The Finishing Touch, Women’s accessories 1830-1940.

Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, Liverpool.

27 May to 11 December 2011

The Lady Lever Art Gallery was built in 1922 by the philanthropist and factory owner William Hesketh Lever, set in a purpose built model village Port Sunlight for all his factory workers, he believed that ‘art can be to everyone an inspiration.’ It was built in dedication to his wife and the gallery contains all his own personal collection of art work, so makes for an authentic, intimate experience to a fore gone decadent lifestyle which the exhibition also aims to display.

            The Finishing Touch exhibition contains over sixty accessories from the National Museums Liverpool’s collection where some have never been on display before, set in three side rooms which lead off from one another in chronological date order. They are all brightly lit by overhead lights and individual spot lights inside the glass containers, illuminating the accessories as pieces of work of art to be adored and looked upon.

            Each room has fashion illustrations drawn upon the boards on the walls of ladies wearing the fashion of the time, this visual approach leads to visitors being able to appreciate the accessories in the context of which they would have been worn and helps to visualise a background to the accessories. It also educates the visitor of fashion of the time without being seen as forced, as you progress through the three rooms you can see a visual representative of how the fashion has changed.

            Each room has a bench to allow the visitor to relax and fully consider each accessory, which ties in with the rest of the gallery space atmosphere of being welcoming. A guide booklet is also available in each room, which gives examples of the fashion from the time period in which each room sits. It contains comical imagery from ‘Punch’ magazine which makes fun out of changes in fashion of the time, examples of fashion plates, illustrations from la mode illustrée and Vogue. The booklet contains no text so allows the viewer to form their own judgements and make back stories to the accessories, thus enabling a creative free flowing atmosphere. I think it is a way to successfully educate the visitor without giving numerous text examples which can seem overwhelming and not a leisurely enjoyment in which a gallery should aim to be.

            The signage by the glass cabinets containing the accessories is minimal, it is on a white board and contains the key facts that are needed to know such as, what it is, materials used, date produced and who owned the item. The signage is clear and concise and is easily recognisable at a glance so doesn’t take the attention away from each individual item. 

            Some of my favourite items from the exhibition include an 1859 ‘Pork Pie’ hat which has a round, brown base, large brown feather from the side and elastic straps to keep it in position. It was considered to be shocking and only worn by ‘fast young ladies’ at the time.

There was a beautiful dark brown beaver fur bag with matching muff from 1880-90, which evoked a feeling of unadulterated glamour and excess which I could visualise on a lady travelling on a night train with an explicated lover.

It wasn’t until the mid nineteenth century that shoes were shaped for left and right feet until then women wore shoes that were seen to give them small, delicate features. My favourite pair of shoes from the exhibition is a pair of Russell and Bromley wedged suede shows from 1939, they are brightly coloured with royal blue and emerald green. Radiating wealth, glamour and the excess of the 1930’s upper class lifestyle. They are exciting to look at and at the time would have been quite a daring shoe, which I feel is still wearable and desired today.

In the early nineteenth century to 1940 fans were the fashionable accessory for stylish, decadent women and are suitably conveyed in the third exhibition room.  They were seen as dualistic, as can be an extravagant extension of a dress but also used as an emotive device used for flirting by a means of communication.

In the final room of the exhibition it takes on a more interactive element with hats supplied by ‘Barstons Village hat hire’ available to try on from the time period of 1830 to 1940. This discredits the usual space of an exhibition of being one to look but not touch, it becomes more personal and the atmosphere is informal with people chatting about the hats and trying them on. A comments box was positioned by the exit of the exhibition as visitors were invited to give their own critique and leave messages about what they enjoyed, this enables the curator to become more personal with the public and dispel the notion of the hierarchy prevalent in gallery spaces.

The exhibition was extremely specialised in that it only showed the accessories of high class ladies and none of the working class or men between the periods of 1830 to 1940. It did however show the accessories in the best light and enabled the visitor to pursue them at their will and make their own judgments on them. I particularly enjoyed the exhibition as when I was progressing through each room I could see a clear transgression between time periods and was able to appreciate the glamour and excess that the ladies who wore the accessories would have enjoyed.

Dare to Wear : Glass Dresses by Diana Dias-Leảo

Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. Until September 2011.

