Make the most of your summer and check out the latest fashion exhibitions to head to.
Audrey Hepburn: Portraits of an icon.
Thirty-five unseen photographs from Audrey Hepburn’s sons personal collection have gone on display at the National Portrait Gallery’s summer exhibition.
The exhition delves into the life of the famous film star, featuring a portrait of Hepburn at a dance recital aged thirteen, to photos taken during her time on different film sets. The collection of photos follows Hepburn through her life, capturing her before stardom through to the height of her fame. Celebrating Hepburn as a film star, fashion icon and humanitarian the collection features photos from some of the leading photographers of the twentieth century, the likes of Richard Avedon, Cecil Beaton, Angus McBean and Irving Penn to name a few.
Highlights from the collection are examples of her early work as a fashion model for photographs by Anthony Beauchamp for the department store Marshall and Snelgrove, and the candid photo from Larry Field showing Hepburn in her dressing room on the set of Gigi. `Film set photography throughout the 1950’s and 60’s acts as a chronological documentation of her rise to fame, with observers being able to follow her journey from inception to her heyday.
[Image: Flickr]
Fashion on the Ration
The WW2 exhibition features a range of photogrpahs, artwork, interviews, clothing and accessories that help to provide an insight into the way fashion adapted and evolved during the austerity of war.
Make do and mend was the motto of the time and often women were tasked with finding effective ways of recycling old garments to create new clothes to wear. Often women would use ingenous ways of incorporating fashion in their wartime outfits. Clever takes on gas mask handbags and blackout buttons meant that women could still have fun with fashion even during the bleakest of times.
The exhibition is divided into three main areas with one of the highlights looking at how parachute material could be turned into a wedding dress.
Now-31 August 2015, Imperial War Museum
[Image: Fashion and Textile Museum]
Riviera Style: Resort and Swimwear since 1900
Look back at 100 years of beachwear at the Riviera Style exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum.
Launched as we entered the start of the summer heat wave the exhibition features everything from modest Edwardian cover-ups that were entirely functional to bold and bright modern day swimsuits and sarongs.
Breton tops, palazzo pants and burkinis also feature in the collection, with particular emphasis placed on the fabric used to make each garment. Explore the importance of different fabrics and they were adapted so that they didn’t sag or bag when wet and the advancements in technology that allowed for a greater fit and increased speed in the water.
The display doesn’t just look at the changes and developments in fabric, but also the perceptions towards body image over the last century.
Now-30 August 2015, Fashion and Textile Museum
[Image: Victoria and Albert Museum]
Shoes: Pleasure and Pain
Shoes are often said to be a girl’s best friend but as the Victoria & Albert Museum’s exhibition shows we often have to suffer before we put our best foot forward.
Pleasure and pain looks at the most extreme footwear collated from around the world and their simultaneous power to entice and repel.
200 pairs of shoes will be on display from Egyptian sandals decorated in gold leaf to hi-tech shoes created using a 3D printer. Shoes worn by stars such as Marilyn Monroe and Sarah Jessica Parker are also on displays as well as historical figures, including Queen Victoria.
From the ancient to the most celebrated shoes in pop culture the exhibition shows the true transformative aspect of shoes.
