films

The Met Museum Costume Institute ‘About Time’ exhibition is delayed



The MET Museum Costume Institute exhibition About Time Fashion and Duration
“I always thought that fashion is really just another name for time, so I wanted to do an exhibition that was a meditation on fashion and temporality. I feel that fashion at the moment is grappling with ephemerality and impermanence and I thought that drawing out the tensions – between change and endurance and transience and permanence and persistence – might be a nice way to create more of a consciousness about fashion going forward.”

The Met Museum’s Costume Institute exhibition, About Time: Fashion and Duration, has been pushed back from Monday 4th May to October 29th in a sad but sensible Coronavirus-impacted move. (more…)



Watch this: White Riot – the story of Rock Against Racism



White Riot film - photo by Syd Shelton

This documentary, White Riot – the story of Rock Against Racism sounds brilliant. Rock Against Racism, a music movement spawned by a march and mini-festival in 1978 was such an important part of British social and music history and I bet the archive live footage is fantastic.

A special digital screening of the doc will take place from tomorrow (Wednesday 29th April) until Sunday 3rd May on the Curzon Live site here (£9.99 on demand). And on Thursday 30th April at 8.30pm GMT there will be a free live-streamed panel talk with director Rubika Shah and host Mark Kermode on YouTube here.

For a taster, watch the trailer here. (more…)



Gentlewoman style: At home with Phyllis Wang



Phyllis Wang by Elise Toide from The New Garconne - How to be a Modern Gentlewoman

I can’t remember if I told you, but I’m working on my next book!

It’s going to be beauty-focused and as part of my research, I’ve been re-reading my last book, The New Garconne: How to be a Modern Gentlewoman. Weirdly – or perhaps not – I haven’t had much need to revisit it since it was published in 2016. But like most books, when I do re-read it, it’s interesting to notice the parts that have a new or different relevance.

I loved interviewing comedienne Phyllis Wang. She was one of the last people I approached and was recommended by my then commissioning editor, Camilla. I was looking for women who embodied the ‘gentlewoman’ aesthetic and values of shopping consciously yet with their own ‘garconne style’ twist. Phyllis certainly veered to the eccentric end of the scale, which was totally fine! (more…)



Cut and paste: Peter Beard (updated)



Peter Beard collage

If you know me, you’ll know I’m a collage freak. Ivan Chermayeff, Robert Rauschenberg, and the master of it all, Peter Beard. Here’s an old Nowness short film by Derek Peck, showing the artist at work discussing his craft and his love for nature. Watch it here. (more…)