Grace Kelly Exhibition, V&A.

As I turned into the exhibition, I was welcomed by a beautiful pink dress, fitting the true expectation of Princess Grace. The condition was immaculate, giving you a real feel of just how glamorous Grace Kelly actually was.

As you walk through the displays, the transformation from Hollywood Grace to Princess Grace becomes more than obvious as the clothes drift from very simple, stylish outfits to the glitz and glam you would expect from a Princess.

The presentation of the dresses however, could have been better. Although you are presented with a lot of information on where and when the clothes were worn, the positioning of the information made the whole thing a bit confusing and the hoards of people you were fighting through didn’t make the experience any easier. ‘700-1200’ was the answer I received when asking the, very busy and slightly rude, receptionist how many visitors the exhibition has roughly per day. Let’s just say, I wasn’t quite prepared for how many people there were actually going to be.

I’m confident in saying that you have to actually see the outfits, to appreciate the true detail and beauty of them, as the photographs do not do any justice. It is clear to see where Grace got the title ‘style icon’ as the colour and style of many of the clothes she was wearing in the 1950’s, especially the amount of brown and gold and the many dresses made from chiffon, are very much in fashion now, putting her, very significantly into the rotating world of the fashion industry.

All in all, the exhibition opened my eyes to the true beauty and class of Grace Kelly, a very surreal experience and made my love for fashion excel when I laid eyes on the world famous Hermes Kelly Bag.

 

 

Image From: http://thehappinessprojectlondon.wordpress.com/2010/09/30/grace-kelly-exhibition-and-va-friday-night-lates/

http://www.fashion-overload.com/my_weblog/2008/05/herms-paper-bag.html

The Clothes Show 2011

Have you ever seen the film Confessions of a Shopaholic? There’s a scene where a queue of woman are outside a store, that’s holding a one day sale, all waiting to be let in. The doors open and all hell breaks loose as the stampede of women, pushing and shoving, are desperate to find the best bargains. Isla Fischer’s character Rebecca Bloomwood spots the perfect Gucci boots; she runs over, picks them up, then looks at the price tag in frustration. Realising that she probably shouldn’t, she starts to put the boots down, only for another woman to pick them up before the leather had even brushed the surface of the shelf. At the thought of someone else having them, Rebecca grabs the boots and a fight starts. Well this is the first thing that came to mind as I walked in.

As a virgin to this kind of thing, it was quite overwhelming and I didn’t really know what to do with myself. As the herds of people split between two rooms, I followed the majority and went into the first one. Greeted by stall after stall, all offering gift bags for discounted prices and more clothes than I could have imagined, I realised that I’m probably going to need more than the measly amount of change I had jingling around in my purse so I made my way over to the cash machines. Putting my card in, I was a little shocked by what came up on the screen. ‘This machine will charge £2.50 for cash withdrawals’, and guess what, only about 3 out of the 200 stalls accepted payments by card. So I hadn’t been in there five minutes and had already spent money without even buying anything. In a nervous disposition, my friend and I headed straight for the huge ‘Food and Buy’ sign at the back of the room, where we grabbed a drink before attempting to find some bargains.

As the day passed, it was soon time to head to the theatre within the complex, a much more relaxed part of the day to say the least. After struggling our way through what looked like an organised way of getting people into the theatre, we took our seats as Gok Wan came to the stage. “Do you look good naked?” was the perfect set up for what was to come. He went on to introduce one of the ‘best looking and most talented X Factor contestants’ which to our dismay turned out to be Austin Drage who performed Ne-Yo’s hit Closer, not quite doing it the justice I’m sure he had hoped for. A quick appearance from Mark Wright and Lauren Goodger from The Only Way is Essex then led us into the catwalk show. A 21st Century Fox theme set the scene for the movie style show that followed, with dance acts and performances to the themes of high school rocks, western action and dirty dancing, to name a few. The dancers were dressed to suit the style of the different themes, with stereotypical cheerleaders, men in silver jumpsuits and a woman dressed as Kylie, with topless men and women wearing little clothing in every scene, there was something for everyone.

From previous years, I had heard a lot of good things about The Clothes Show Live so my expectations of the 2010 show were quite high. I couldn’t help but think that my first impression had stuck. At twenty six pounds a ticket, I was expecting a lot more, especially being held in such a large venue, Birmingham’s NEC and I definitely didn’t think some of the things for sale would have been so expensive, the offers seemed pretty similar to ones in the shops. If I had known what I was letting myself in for before hand, a bus ticket to town would have been a lot cheaper, where I could have got pretty much the same. I must give companies such as Bourjois and some of the vintage style clothes stalls credit for lowering prices and offers such as three makeup items for twelve pounds, these I took full advantage of. Somehow though, the good didn’t outweigh the bad and it wouldn’t be an event I would recommend, even to those like me, who have a keen interest in fashion, which may sound surprising. The appearances from Mark Wright, Lauren Goodger and Jeff Brazier seemed a bit random as the word ‘celebrity’ doesn’t really come to mind and I wasn’t too sure how they linked in with a fashion event.

The lack of directions around the place didn’t make the whole experience any more pleasurable either. Once the show had finished we were directed out to the right of the building, bringing us to some more stalls and a lot of empty space. It took us a while to find how to actually get out as there didn’t seem to be any door leading outside. Drawn towards a woman shouting ‘Get your free goody bags’, we hurried over hoping finally, for some free things. They handed us a KitKat plastic bag with a chocolate bar, magazine, porridge, stain remover and some sanitary towels in, a bit surprising as there were men at the event, it wasn’t quite what I was hoping for from a clothes show.

My first experience of The Clothes Show Live didn’t leave a lasting impression that made me want to go again. I love clothes, I love shopping and I love a bargain don’t get me wrong, but its hard to enjoy when your constantly being pushed, you cant see the item your wanting to buy and when you finally do find it, your in fear of anyone else picking it up so you make a mad dash towards it because there only ever seems to be one of each. I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone and I cant say ill be first in the queue for The Clothes Show Live 2011.