Vogue 100: A Century of Style Celebrated in Style at the National Portrait Gallery

Getting my Vogue on

             Whenever I tell people that I am pursuing fashion journalism, I am usually met with responses such as, “Working at Vogue would be your dream job then, right?” Right. Vogue’s prestigious reputation precedes its namesake, even for those less fashionably inclined.

             I’m sitting here drinking tea from my Vogue 100: A Century of Style mug, which I purchased with the precise intention of being inspired. It’s hard not to be motivated when drinking tea that’s tinged with the fantasy of Vogue, so close that I can almost taste it through my English Breakfast blend.

"The Varnished Truth: Jean Patchett" (1951) by Clifford Coffin, photo courtesy of British Vogue

             To celebrate British Vogue’s centennial, the National Portrait Gallery is showcasing 100 years of photography commissioned by the magazine since its conception in 1916. It was born from the rubble of World War I, when the U.S. version of Vogue was unobtainable. The exhibition brings together over 280 prints from the Condé Nast archive and international collections for the very first time.

"Kate Moss at the Master Shipwright's House, Deptford" (2008) by Mario Testino, photo courtesy of The Guardian

             Starting in 2016, we weave through the rooms and are transported all the way back to the Roaring Twenties, where the art deco covers are truly a sight to be seen. Vogue 100 is a visceral, visual delight. Fashion fans need not bother to read the images’ accompanying placards. The exhibition’s rapturous audience will no doubt be familiar with the photograph’s subjects and the photographers themselves, easily identifiable by their unique styles.

How fabulous is this cover from May 1926?, photo courtesy of British Vogue

             Photographs by Mario Testino, Patrick Demarchelier, Bruce Weber, Steve Meisel, Lee Miller, David Bailey, Irving Penn, Lord Snowdon, and Cecil Beaton have graced the hallowed pages of Vogue throughout the years. Now their accumulated wealth of talent proudly lines the National Portrait Gallery. Models include modern-day muses Edie Campbell and Cara Delevingne, as well as throwback stars Grace Coddington, Jean Shrimpton, and Twiggy.

             In amongst the fashion pack, you will also spy the likes of Boris Johnson, The Beatles, Jude Law, David and Victoria Beckham, Francis Bacon, Damien Hirst, Princess Diana, and Aldous Huxley, who used to work as a sub-editor and then an essayist at Vogue.

Aldous Huxley (1926) photographed by Charles Sheeler, photo courtesy of British Vogue

             Personally, I gravitate towards anything by photographers Nick Knight or Tim Walker. I practically floated in the direction of the massive Lee Alexander McQueen portrait by Walker, which occupies its own alcove. If you know me well, you know how much of a fan I am of the late, great designer (read my review of the V&A’s Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibition from 2015 here).

"Alexander McQueen with Skull and Cigarettes" (2009) by Tim Walker, photo courtesy of FashionUnited

             As I looked up in awe, almost moved to kneel at the altar of my fashion idol, the clearly gleeful expression on my face was apparent, while McQueen’s remained nonchalant in his presiding position – forever my king. My twitching finger had to be restrained from clicking my camera shutter, as photography was not permitted in the exhibition – unbearable as it was for me.

             Speaking of Knight, Vogue 100 features an ethereal print of model Lily Donaldson wearing John Galliano, surrounded by cotton candy pink Diwali dust. It took two years for Knight to arrive at the finished product. Now that’s dedication from a true master of his craft.

This print (2008) of model Lily Donaldson took photographer Nick Knight two years to finalize, photo courtesy of British Vogue

             The exhibition is the culmination of five years of hard work and research by curator and contributing editor to British Vogue, Robin Muir. Muir painstakingly analyzed 1,800 issues of the magazine. Whether you think fashion is frivolous or not, there is no denying the plethora of talent on display at Vogue 100. Copies of the magazine from each year are laid out next to one another, making me envy the rightful owners of these rare, and practically pristine, covers.

The first issue of British Vogue is dated September 15, 1916, photo courtesy of The Guardian

             Vogue 100 is full of smaller parts that help to bring the bigger picture of a magazine in focus, like the cutting room. It flicks through slides from the ‘40s to the ‘90s and shows which final images were chosen, while the others received the chop. Anna Wintour, the editor-in-chief of American Vogue, is said to make split-second decisions, indicating her picture choices with a simple wave of her hand. This type of skill takes a certain ruthlessness and a keen eye that only experience and time can provide.

