The little black dress's big blockbuster
INTERVIEW: Georgina Ripley, curator of National Museum of Scotland's landmark new fashion exhibition
“the greatest challenge was deciding which looks were integral to the story we wanted to tell. It is a much-loved subject in dress history”
Also in this edition: Hambling on the Hot List + three from the NPG
The Hot List
maxwell museums’ curated round up of what’s new to see, do, watch, read and more
EXHIBITION
🔗 Maggi Hambling: ORIGINS
Gainsborough’s House, Suffolk
At 77, Hambling returns to her birthplace for a major exhibition at Gainsborough’s House following its £10 million transformation. The show spans six decades of Hambling’s career and highlights her deep connection with Suffolk. There’s 30 works, mostly never-seen-before, with new pieces speaking to her own mortality after a recent heart attack. Now open until 29 October.
BOOK
🔗 Ways of Life: Jim Ede and the Kettle's Yard Artists
Laura Freeman
This first ever biography of Jim Ede and his circle as they establish Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge has been hailed as “beautiful” by Edmund de Waal and “fabulously detailed” by the Observer. The book — by the Times’ chief art critic — documents the thrilling tipping point in twentieth-century modernism, where a new guard forged a new way of living with art. Available now
MUSEUM
🔗 Young V&A
Bethnal Green, London
The former — and much-loved — V&A Museum of Childhood is reopening after a £13m glow-up and a brand new name and mission. Closed since 2020, it’ll welcome visitors once more with a new focus on 0–14-year-olds, and a desire to inspire the next generation of artists, designers, performers and practitioners. 2,000 objects will be on show across three permanent galleries. Opens 1 July
EXHIBITION
🔗 To Know About Women: The Photography of Eve Arnold
Newlands House Gallery, West Sussex
It’s been over a decade since there was a UK retrospective of the pioneering photographer who became one of the most revered photojournalists of the 20th century. This new exhibition in the heart of the stunning town of Petworth explores themes of social injustice, civil rights, religion, power, fame, sexuality and birth. There’s 90 photographic works including some being exhibited for the first time in 70 years. Opens 1 July
The Big Interview
Holly Golightly had breakfast in one. Posh Spice had a career in one. And Tulisa had a very bad date in one (and her bang-bang shoes). The Little Black Dress has seeped into popular culture like no other item of 20th century clothing. It is fully deserving of the exhibition treatment.
That’s why a new show opening at the National Museum of Scotland will look at the enduring appeal of the garment. But as the title suggests — it’s called Beyond the Little Black Dress — it’ll go further too. It will deconstruct its evolution, and will spotlight the radical power of the colour black in fashion.
In total, there’ll be 60 looks on show, drawn together from collections and designers from around the world. Visitors will see design classics and cutting-edge catwalk creations, and everything from the OG LBD of Coco Chanel, to a new commission for Scotland’s national collection made from discarded horsehair from the HM the King’s private residence. Yes really.
Ahead of the show’s opening next month, this week’s interview is with the exhibition’s curator. Georgina Ripley is Principal Curator, Modern and Contemporary Design at National Museums Scotland, and here we chat about the LBD’s impact, Chanel’s role in shaping its legacy, and the challenges of curating an exhibition about such a vast subject.
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Georgina, hello. Congratulations on the new exhibition. So, why a show on the little black dress?
The little black dress — or LBD — has long been shorthand for good taste. In 1954, Christian Dior’s The Little Dictionary of Fashion declared it appropriate to wear black at any time, any age and for almost any occasion. From an everyday perspective, it’s accessible and can easily be incorporated into almost any wardrobe. The colour black is open to myriad interpretations. Simultaneously expressive of piety and perversion, respect and rebellion, it can be influenced by factors such as cultural background, faith, gender, political affiliation, or economic situation. As such, the LBD can be seen as a blank canvas for designers to experiment with structure, texture and thematic storytelling.
The show opens with a simple, short black dress designed by Coco Chanel in 1926. How important is Chanel to this story?
In 1926, American Vogue hailed a simple, short black dress by Coco Chanel as “the frock that all the world will wear”. Borrowing its functionality and comfort from menswear, and its durability from the uniforms of the working classes, it combined couture details with modest origins, illustrating Chanel’s characteristic ‘poverty de luxe’. The garment secured Chanel’s mythic reputation as the inventor of the fashionable LBD.
The dress that we have on loan from Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Kunstgewerbemuseum is not the exact dress that featured in that Vogue article, but it is the exact same style, made from the same sort of fabric, and is a very rare example from that date. It’s emblematic of the beginnings of the little black dress.
What are some of the highlights visitors will see — and which object is your favourite?
The exhibition is presented through eight sections exploring how designers have utilised black and how the meaning of black differs according to context. From high society to the Avant Garde and subcultures of Punk and Goth, the exhibition features classic fashion houses such as Dior, Balenciaga and Yves Saint Laurent and contemporary designers Charles Jeffrey LOVERBOY, Molly Goddard and Gareth Pugh.
