Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore!

Bored with the rain and looking for something interesting to do?  Get yourself along to Somerset House to see their really great exhibition: ‘Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore!’ before it comes to an end on 2 March. 

    

Isabella Blow led an extravagant life in her work, her home and the clothes she wore and this exhibition gives a great insight into her unique character.  Attributed with discovering great talents and models, we get to see Alexander McQueen’s clothes from his very first graduation collection, where Isabella first discovered him, right through to his Oct 2008 collaborative runway show with Philip Treacy ‘La Dame Bleue” which was dedicated to Isabella after her shocking death.  We also get up close and personal with Philip Treacy’s creations – before this exhibition I had not seen much of his work and was absolutely blown away by its beauty and elegance!

My favourite part of the exhibition by far, was a look into Isabella Blow’s fantastic and slightly outrageous wardrobe – this, along with little notes about Isabella’s life and fun facts such as her favourite shade of red lipstick, her preference for writing with pink ink and how clumsy and forgetful she was (apparently, like me, she often left things in taxi’s) makes the whole exhibition more personal and intimate.

In the final section, we see selected clothes from the “La Dame Bleue” catwalk, accompanied nearby with a video of the runway show playing on a large screen.  This is where we can see the static exhibition come to life in a beautiful show themed around flying birds, which was one of Isabella’s fascinations and therefore a fitting tribute.  This bit really pulls on your heartstrings.  What a unique personality and complex life, and what a sad ending for someone with such energy and passion.  

Really beautiful.  Really worth you time.    Go even if it isn’t raining.

Has street fashion gone too far?

Is street style becoming more of a circus act to gain attention than an individual fashion statement?  Laura Weir asks in her article for the Sunday Times  ‘Is This Fashion?’ making some interesting points and quoting from experts in the fashion industry.

Street style has always influenced the fashion industry, but the birth and rapid increase in fashion bloggers has encouraged the spread of extravagant new street outfits you would never expect to see, and which increasingly gather outside runway shows.  However, as Weir states in her article ‘what was once the height of cool has become homogenized.  Too many people arrive at fashion shows in outfits designed to shock rather than intrigue.’  Has this once on-trend scene become a bit too overdone?  Scott Schuman, founder of the blog The Satorialist says ‘the internet and blogs have created monsters- it’s totally changed the way we communicate about fashion.’ 
          

The Editor of Love magazine, Alex Fury, said ‘It’s about as sophisticated as a toddler exposing themselves on a jungle gym.  Pay no attention and they’ll stop doing it soon enough’.  He has a point, if we didn't lift an eyelid, would we still have these extravagant individuals circling fashion week venues waiting to be snapped?  I don't think so.  For me true fashion style is carried seemingly effortlessly by those lucky people who have a clear sense of their personal style and enjoy expressing it through the clothes they wear – whether that’s a dress made from lightbulbs or simply a pair of well fitted skinny jeans and an oversized biker jacket.  Either way, it’s the person wearing the clothes, not the clothes wearing the person; fashion is a way to express who we are, not a vehicle to gain everybody’s attention.
    

Street style has enjoyed a long standing reputation as a place for innovation, creativity and influence.  We all enjoy seeing how people dress individually and within their own social groups.  But please, let’s get back on track and, on reflection, step away from the dress made from lightbulbs.