             This is a task I face with my style blog, A Stitch in Time. It is incredibly difficult to decide what photographs to use when confronted with hundreds, or sometimes thousands of them. The money shot is in amongst all of those pictures like a needle waiting to be found in a haystack. It could be the difference between a smirk and a Mona Lisa smile, or a natural lighting alteration that only lasts for a fraction of a second.

So many choices, so little time, photo courtesy of FashionUnited

             While journalists write the words, the photographers capture the images to accompany them. We agonize over different types of continuity to ultimately illuminate the stories in a fantastical partnership. For without one, there could not exist the other, which is just another reason why I love fashion journalism so much. Vogue 100 only further solidified that for me.

             In the February 2016 issue of British Vogue, Muir comments, “The magazine's editor-in-chief, Alexandra Shulman, knew exactly what Vogue 100 was not going to be: black-framed pictures hung on the gallery wall in rows.” The exhibition is, in fact, quite the opposite. It’s engaging and captivating, so much so that I was still perusing when I heard the loud speaker announcing 10 minutes until closing time. I had to rush to the shop so that I could immortalize Walker’s McQueen print on my pin board and pick up my new writing companion – the aforementioned Vogue mug of course. It looks like it’s time for another cup of tea…

"Claudia Schiffer in Paris" (1989) by Herb Ritts, photo courtesy of CNN

             As I caress the glossy pages of my March issue with Edie Campbell on the front, I whisper, “Happy Birthday” to the influential magazine. Not only has it celebrated its 100^th in total style, but it has also ostentatiously blown its own trumpet in a way that only Vogue could – with its own exhibition.

             Vogue 100: A Century of Style is at the National Portrait Gallery until May 22^nd. The exhibition has proven to be very popular, so book your tickets in advance online here to avoid disappointment. I additionally recommend choosing a later time slot so that you don’t get caught up in the crowds.

"Limelight Nights" (1973) by Helmut Newton, photo courtesy of The Guardian

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty Returns to Reign

Photo courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum

             Awestruck is the only word suitable enough to describe how I felt as I toured the Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Having booked almost a year in advance, I had no idea that its scale would be quite so massive and a ticket so coveted. After its widely successful run at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the retrospective has finally come back home to reign and rightfully so. Born into a working class family in London, Lee Alexander McQueen worked his way up in the fashion world, which he managed to take by storm without taking it too seriously.

The Savage Mind gallery, photo courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum

             The exhibition begins with McQueen’s MA graduate collection, Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims (1992), and closes with his final collection, Plato’s Atlantis (2010). Five years after McQueen’s tragic suicide, the exhibition is a haunting reminder of his genius lasting legacy. It is easy to invest in a brand, but it is more important to invest in the man behind the brand, which the V&A has pulled off exceptionally. A quote from McQueen foreshadowed his fate: “I want to be the purveyor of a certain silhouette or a way of cutting, so that when I’m dead and gone people will know that the twenty-first century was started by Alexander McQueen.”

The Romantic Naturalism gallery, photo courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum

             Indeed, there will never be another like him. With my McQueen handbag in tow and my black and white McQueen skull scarf draped around my neck, I was professing, probably a bit too loudly and excitedly, my knowledge about the designer to anyone who happened to be within earshot. I had a very important introduction to make after all. Like a pilgrimage to Mecca, my fashion items were returning to holy ground, to be reunited with their creator. I had all of the necessary makings of a fan girl. I’m sure McQueen would think that was very uncool of me, but I remained on the verge of tears (happy ones of course), covered in goose bumps for the entire exhibition.

Alexander McQueen is a girl's best friend

             I cannot begin to explain how it felt to see McQueen’s creations, which I had only previously seen in photos or videos, in the fabric flesh. The exhibition remained true to McQueen’s vision and propensity towards performance on the catwalk, even down to the music and the ambience. The mirrored box from the Spring/Summer 2001 Voss show was there fully equipped with lights to turn it from clear to opaque glass.