Black British design is celebrated in a section guest-curated by Sequoia Barnes, which explores the role of the colour black in the Afrofuturistic designs and styling of designers such as Joe Casely-Hayford, Maximilian and A-COLD-WALL*.
My personal highlights include the ‘Hellbound’ dress by Scottish designer Christopher Kane, which is a real feat of tailoring in the unforgiving fabric of PVC, and a dramatic off-the-shoulder metallic gown by American designer Christian Siriano, worn by Jonathan Van Ness, star of Netflix show Queer Eye.
Why is the National Museum of Scotland best suited to host this exhibition?
National Museums Scotland’s internationally significant fashion and textiles collection comprises around 50,000 objects and is one of the largest in the UK. The collection includes textiles dating back to the 14th century and clothing and accessories dating from the 16th century to the present day. Highlights include the Jean Muir archive, one of the largest archives of a fashion designer held in any museum collection in the world. The Fashion and Style gallery at the National Museum of Scotland opened in 2016.
Beyond the Little Black Dress follows the acclaimed exhibitions Body Beautiful: Diversity on the Catwalk and Bernat Klein: Design in Colour. It is the latest in a series of fashion and textiles focused activities at the museum and a great opportunity to share our growing fashion collection with our visitors.
What were some of the challenges in curating the exhibition?
There are so many designers who are pivotal to the evolution of the LBD, not to mention many examples that are ingrained in the pop culture psyche, that the greatest challenge was deciding which looks were integral to the story we wanted to tell. It is a much-loved subject in dress history so we wanted to think about what we could add to this field of research, while keeping in mind what would resonate with our audiences.
Choosing the right mannequins to enhance storytelling is always a difficult process, especially given that garments can lose a little magic when they’re shown on a static figure. However, we’ve recently done some sector consultation to think about how we can broaden representation in our fashion displays, so we had a good idea of what direction we wanted to take this in.
You’re the Principal Curator of Design at National Museums Scotland. How is curating design different to curating, say, art or historical objects?
Design – like art – is material culture, so the approach is in some ways similar. The interpretation of the medium and physicality of an object is key to understanding its cultural significance. However, design also sits at the intersection of many other disciplines, such as anthropology, archaeology, technology, cultural studies, etc and therefore both connects to and stretches the boundaries of art history. This offers multiple ways to interpret an object, which is a fun challenge. Design is also a cultural touchstone and that’s a gift for engaging audiences.
Much of design though is also functional — fashion is a good example of this. In that sense, because visitors can have almost an over-familiarity with the object in front of them, it can be challenging to elevate it to the same status as an artwork, and for it to be afforded equal space for intellectual discussion.
How did you get into curating?
I started out in internship roles to build relationships and to figure out what interested me most. I then gained experience working with The Warner Textile Archive and The Royal Academy of Arts, as well as The Institute of Conservation, Museums Galleries Scotland and National Galleries of Scotland, where I worked on The House of Annie Lennox (2012), a V&A Touring Exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. The best advice I can give is to be as open to new opportunities as possible – and be patient! Since arriving at NMS I have contributed to exhibitions including Jean Muir: A Fashion Icon (2008–2009) and Mary Queen of Scots (2013), co-curated Express Yourself: Contemporary Jewellery (2014), and I was the lead curator for the permanent Fashion & Style gallery, which opened at the museum in 2016.
2023 seems a huge year for fashion exhibitions in the UK. What others are on your to-visit list?
I recently visited The Fashion Show: Everything but the Clothes at the V&A Dundee, which offers an exclusive peek behind the scenes of the industry. It’s a veritable treasure trove of material collected over the years by fashion writer, Iain R Webb, so I plan to take another look when I return to visit Tartan, which National Museums Scotland have several objects on loan to.
On my list for a London visit is Style and Society: Dressing the Georgians at the Queen’s Gallery, The Offbeat Sari at the Design Museum, and a trip to see one of the NMS’s 18th century court dresses on display in Crown to Couture at Kensington Palace. I would also love to visit Man Ray and Fashion at MoMu in Antwerp.
— Beyond the Little Black Dress, sponsored by Baillie Gifford Investment Managers, opens at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh on 1 July.
Three to Read
To celebrate the £41 million revamp of the National Portrait Gallery in London — and its grand reopening tomorrow — here’s three to read to get the all the inside info.
1 | It’s been the best-kept secret throughout the whole restoration, but the final rabbit out the hat is that Tracey Emin has created 45 portraits in a major commission for gallery’s new entrance. Here she speaks to the Sunday Times to about her gift to the nation. (Read)
2 | The revamp is not just about the art — it’s a full-on facelift of the NPG’s 126-year-old home. The Guardian’s architecture critic’s verdict is that it’s “astonishing” and that a once unloved London landmark has been turned “into a great building.” A fascinating read on the magic work of Jamie Fobert Architects. (Read)
3 | Not one to read but one to hear: Portrait Gallery Director Dr Nicholas Cullinan is the latest guest on the hugely popular Talk Art podcast. Cullinan chats to hosts Russell Tovey and Robert Diament to give them inside track on the past three years. One to listen to on your journey to visit. (Listen)
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