Contributor - Rebecca
Rebecca's recent posts
Are Clothes Modern? Or How to Read A Diagram
One of the many marvellous things about research is that you don’t just find out what you wanted to know, you discover what you didn’t know you needed to know. So when I embarked on reading for an article I was writing on pockets for Cos I rediscovered the wonders of Bernard Rudofsky’s 1947 bookRead more
Au Revoir MA Documenting Fashion Graduates of 2017!
Even after all these years, it is still a little surprise when graduation suddenly appears again on my calendar. My MA course at The Courtauld seems to rush by – nine months of seminars, visits, discussions and so much more. The most exciting aspect for me is always meeting the students as a group forRead more
One Aspect of an Exhibition: Viewers and Wearers at MoMu’s Margiela: The Hermès Years
Teaser – Margiela, the Hermès years from MoMu Fashion Museum Antwerp on Vimeo. How can you tell people what it is like to wear certain clothes without letting them try anything on? For curators this is a constant question – how to create an exhibition that expresses every facet of what clothes are. Frequently, theRead more
Jewellery, Adornment and the Pursuit of Brilliance
To Georg Simmel, adornment is a contradiction – on the one hand, it displays the wearer’s value, aesthetic taste, membership of a particular group, on the other, it is visible to the viewer, giving pleasure to her, as well as to the owner. In his 1908 essay ‘On Adornment’, Simmel elaborates on this theme, outliningRead more
Vanessa Bell, Patti Smith and Creative Living at Dulwich Picture Gallery
There is a beautiful coupling of portraits in one of the central rooms of Dulwich Picture Gallery’s Vanessa Bell exhibition, which places together two images of Molly MacCarthy, one a painting from 1912, the other a papier collé of 1914-15, linked by a small, everyday gesture that frequently goes unremarked. Each holds her hands inRead more
Cléo de Mérode and the Seduction of Beauty
What makes someone beautiful? Or maybe the question is, what makes someone photogenic? Or the perfect subject for representation in any media? Symmetry? Expressive eyes? The ability to pose, to present yourself just so? In Cléo de Mérode’s case she seemed to possess all the necessary qualities – from an early age she inspired image-makersRead more
Women Photographers: Spring Term Starts for MA Documenting Fashion
It’s the first class of my MA Documenting Fashion: Modernity, Films and Image in Europe & America, 1920-60 for the spring term on Friday – and we will discuss one of my favourite subjects – midcentury women photographers. Focusing on Louise Dahl-Wolfe and Toni Frissell we will look at the ways their work shaped idealsRead more
Judith Clark: Fashion Redefined – The Vulgar and The Proust Questionnaire
How do you rethink an idea, or a word, or a dress? Or question what a fashion exhibition is, while at the same time creating an exhibition about fashion? Visit Judith Clark’s show The Vulgar: Fashion Redefined at the Barbican Art Gallery and you will find out. Bold, ambitious, yet subtle and witty, theRead more
Why Art History Matters
We read with distress the AQA Exam Board’s decision to drop Art History as an A and AS Level – this means the qualification will no longer be offered in any UK schools. For those of us, who, like me have spent their adult lives working within the field, this decision is deeply worrying andRead more
30 Second Fashion / Fashion in 30 Seconds
About 18 months ago I was contacted by Ivy Press and asked if I’d like to work on a book called 30 Second Fashion. It was to be part of a series of 30 Second … books – each covering a specific topic, which is divided into 50 essential themes, with each theme then discussedRead more