Well with a free weekend ahead of me, I decided to go to Somerset House, I have been meaning to go for about a month. There were two exhibitions that were of interest to me, and I would recommend them highly to you as well. The first is a Matthew Williamson retrospective, and the second was an exhibiton on Rene Gruau/ Dior.
To begin with, I love Somerset House it is a beautiful and historic building. I love that in london all of the buildings are different. New business blocks nestle comfortably next to elegant old town houses. Somerset House does not disappoint, it is as beautiful inside as it is outside. With the decor very true to the time it was built. Having said that the exhibition rooms are very modern, and as you may or may not it is the new home of London Fashion Week (please someone give me an invite).
Entering the house, I had to bypass the ice rink which made me feel or Christmassy and nostalgic. Next time I am there I shall take a slide, just hopefully not on my bum. Anyway I digress. The Matthew Williamson retrospective was free to get into, and was a series of photographs taken from the beginning of his career right through to now. What I loved about the exhibition and I guess his clothing ranges is that they are so bright and colourful; full of life. There were also illustrations and extracts from his sketch books. I felt so inspired by the photographs showing Kate Moss, Helen Christensen, Jade Jagger and Naomi Campbell and this was just his Graduate Collection. I really which they had these photographs as prints as they will definitely brighten up my boring room and more than this I wishI had some money top buy a dress from his usually India inspired collections.
Moving along to the Rene Gruau exhibiton, which is £5 for students and £6.50 for the rest. I didn't really know much about Gruau before this exhibitions however I did have a calendar with his illustrations on it in previous years. The collection was based on Rene's work with Dior, he was a chief illustator for Dior cosmetics from the 60s through to the early 90s. He was influenced by popular culture and also referenced flowers lot. What I loved about the images was the hand painted quality, and the simplicity of the illustrations, the bold use of the colours was almost expressionist; I love the combination of the primary colours... my favourite image was a girl wrapped up in a bouquet of flowers. Simple yet effective!!!
For a day out Somerset House is exquisite and well worth a visit.
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