The Voss gallery, photo courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum

             Lingering in the Cabinet of Curiosities room, I examined the intricacies of metal mouthpieces, butterfly-adorned headwear, and the spray-painted dress from the No. 13 Spring/Summer 1999 collection. Televisions broadcasted the clothes in motion from previous catwalk shows: from the derrière flaunting “bumsters” and too-cool-for-school models wearing them in Nihilism (Spring/Summer 1994), to the lace-encased horns and crucifixes in Dante (Autumn/Winter 1996), to the abundant houndstooth and seeping lips in The Horn of Plenty (Autumn/Winter 2009). Even McQueen’s model choices were deliberate – the way they sauntered out, flicked off members of the audience, and appeared all-around irreverent and indifferent to their surroundings.

The Cabinet of Curiosities gallery, photo courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum

             McQueen viewed his clothes as just that – clothes. His humble and somewhat unfounded assumption implied his stance on whether fashion equates to art. For someone who could cut clothes without a pattern and managed to cram a pentagram, a carousel, a game of chess, fire, water, red contact lenses, and much more into his catwalk repertoire, surely we must argue that what McQueen achieved was an art form. Naysayers slammed him for being misogynistic when he was anything but. McQueen lashed out with the perfect response: “I know what misogyny is! I hate this thing about fragility and making women feel naïve…I want people to be afraid of the women I dress.” That kind of confidently executed intimidation on the part of the wearer, that kind of empowerment, is what McQueen’s clothes represent.  

"When you see a woman wearing McQueen, there's a certain hardness to the clothes that makes her look powerful. It kind of fends people off." - Alexander McQueen; the Romantic Nationalism gallery, photo courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum

             McQueen’s version of beauty is savage because of the gritty, dark side of it that he chose to expose and become known for. He drew inspiration from sadomasochism, primitivism, romanticism, and nationalism, making it hard to believe that each room represented the amalgamation of one creative mind. Sarah Burton is the current creative director of Alexander McQueen. By her own admission, she does not share the same fascination with the darker side of life as the brand’s founder did. No one would wish a tortured past upon another, but McQueen’s demons were precisely what spurred on his theatrical and inventive visions. I cannot bring myself to watch the catwalk shows under Burton in recent years for fear of being underwhelmed due to my high standards. Without Alexander McQueen the individual, I fail to rationalize Alexander McQueen the brand.  

McQueen's last collection, Plato's Atlantis (Spring/Summer 2010), before his premature departure from the fashion world, photo courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum

             Just like the ever-changing hologram that distorts McQueen’s face into a skull and back again on the cover of my Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty book, he will eternally remain the man, the myth. Due to his untimely death, he will also be preserved at the height of his youth and his success for all of time, leaving a giant fashion-shaped hole in our lives. McQueen, at least for me, will forever be the King of fashion, presiding from his celestial throne. I think he’d quite like that, don’t you?

The cover of Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty

Breathless with Miles Aldridge

Pictured with Short Breaths #5 at the Brancolini Grimaldi Miles Aldridge Short Breaths exhibition, photo (right) courtesy of Brancolini Grimaldi

             London Fashion Week’s festivities don’t just cease with the termination of the week. I was given the very special privilege to attend a post-fashion week drinks party hosted by Rosie Fortescue of reality television series, Made in Chelsea. The event was held at art gallery Brancolini Grimaldi, located on Albemarle Street in central London. Originally opened in 2000 in Florence, Italy by Isabella Brancolini, the gallery prided itself on displaying contemporary work in the form of photography, painting, installation, and video. Camilla Grimaldi joined forces with Brancolini in 2005, hence the adoption of the gallery’s name as it stands today. A second gallery went on to open in Rome and the gallery began to hone in on photography and video, finding its niche. April 2011 saw the launch of Brancolini Grimaldi in London, the perfect setting for flaunting the work of photographers who revel in twisting the confines of their genre. 

The event invitation featuring Aldridge’s Semi-Detached #2 

             Miles Aldridge’s Short Breaths exhibition was the backdrop for the party, where guests mused over his photographs, wine in hand. The exhibition came to a close this past Saturday after its run from the 12th of July. Somerset House ran a retrospective of Aldridge’s work called I Only Want You to Love Me around the same time frame, finishing last Sunday. Born and based in London, Aldridge studied illustration at Central St. Martins and became a music video director before tapping into his potential as a fashion photographer in 1993. A various number of Aldridge’s portraits are included in the permanent collections at The National Portrait Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum here in London and the International Center of Photography in New York. Aldridge has worked with the likes of British Vogue, Paris Vogue, American Vogue, Vogue Italia, The Face, Numéro, The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Paradis. Alongside this impressive selection, he has also collaborated with brands such as Yves Saint Laurent, Armani, Longchamp, L’Oréal, Hugo Boss, and Paul Smith on advertising campaigns.