Diana Dias-Leảo delicately constructed but tough modernistic designs come to life in the ‘Craft and Design Gallery, how things are styled, made and used,’ in the Walker Art Gallery.

The exhibition is in fitting with its surroundings and is set in-between a labyrinth style direction showing a continuous evolution of mans usage of craft designed objects. It has a comical approach which is juxtaposed with the austere, grand building as in-between the pottery and art deco plates is a mobile phone which makes light of what is constituted as art. As when the objects displayed were originally produced they were not seen as art or worthy to be studied, only in retrospect objects become idealised, the mobile phone connotes the futures over analysis of common objects.

Positioned in the middle of the labyrinth are two glass boxes containing Diana Dias-Leảo designs, the way they are exhibited is too show off their beauty and not in an hyperbolic manner to be studied and their significance be over analysed. This is represented by the lack of signage, with only one white label at the base of each glass container stating the number of each garment, name and year they were created. This allows the spectator to not be influenced in their views and be able to form their own judgement on the designs. This is in-fitting with the rest of the exhibition space of being a place of contemplation of the meaning of objects and not an instruction based dialogue between the spectator and the objects explained meaning.

There is an audio-visual accompaniment to the exhibition in which the designer gives an interview about her thought process behind the garments and her aims of the exhibition. It feels personal and in correlation with the structure and layout of the garments, it allows the spectator to consider their attitude towards the designs to their original aim. There is no misjudged representation of another external influence, it allows for a direct communication between the original thought process and the spectators, which makes for an honest consideration of the exhibition.

The corsets made out of broken glass fragments and barbed wire hang from steel chains on white padded coat hangers, which gives a daunting and spooky feel it is as their owners have long been gone and only the hard shell of their garments remains. They represents the theme of isolation as the garments seem lonely and isolated by not being with a mannequin, this is further emphasised by the use of broken glass fragments, as glass as a material is difficult to mould to desired shapes and when broken is hard to repair to its once perfect position so each fragment becomes isolated and frayed.

Diana Dias-Leảo contemplates the notion of the male gaze on the garments as they are made to look sexy by all the dresses being backless, which is a sign of vulnerability of the wearer and by the corsets having the traditional plastic fasteners, which connotes sexiness and is typically to be found as the destination for the male gaze. The connoted sexiness is at first appealing but on closer inspection the garments have a sharp, dangerous twist of being unable to touch and therefore controlled by the male gaze by the materials used. It gives the power and control back to the wearer as they can be seen as desired and sexy but be incomplete control and thus reverses the notion of the male gaze.

The garments also approach the theme of body image and represent a visual form of self harm by the use of barbed wire as the main body structure. The garments act as an extended metaphor of the wearers agonised feelings which normally are concealed, they represent an honest visual approach to many women’s fear surrounding body image in a juxtaposed beautiful fashion.

The cobweb dress is positioned on a white, headless mannequin with a round base, the dress twists and manipulates the fabric to come to a tight peak around the base of the mannequin. This connotes the feel of restrictiveness and self control which is further emphasised in the bodice of the dress, as the fabric does not flow and instead is collected in different size webs around the bodice.  This imagery of restrictiveness plays on the sex appeal of the garment and relates a negative correlation between the desire for one to be seen as sexy and the imposed restrictiveness this causes on the wearer, due to the male gaze.

The long dresses are beautifully designed to look ethereal and have fairytale connotations as they are long, glistening with muted non-offensive colouring such as subtle pink, blue and green. The use of glass fragments in this case reflect the light and look as if the dress is shining from within to reflect the beauty of the wearer. As Diana Dias-Leảo said, ‘even though the image is glittering it is the person inside who is priceless.’

The exhibition is a beautifully well constructed collection of Diana Dias-Leảo continuous development of work using glass from 2005 to 2010, it highlights many issues surrounding women and their feelings towards body image which is subtly connoted in the use of materials and the way they are designed. The exhibition is small but perfectly balanced with the rest of the Walker Art Gallery, this is further metamorphosed in the gift shop where there is no replica imagery to be bought about the exhibition, such as post cards.  It remains loyal to its original aim of letting the garments speak for themselves and not being commercialised by an exterior force, by allowing the spectator to be that and appreciate the beauty of the designs and not be directed to a pre-deceived thought and imagery path.