Fashion, Fairytales and Beatles

I love going to exhibitions on my own, today I had some time to kill around Waterloo and so happened to walk past Somerset House and remembered hearing about an exhibition there. I went to see Tim Walker: Story Teller, the exhibition showed the fashion photographers work alongside some of the props used in his shoots including a giant spitfire, oversized insects playing musical instruments and a huge doll (which may now occur in my nightmares).  

My worse nightmare!
http://timwalkerphotography.com/recent_work.php

The exhibition was really well done, with each room showing fantastically surreal and breath-taking images of gorgeous clothes.  There was also a series of short films showing fashion shoots taking place with accompanying music, which made for a slightly surreal viewing experience as they were shot in quite a grainy quality.   I love the stories that are told through his photography and how the fashion is not necessary the focal point of the photo, the whole scene compliments the fashion and creates a magically world you want a part of. The best thing about visiting an exhibition on your own is that you can completely immerse yourself in what you are looking at and have an inner dialogue to accompany the visuals you are seeing. 

I also visited Valentino: Master of Couture which featured over 130 of his couture dresses – heaven.  I stumbled upon the exhibition completely by chance and loved every second.  The highlight may well have been eavesdropping on other peoples conversations though.   In the first room were documents and press cuttings from Valentinos career including letters from various celebrities. One of the letters was from Anna Wintour, she did admittedly have very large hand writing however a woman next to me commented to her friend that no one with handwriting like that should be successful, how could someone with handwriting like that actually achieve anything … about Anna Wintour! They wouldn’t dare say that to her face.  

The Corridor of Dresses!
http://www.ella-lapetiteanglaise.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/157210057PM00006_Valentino_.jpg

The exhibition was stunning, with the dresses all assembled in a long corridor as though at a red-carpet event. My only criticism would be that you are given a booklet with numbers and details about each dress however sometimes it is not always mentioned when a famous figure has worn the dress, which was a shame. I only discovered when doing some online research back home that one of my favourite pieces in the exhibition had been worn by Jennifer Aniston for the Along Came Polly premier. The booklet did however point out the gown that Julia Roberts wore to the Oscars. It was interesting to guess the time period for the dresses as sometimes it was very hard to figure out, styles did not necessarily dictate the era expected. One very Doris Day like outfit was actually from the 90s!

http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/157210057PM00008_Valentino_-550x359.jpg

One dress received it’s own space, deservedly, and this was the wedding dress of Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece. It was stunning, you felt as though you were in the presence of something truly exquisite and approaching it from above on a staircase gave justice to the detailing on the veil.

The last space in the exhibition showed how different techniques used in the dresses displayed were created with videos and small samples.  This only furthered increased my awe at the dresses and they hours of hard work that go to create such beautiful masterpieces!

As well as Somerset House I also found myself outside the National Portrait Gallery so decided to pop in and say hello to my favourite painting.  It is a portrait of Paul McCartney, painted by Sam Walsh entitled Mikes Brother. I love this painting because of the way it looks as if one brush has just been stroked across the canvas and Paul face appeared – I think it really captures one moment and has so much energy to it! 

http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw08201/Paul-McCartney-Mikes-Brother?LinkID=mp05537&search=sas&sText=mccartney&OConly=true&role=sit&rNo=1

Although to my dismay yesterday the gallery displaying the painting was shut. A woman started talking to me in the queue for the toilets asking if I’d seen everything yet and she looked slightly bemused when I said “Oh no, I just popped in to say hi to Paul”.