Miles Aldridge, photo courtesy of Vogue Italia 

             It was such an honor to meet Aldridge and see him mingling with the guests at the party, those of which included Made in Chelsea stars Jamie Laing, Oliver Proudlock, Spencer Matthews, and Hugo Taylor who came along to support fellow cast member, Fortescue. Dancer/model Anthony Kaye (better known as B.B.), who appeared on our radar in E4’s model reality series Dirty Sexy Things, was also present. Aldridge had an intense gaze, a mischievous smile, and a pair of seriously cool tortoise shell glasses. We chatted for a while and I was pleased to personally express my delight over the photographs to the man behind the camera. He acted as onlooker, almost certainly analyzing others’ reception of his work. Aldridge needn’t vocalize his presence, because the guests were bound to already admire him with reverence from afar. After they sufficiently viewed the exhibition and evidenced his mastery of photography, it was only a matter of time before they approached him.   

Chromo Thriller #3, photo courtesy of Brancolini Grimaldi

             Indeed, it is hard not to say something about Aldridge’s photographs, which are alluringly sexual and thought provoking. All of the models are painfully glamorous, but behind their eyes lays dissatisfaction with the domestic roles they have either gained or been forced into. Their dead, blank stares eyeballed the attendees of the evening, pleading with us to take them more seriously before we cast them off as just pretty faces. Layers of pristinely applied makeup crack thanks to Aldridge, who has even stated himself that he doesn’t “feel like making happy pictures about beautiful models being content.” Aldridge adds depth and substance to his subjects who toy with menial tasks such as cooking. It’s as if the models must find a way to entertain themselves, even if that entails playing with fire, quite literally in some cases.

Home Works #3, photo courtesy of Brancolini Grimaldi  

             There is no denying the sensuality of Aldridge’s material. It does not attempt to conceal itself or dress itself up as something else. This is pure and true eroticism at its finest. It would be ignorant to view the phallic symbols as anything but what they are. Despite this titillating triumph, male figures featured very minimally in the Short Breaths exhibition. When they did make an appearance, they were either reduced to the shadows or added to the overall consternation that is characteristic of Aldridge’s work. The shining stars were certainly the women, and with faces and bodies that enticing, there isn’t much room left for anyone else anyway. Now, I am just generalizing to one particular exhibition, because Aldridge has certainly done his fair share of shoots with male models as well.

BBQ, photo courtesy of Brancolini Grimaldi 

             The airbrushed, porcelain quality that emanates from the subjects of the photographs is further juxtaposed by their sour facial expressions and hungry eyes. Aldridge does not shy away from color, which almost seems ironic in most of the models’ cases. While the women might be struggling with some inner turmoil, they are forever surrounded by candy-coated settings, prodding them to perk up. This is perhaps what is so enchanting about the photographs. They turn sinister upon second glance. Where before they held promise and hope and joviality, these visions soon diminish to reveal a crease in a downturned smile or a strained suppression of anxiety. 

3-D, photo courtesy of Brancolini Grimaldi  

             This is all of course based off of my own subjective experience. With art, there is no right or wrong answer and everyone will take something different altogether away from Aldridge’s work, just like with any other artist. I often wonder if artists feel amused by the various bouts of interpretations that their work endures. I suppose it comes with the territory and all anyone can do is take a stab in the dark and hope to do the creator justice, just as I am now.

The Pure Wonder #1, photo courtesy of Brancolini Grimaldi

             Fortescue socialized with guests like a seasoned host during the evening and her choice of venue was nothing short of cultured, which was to be expected. 180 signed and numbered copies of Miles Aldridge’s Carousel debuted at the Short Breaths exhibition. The limited edition portfolio consists of 32 lithographic and silkscreen prints produced on fairground-worthy cotton candy pinks and bumper car brights that will have you spinning right round. However, Aldridge’s Carousel is definitely one you won’t want to get off and probably wouldn’t mind getting stuck on.

A Drop of Red #2, photo courtesy of Brancolini Grimaldi   

             For information regarding Brancolini Grimaldi and upcoming exhibitions at the art gallery, see here. Check out Aldridge’s range of stunning photography for yourself here. 

Bold Gold #2, photo courtesy of Brancolini Grimaldi