CULTURE VULTURE: FIVE EXHIBITIONS TO SEE NOW

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

There are still two days left of our extra long bank holiday weekend, so we thought we'd let you know our top picks of fashionable things to see and do in all this magical free time we've been granted. If you should you need a break from all the union jack waving and cupcake eating, here are our suggestions of things to see in London right now...

DESIGNING WOMEN: POST WAR BRITISH TEXTILES

Following the rationing and hardships of WWII, Britain's textile reinvention is brought to life in this exhibit at The Fashion and Textile museum in Bermondsey. It focuses on designers Lucienne Day, Jacqueline Groag and Marian Mahler whose work is about as much of a departure from floral, cutesy, quintessentially English prints as is possible. A great tie-in with this weekend's 1950s nostalgia but from a less overdone angle.

Designing Women is on at the Fashion and Textile Museum until 16th June

Lucienne Day and her quirky textile designs (image from www.fetchingthings.com)

PICASSO AND MODERN BRITISH ART

Anybody vaguely art literate will be familiar with Picasso's work. Tate Britain presents a new angle by examining the influence his work has had on Brit artists such as Francis Bacon, David Hockney and Henry Moore.

Picasso and Modern British Art is on at Tate Britain until 15th July

One of the works on show... Picasso's Three Dancers (image from http://swowen9.blogspot.co.uk)

CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN

You don't get more iconic than a Louboutin red sole, it's hard to believe that they've been around only twenty years, so ingrained is his aesthetic. What was a world without the ultimate red sole even like? The definitive exhibition for lovers of footwear full of glamour and va va boom.

Christian Louboutin is on at the Design Museum until 9th July

Dream shoes... Louboutins by Khuong Nguyen (image from www.searchingforstyle.com)

BRITISH DESIGN: 1948-2012

One of the V&A's big exhibitions this year and another nod to the Jubilee celebrations. The FashEd has seen this and tells me it's a must-see. Spanning everything from the 1948 'Austerity' Olympic Games through to 70s Punk and 90s Cool Brittania as well as much much more in-between this is a comprehensive look at the defining design concepts to have come out of Blighty since a little before the Queen came to the throne.

British Design: Innovation in the Modern Age is on at the V&A until 12th August

Sex Pistols' punk iconography (image from fastyling.blogspot.co.uk)

THE BODY ADORNED

Walking around London, it soon become pretty obvious that around every corner a new culture and its influences can be discovered. This show, which forms part of the Culturl Olympiad, at the Horniman looks at many of the ways Londoners chose to express themselves and the cultures they identify with, whether that's wearing  sari, getting a tattoo or having our nails done.

The Body Adorned is on at The Horniman until 6th January 2013

Urban Street portraits by young people, part of The Body Adorned (image from horseman.ac.uk)

I WANT TO BE A LAURA ASHLEY GIRL...REALLY!

Posted by Bethan Holt, Fashion Junior at Large

What makes a good brand? For me, it is knowing what I am buying into. Often, that means I feel like this brand knows me and wants to dress a girl like me. But it also means that I want to be their girl. It's a two way thing.

In the 70s and 80s, a great swathe of young women wanted to be the Laura Ashley Girl. She was pretty, feminine and spent her days romping through fields with ruddy farm lads. Well, that was the fantasy. My Mum was a Laura Ashley girl; she would buy the fabrics and make dresses herself, mixing and matching the ditsy and overblown florals which everyone recognised a mile off. But she was no country bumpkin; she worked in an office in a big city so Laura Ashley was a 'dreamy escape'. In the same way that fashion now emulates the Mod styles of the 60s every other season, Laura Ashley revived the Edwardian styles, 60 or so years after they had first been popular. The fashion dream built by Laura Ashley coincided with Fleetwood Mac and their seminal Rumours album and a general love of all things sweet, laid back and romantic.

This could be from the 1910s, but it's 1980, by Jane Ashley

With this strong history in mind, it's odd to think that Laura Ashley isn't really on the fashion radar any more, it's where Middle England goes for its curtains. However, The Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey is currently exploring the brand's heyday with a display of Jane Ashley's (eldest daughter of Laura and Bernard Ashley) photographs as part of the museum's Catwalk to Cover exhibition. The small display also coincides with Uniqlo's collaboration with Laura Ashley on a collection of t-shirts printed with designs from the brand's rich archive.

Uniqlo x Laura Ashley tees. Prices start at £8.50, from 6th Feb

Uniqlo have taken prints from the Laura Ashley archive and revived them on tees

All Jane's pictures featured her friends and family, and personified the brand- no mean feat

Jane's photography is beautiful; all soft, overexposed greys. The titles are charming- 'Lucy and Tim in Wales' or 'Dorothy and Robina'. She was enlisted by her parents to experiment with creating photos which they could use in their shops. The results were iconic images which became just as significant, in terms of creating a brand, as the clothes and fabrics sold in the shops. They create a link between what you see on the hanger, on the roll and what you can make of it, what it will do for you. These are not images posed by models who pretend to represent what it means to be a Laura Ashley girl either. They are the Ashleys' friends and family so they really are living the life which inspired everything the store stood for. I went to a reception which was attended by  some of those involved in the photos- I loved that they were chatting away in Welsh, laughing and recalling those times. They really lived that life. It made me want to be a Laura Ashley girl.

Pretty florals on a sweet tee are where it's at for Spring, as showcased at Erdem (image from catwalking.com)

This is Lucy and Tim in Wales, by Jane Ashley

For those of us that are curious, this is the right time to rediscover what Laura Ashley is really all
 about.  The exhibition is a good starter. Uniqlo's t-shirts show the prints off in a great, modern 
way. It's a starting point which could see the prints exploited as amazingly as Liberty's archive
 is. They should be resurrected. SS12 couldn't be a more perfect moment with tees and florals
 being two of the season's most pervasive trends.As usual with Uniqlo's tees, a percentage of
 the sales is going to charity (the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) which
 is a huge bonus. I'll be wearing mine with a broderie anglaise skirt for a country 
walk this Summer... Now I just need to learn Welsh. 

Jane Ashley's photos are on display until 25th February at the Fashion and Textile Museum

The tees will be available at Uniqlo from 6th February

All images, apart from tees, are by Jane Ashley and by kind courtesy of the family archives.