Enchanted Palace/Kensington Palace (Jan.16)

This was the last of the personal activities I planned, and the last of the fashion-oriented exhibitions. The skies were grey, which resulted in the Kensington Gardens looking very sad and unfriendly (the sun doesn't seem to be a fan of London). I'm sure the palace would have looked very charming against the greenery of the park, but scaffolding obscured nearly half of the building. Despite the construction, the Enchanted Palace exhibition was open. History and the biographies of the seven princesses featured were interwoven with the dress displays: Dame Vivienne Westwood's 'A Dress for Flying into the Arms of Love and Death' looked like a confection of pink shimmery fabric, and the scene in which it was set up was very dramatic. The dress was for the room dedicated to Princess Charlotte, who had a happy romance with Prince Leopold, but died shortly after childbirth. Instead of a mannequin, a wire frame of a torso supported the dress. Since it lacked a head and limbs, it looked like a ghost was wearing that beautiful gown, gliding down the staircase. Boudicca's 'A Dress the Colour of Time' was actually several separate metal skeletal structures of gowns hung from the light fixtures. They rotated slowly above the audience's heads as if they were detached from the all activity in the palace. Wires and long sheets of gold and silver, ruffled and layered, formed the full shapes of skirts and trains; on one gown, the skirt was composed of oval rings that grew in size from the bodice to the hem.
One of Princess Diana's dresses was on display, but only because of the Enchanted Palace exhibition. During other times, all of her dresses would be shown to the public. Princess Diana wore this particular dress while she lived at Buckingham Palace--in its display case the white satin and lace garment was surrounded by swan feathers. The room was mostly deep blue, so the white and blue was a nice touch of solemnity and respect amidst the rest of the exhibition's dramatic colors.
Seeing all these pieces from big-name designers like Westwood, Paul Costelloe, and Zandra Rhodes was very inspiring for my final project of making a dress. My sketchbook has all these weird little doodles of different cuts and styles of sleeves...