RECENT EXHIBITIONS AND EVENTS - Diaghilev

Diaghilev

Diaghilev's vision was to educate and inspire people with his dreams of Russian ballet performance, he wanted to bring Russian culture to Europe and around the world.Showing a variety of new and exiting works of art all collaborated together, he brought ballet, costume design,music and culture and put it together to create the most amazing,and inspiring pieces of performance.


Diaghilev appears to have more of a modern understanding  for the time he was living in,he seemed to transform the arts world into something very new and different to what people were used to in the 20th century.I cant imagine that it was easy introducing such an 'out there' approach to performance, through the First World War and the Russian Revolutions,however Diaghilev manage to create history by creating this modern approach to performance.
Reading about Diaghilev and what he did you get a sense of how hard it would have been to construct such an amazing theater production group and dance company,he was clearly a very ambitious person, to be in control and organise the performers,composers,choreographers and designers must have been a huge task.


Looking around the exhibition at the v and A  the costume particularly took my eye,Leon Bakst was the costume designer for most of the first performances Diaghilev produced.


Bakst work was said to be very extravagant and exiting. Through his designs you can see elements of art Nouveau,and decorated colours, this would have probably shocked people,Exiting flamboyant costumes contrasting with ballet performances, people were so exited by this new and exiting modern performances.Diaghilev was in demand across Europe.


Below A piece of Leon Bakst work.
Personally Bakst for me stood out he was one of my favorite illustrator,designers and I found him hugely inspiring, I love the flow and exotic nature of his designs.  

Alexandre Benois

Benois was another costume designer that worked with Diaghilev

Natalia Goncharova

 Goncharova was a scenery and costume designer  and created avant-garde Russian art.I really loved seeing all the old illustrations, there is so much character to the designs, it really gives you an idea of how extravagant and lively they would have been.

Diaghelev and his theater company would have probably been hugely influential at that time not only to the people and theater but also to fashion and interior.

I found the exhibition extremely interesting and very educational, I absolutely loved the costume design and was hugely inspired.

Royal Academy

Aware Art, Fashion Identity.

This exhibition was a really interesting one for me, I went around it twice, the first time with little concentration and only some elements of the exhibition stood out for me, however the second time I really enjoyed it and every garment, structure stood out. 


 I like how they were demonstrating how fashion can be more than function and practicality, but how it reflects something behind it like your personality, everyone chooses to buy something because the like it and the way they dress reflects what kind of person they are, for example if you were to dress very floral and colourful you would get a sense of what kind of person they are.


Clothing is a very intimate powerful possession it can determine the way you feel and when you feel good your happier, also it has the power to put you in a very bad mood if ill fitted .

Questions I thought about and asked myself as I went around this exhibition.

• What does the exhibition teach us about peoples motivation for consuming fashion

• Pick one piece and reflect on what it says about the production , consumption or marketing of fashion.

Helen storey

I really liked this idea of combining more of a scientific approach to fashion and that it is a enzyme based bio degradable material, when presented to water it will gradually dissolve, I like it because I  know when I buy particularly a formal dress I probably wear in maximum ten times and than I get a new one,which i think is the same for the general public, this way over time the dress will disappear in a Eco friendly way and its life will have expired and have been fulfilled,where as a non-biodegradable dress will always be there, I do think that  it is a unique idea ,however I  think it wouldn't work because clothes for me personally are an investment and I would want to be able to keep them for a long time and Cherish them, till I stopped wearing them and  pass them on and than they would  go back into the chain of consumption, and then they start to become a recycled and historical possession which has meaning.However I think the idea is genius because at the moment the fashion business is making a huge amount of clothing and it is ending up in landfills there for there is a massive amount of waist, this way it dissolves and there is no waste it is completely Eco- friendly where as a normal product could take thousands of years to start to decompose, I think from a business point of view, it could go down well, because the product is not made to last, the public will have to buy more causing the company to profit.




Susie MacMurray

This dress when you first see it is very eye catching, personally I thought it was very elegant, and feminine, it almost lours you in, however it is very deceiving then you get closer to the dress it constructed out of dress making pins, creating a sort of protection and hostility and anger to the dress.
MacMurry expresses how the pins are associated with female craft,

I really enjoyed this exhibition there were some really exiting pieces .

'Little Rich Girls? by Yinka Shonibare

The Kings Speech I absolutely loved I thought it was brilliant!

I would defiantly recommend this film!

the Tate Britain

This was an exhibition I went to a while ago and thought it was interesting, some of the photography was exceptional, I particularly liked the photos taken of progression and change of movement.

I think this is a really interesting image,I like how its telling you a story and you can see the movement and how the body works. Also its quite a comical piece. 

The Victoria and Albert

The Forbidden city, I absolutely loved this exhibition and strongly recommend it, it was fascinating learning about the different characters and colours, the robes are defiantly pieces of art work.

Empress's Festival dress-

Usually there would have been more colours and patterns available for female members of the imperial family.They could choose from butterflies,dragons, phoenixes and more, these were known as "double happiness character".

Children

Royal children were dressed like little adults. Normally there clothes would have clouds or dragons and gold.(representing long life) tigers were also found on there clothes which would be there to frighten away evil.

Empress's regular dress

she would were this daily but it was not seen as a casual piece as she was always performing a duty,it would have also have a horse hoof shape cut to the sleeve of the dress.

Bright yellow colour was reserved for the empress's and emperor's dowager,

the colour below was for the imperial concubines which is more of a golden yellow. 

Imperial concubine's festive robe
1736-1795 ,Qianlong period

 Empress'

 court boots

I really like these boots,they caught my eye as soon as i saw them. they are very unique and interesting. the pattern and structure is very strong,the shape especially intrigues me.  

Woman's shoes

Manchu woman did not bind there feet, so there foot wear is very distinct from the tiny shoes worn by the Chinese woman.

shoe types:

 Phoenix head shoe- the head of the Phoenix is rendered in 3 dimensions as if the bird is perching on the tip of the shoe.

Ingot shoes- the platform resembles a silver ingot.                           

Flower pot shoe which is my favorite, it was a very impractical shoe because it was so high.

  

Emperor's winter court robe
1662-1722, Kangxi period

Empress' festive headdress, pheonix design (dianzi)
1875-1908,Guangxu period

The Dianzi was often worn with the festival dress although it was not mentioned in qing regulations.

Fabrics and western fashion influences 

Fabrics from Europe were seen as a novelty the Lady's in the forbidden city were becoming more aware of European influences.

Influences of western fashion was seen in some garments, for example the standing up collar.

As a whole the exhibition was extremely interesting and was an amazing chance to see such an incredible collection.



Barbican

Future Beauty 30 Years of Japanese Fashion Yotiji Yamamoto: Yamamoto is said to be one of the most poetic fashion designers. He plays of highly androgynous forms against intensely romantic and discreetly erotic designs.Yamamoto uses a dark pallet so that the viewer does not not loose focus away from the cut of his garments.