model in makeup

Lotte and Miranda fitting with male model

Dressing Zoe Walker’s collection

Backstage photography by Milo Belgrove

http://cargocollective.com/milobelgrove

University of Brighton Graduate Fashion Show 2012

On the 14^th June I presented my graduate collection, along with 21 other students graduating from the Fashion Design and Textiles with Business Studies courses at the University of Brighton, at an independent catwalk and exhibition at the Candid Arts Gallery, Angel. The evening played host to members of the fashion industry as well as friends and family. Due to cuts in funding to universities, the show was funded and organised by the students, meaning a low key but highly personal show. The venue was perfectly suited to the event, with the catwalk arranged downstairs around the buildings supporting pillars and guests sat on school style benches. The upstairs of the venue was used as a gallery space and drinks reception, where the students displayed photoshoots, portfolios and several of the class showed films.

For more information on the show/designers please visit brighton12.tumblr.com

University of Brighton, Graduate Fashion Show 2012: Womenswear

Jessica Moore

James Gould

Emily Durant

Samantha Podmore

Zoe Walker

Anna Morris

Hollie Young

Laura Jeans Da Silva

Olivia Hearnshaw

Alice Oluyitan

Tara Maya Wingate

Amy Williams

University of Brighton, Graduate Fashion Show 2012: Menswear

Charlotte Jouan

Flora Maclean

Lotte Goodwin

Miranda Greenwood

Jordan Paul

Thomas Rees

Photos courtesy of Rob Rowland http://robert-rowland.com/

University of Brighton, Graduate Fashion Show 2012: Textiles

Sophia Fenlon
Weave

Four students from the Textiles with Business Studies course showed in the fashion show. The students, Sophia Fenlon, Charlotte Heatheridge, Katie Noakes and Sophie Fox, practice the disciplines print, knit and weave.

Charlotte Heatheridge
Print

Katie Noakes
Knitwear

Sophie Fox
Print

Photos courtesy of Rob Rowland