I went with two friends in May to see this exhibition, I was so excited the moment I heard about it, I wanted to attend, dates were arranged immediately so with this review I will be honest!
Recently I've been let down a lot by museums, just because you throw money at it doesn't mean it makes it better, for example Kenisington Palace. I'm really hoping the Imperial War Museum London does not let me down either. So here we go, the museum statement for the exhibition is:-
"The exhibition will highlight the histories of the dresses, revealing fascinating details about the lives of the wearers and offering an intimate insight into their circumstances and fashion choices."
Myself I do not feel this is the case for this exhibition. The exhibition is on two floors, the bottom being based on how tradition of wedding dresses started. With the first dress you see being from 1775, the bottom floor discusses in detail, with plenty of detail on the weddings, I particularly liked the detail for the 1933 wedding dress worn by socialite Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll, as well as having her unique wedding dress, you get to see newspaper clippings as well as the news reel footage of her leaving the church.
There is also video footage of all the Royal Weddings that were captured, which is a nice sit down and watch what is interesting is you see clips of Lady Dianna Spencer's wedding to Prince Charles but no footage of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall to Prince Charles, which to me is a huge faux pas, considering her wedding dress is on display in the upstairs section!
Right next to the film footage there is a small section of shoes and accessories on display, but you can easily miss them if your not looking.
Upstairs is more of a based on the Haute Couture wedding dresses. Which yes is nice and important, while being fascinating. There are also some celebrity wedding dresses and socialites on display, which makes you feel they clearly had far to much money, but taste is so individual, but what I felt through the upstairs sections is a real lack of connection!
While I do love looking at clothing and appreciating their design, I just feel like questioning the lack of personality in the upstairs, I love my wedding dress and I can tell you why I chose it, how it makes me feel, on top of the memory the first time my mum saw it. I would have liked to see more of that!
It is a nice display lay out, some beautiful dresses, but what surprised me the most is that all these dresses are designer dresses, but not one designer has sponsored this exhibition, it's sponsored by Kuoni, Monsoon and Waterford. Where is Vera Wang? Ian Stuart? I also would have secretly liked to see a Gypsy wedding dress, simple because now a days they are everywhere!
The exhibition does come with a book, which you can buy for £30.00, but I did not buy it because I guess I didn't not really care for the exhibition.
My thoughts are it is a nice exhibition, but it's not something I would shout to all my friends to see. I guess you could say the V&A Hollywood exhibition has spotlit me!
Hope You Enjoyed The Read!
Bye
xxx
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