A Day Trip to London

On Wednesday I left Suffolk in torrential rain and headed to London.  When I got out of the tube at Tower Hill I was mightily relieved that, whilst still grey and overcast, the rain had stayed in Suffolk.

After a short walk I was at the Fashion and Textile Museum to see the Liberty in Fashion exhibition. 

The exhibition worked through time and I particularly liked the dresses from there 1910s, 20s and 30s  (very Downton Abbey).

This child's dress from the 1930s with beautiful smocking is so similar to those still worn by little girls today. 

It then moved though the 1940s and 50s.

I remember wearing dresses similar to these of the 1970s, especially the one on the seated mannequin at the front!

Although I never had anything as bright as this 1960s number!

It's a lovely exhibition although I was sad I couldn't be there for the guided talk as they are always excellent and add an extra dimension.  But I couldn't stay.

By the time I had walked back up to the Thames the sun was coming out so I decided to take a river bus from Tower Hill up to the Embankment.

After a quick lunch in the crypt of St Martin's, I walked up to Cambridge Circus to the theatre to see Matilda.

Mum had bought me the ticket back in April and I really enjoyed it - the cast of children were amazingly talented, the set was stunning and to see a child launched into space by her pigtails was very clever (no children were injured!).

I can highly recommend both the Liberty exhibition and Matilda - all in all a very good day, and I didn't get wet!

Fashions in London

Yesterday I took myself off to London for the day.

It was a beautiful sunny day and after a cuppa at the Festival Hall I wandered off along the south of the river, past many sights, to the Fashion and Textile Museum.

It was my first visit here and I'd taken Gina's advice to go on a Wednesday when there's a free talk at 1pm.  The talk and the exhibition were fascinating, tracing the history of 20th century art in textiles.

It's hard to pick favourites but here are a few:

1950's Designs by Andy Warhol

Screen prints by Estelle Laverne (1947), Ben Rose (1951) and Angelo Testa (1947)

1955 dress designed by Clare McCardell in a fabric designed by Picasso 

and these gorgeous dresses from Horrockses in the 1940s and 50s made from textiles designed by Alastair Morton and Graham Sutherland.

I also loved the smaller exhibition by Sarah Campbell 'From Start to Finish' (of course I knew I would as I'm a big fan of her work) - a room showing a film about her and her work and huge boards like this on the wall showing the journey, from start to finish, of a design  (this one is for M & S bedding 2013).

After spending quite some time in the museum I then wandered up to Somerset House as I wanted to see the Boro exhibition.  These are items made by the Japanese poor who couldn't afford the new cotton cloth so literally pieced together scraps and rags to make clothing and household goods.

Some were quite geometric whereas some really revealed the original shapes of the scraps of cloth.

Outside Somerset house, a costume drama was being filmed, so I stayed and watched for a while. 

I have no idea what it was, or if any of the actors are famous, but it was fascinating to watch and the costumes were amazing.

Finally I made my way to John Lewis, really to look at curtains for the lounge but I seemed to end up in the dress fabric department and ended up coming home with this little lot (and no curtains!)

There's a distinct 1950s influence in the fabric I bought isn't there!