This exhibition review will discuss the differences and small similarities between the exhibits Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore! Displayed at Somerset House and Hello, my name is Paul Smith at the design museum. These displays are worlds apart from the way that the showroom had decided to display their personal archive of work, the content and how they portrayed the person. I was not that familiar with either one of the exhibits, which worked in my favour as going in with no background information abled me to take in as much as I could from the exhibits Somerset House collaborated with Central Saint Martins to produce an extensive collection of her unique wardrobe and elements of her life. My first thoughts on Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore to be honest was that I couldn’t really see anything; it was so dark in the first room. After the two minutes it takes for your eyes to adjust the exhibit starts off with her background story of family and places from childhood, although this was not the main part of the exhibit I think her background was very important to how it morphed her life. There needed to be more. Following through the exhibit I was not at all surprised to see that she had worked with fashion photographer David Lachapelle, Burning down the house 1996. This image features Alexander McQueen and his muse, Isabella Blow, wearing something from her iconic wardrobe.
David Lachapelle, Burning down the house 1996
Alexander McQueen has been a huge inspiration for me ever since I wanted to get in to fashion so when I saw his first collections I did have butterflies in my stomach and it didn’t disappoint. You could really see how his work had developed from his first collection to his last before he sadly committed suicide as a reaction to his mother’s death. Isabella first saw the potential that Alexander McQueen had and without her, his muse, he would not have been as successful. Looking closely at the collection you could see that she really did live out those garments to the end: tears, rips, snags even cigarette burns on them but none the less, it didn’t make it any less interesting to look at. As I followed the collection around the first thing in my eye sight as I can only describe was an angel of death made out of beautifully crafted black lace. I am not a religious person but that was the first thought that was going through my mind. Looking at these lace masterpieces, they were in worst shape than the previous collection I saw, but based on Isabella’s lifestyle and the delicateness of these frocks, I am not at all surprised. Heading upstairs was where the exhibit started to frustrate me, because of the interior and the layout. There’s a small alley way no longer than three metres long and a metre in width where they were displaying a video of Alexander McQueen’s catwalk collection at Central Saint Martins but unfortunately I didn’t get to see anything! There was a crowd of five people deep struggling to watch. People tried watching on the stairs but quickly got told to move by members of staff.
I gave up on watching it. Walking up the stairs I felt like I was going to find a selection of dead animals on hooks rather than more of the Isabella Blow exhibit. These horrible plastic curtains covered the stairway. Up the stairs was just a bombardment of Phillip Treacy hats, so many, all more elaborate than the last! Also upstairs were some of Isabella’s editorials. This was where I saw the first similarity between Isabella and Paul Smith, it may be small but they both liked to use the colour pink in their writing and typeface.
As much as I enjoyed looking through the exhibit I hate to say I was getting a little bored of seeing frock after hat after frock. I would have liked to see more on her life. The Exhibit was called Isabella Blow: Fashion Galore! And to be honest there wasn’t much on her life towards the end. It wasn’t he most pleasant topic as she had it bad towards the end, but none the less I wanted to learn more about her and her unfortunate tragic end as well as what she wore. So I can say I was disappointed when I left the exhibit. Not saying it wasn’t insightful and worth going but it simply wasn’t what I expected, location and content. Hello, my name is Paul Smith was completely different it was more of a celebration of his life past, present and future, with content from his work office to his entire personal archive. The Design Museum defiantly made the most of the space. The Design Museum was significantly smaller than Somerset House. But still there seemed to be a lot more in there, but still didn’t feel cramped and uncomfortable. As I said about the Isabella Blow Exhibit being really dark, Paul Smith’s gallery was Bright, open and white, more friendly and welcoming than Somerset House. To my surprise visitors were even allowed to take pictures, no flash understandably. I haven’t seen that allowed in a long time.
As I started the tour around the gallery there was a graphic created video on loop, which portrayed Paul Smith’s mind through clever repeating imagery. This is where I saw the connection between Isabella and Paul. They were both a bit wacky in the mind. They both saw it as something to be embraced and not tamed. Paul Smith put this ideal more into his workspace not himself while Isabella from the outside was all round wacky and original. It’s hard to come across individuals these days that can pull it off like she did. It’s what made her, her. The first instalment of the exhibit that I saw was his inspiration; the main focus of his inspiration was his wife, which was very heart-warming to see. This wall was dedicated to her and how she was responsible for helping him follow his dream. Turing around from this was this overwhelming amount to plasma televisions donated by Sony with Paul Smiths personal philosophy going on in the background. Quite psychedelic, Paul Smith has a relaxing voice. Paul Smith’s office has to be one of the most interesting things I have seen. It didn’t look like somewhere where someone could work in without getting frustrated. Like a child’s toy store after closing time. His office had an array of collectables from his travels, noting in particular just anything that took his fancy As Paul Smith says the best way to network and to understand your design style is to collaborate with as many people as you can, easier said than done. When you already have a well-established name for yourself, it becomes a lot easier. Seeing how many people he had collaborated with was inspiring and amusing.
One of the last things I expected to see in a fashion designers exhibit was an old Mini Cooper with his signature print on it. The collaborating continued to surprise me from HP sauce to Evian bottles, Paul Smith has done it.
One quote that I did take away from this exhibit was “colour does not always have to mean COLOUR” this explained it, because as I was going through the gallery you could see, for him, it was all about colour, it was one of the most important elements in his work, but to be honest apart from his office and his collaborations his designs weren’t anything out of the ordinary when it came to colour, but after hearing why colour was so important to him it all came into place. Before I walked in to see the range of his collections there was a wall made completely out of buttons, individually stuck on. As an artist I can appreciate that. In each of the exhibitions there was there was a catwalk like display of their wardrobe and or collections, both very different from one another. In the Design Museum the display was very well lit and clear. In Somerset House the display was very dark and I had to get really close to see any of the detail. They were not all garments on display unlike the Paul Smith exhibition, some were hats and headpieces. The idea was to make the mannequins not noticeable so it gives emphasis on the item, but because the way it was lit it made it look tacky, this image has been edited and does not truly portray what this part of the exhibit looked like. But I still had mixed feeling about them both. Although I can’t really relate to either of them I still took a lot away from the exhibitions. It’s really hard to say which one I personally prefer as they are very different as individual characters.