Postcards from Europe: France

Bonjour! Here is the second installment of my Postcards from Europe series (read here for info about the project). The second European state I decided to tackle was France. I love France, I've visited twice; once to Paris and once to the south. I want to go back a thousand more times. The glorious food is enough on it's own but coupled with the weather, beautiful fauna and copious amounts of delicious (and cheap) wine it really has taken my heart in a big way. I'm hoping to take another trip there next summer, my boyfriend is currently learning to drive so the hope is us and a few friends will trek over there.

Of course another of my major interests in France is it's fascinating textile history; from silks to linens to printed cottons, it has a long and tangled history. I constantly find prints that I love and find that they originally hail from the French, for instance the fabric of this dress.* I knew it was French in style (it reminded me so much of Provencal lavender bags). However, it turns out it definitely is French and is a fabric designed by Charles Demery who designed for the French house Souleiado (read this article for more info on him). They sold (and sell) their fabrics wholesale so it seems very likely that Susan Small used their fabrics. In recent years Cath Kidston has ripped them off in a major way, I hadn't really realised (doh) until today how similar her prints are to Southern French cottons. 

*As you might of guessed this dress is the counterpart to the other Susan Small dress. 

I took inspiration from a couple of images but mainly the below, I loved the black scarf against the Fleur print dress and the yellow flowers (I used St John's Wort because they are my birthday flower and are currently out in abundance):

Source: 1

Behind me you can glimpse a tiny bit of our newly mosaiced cob oven (thanks ma!)

I've also begun a mural in the garden, so I'll put together a little post on it all soon.

My mum has also been working hard on her 14 countries, a few of you asked me to share hers too so here they are:

Romania (Penny MacBeth, 2016)

Spain (Penny MacBeth, 2016)

I'll be back very soon with another postcard from Europe, until then Au Revoir! 

Outfit Details

Provencal 1970s Susan Small dress - Ebay

Printed cotton shirt - Celia Birtwell for Uniqlo

Black shawl - Zara 

Straw hat - Topshop

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Eden Project

Hello! Summer has finally hit here in Cornwall, you'd be right to think these pictures look a little too tropical though... I spent yesterday wandering around The Eden Project. I'm sure most of you here in England have heard of it but for those who haven't (and those further afield) it's a botanical tropical and mediterranean series of gardens set in two huge biomes. I spent a lot of time there as a teen but until yesterday hadn't visited in about 6/7 years. Those years have definitely done it a favour, it was so much more luscious, the palms are now towering and the fauna was off the scale great. I think we hit it at the best possible season, everything is just still in flower and it's yet heaving with visitors.

The biomes are temperature controlled, so they are heated according to the area they are exemplifying. The tropical biome is my favourite (and always has been) it's incredibly humid and steamy, so it's very easy to feel you've been transported halfway across the globe. At first it feels a little overwhelming but you soon acclimatise and it always feels a bit sad to come back to the normal temperature of Cornwall!

Of course for the day I had to wear an outfit that did the beautiful backdrop justice, I opted for this glorious kaftan that I picked up in a charity shop just before I went to France. It was perfect as it allowed me to stay cool in the humidity (I totally pitied all the jeans wearers - if you are visiting definitely dress lightly, especially in Summer as it gets hotter due to the sun shining on the biomes). The headwrap is actually a scarf from Lush, usually used to wrap up their lovely smellies it makes the perfect wrap for bad (and good) hair days. I've worn it so much since I received it for my birthday.  

I was going for a sort of Matisse meets Gauguin look; lots of pattern, lots of colour and a tassels for good measure.

Madras Rouge, Matisse, 1907 (source: 1)

Nave, Nave Moe, Gauguin, 1894 (source: 2)

There is also the Mediterranean biome, this was so much better than I remembered. It's much cooler in temperature and they now have a pizza restaurant in the biome so you can eat amongst the magical plants (we were so sad when we realised as we had just eaten lunch outside!) They have an amazing array of cacti, grape vines and, my favourite, a vegetable patch of tomatoes, aubergines and other med delights!

I'll be back very soon with more of Postcards from Europe series. Hope you're all well!

Outfit Details

Cotton kaftan - charity shop

Lovebird headscarf - Lush

Raffia earrings - Mango 

Beaded necklace - car boot sale

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The Good Ladies of Galway

I've mentioned a few times that I  was born and spent my early formative years in Ireland. When we lived in Galway my mum started an all girl early music group with 3 friends (Maura Walsh, Anne Smith and Kate Mac Maghnuis)- The Good Ladies of Galway. They played a mixture of medieval instruments including gemshorns, recorders, fiddles... In 1996, the year before we departed for England, they founded The Early Music Festival. After we left Galway the festival continued but The Good Ladies disbanded.

This year is an extra special year; the 21st anniversary of the festival. This year's festival celebrates women (hurrah!!) and to mark this special year The Good Ladies are reforming for one night only. If you are a Galway dweller check out the programme of events here and book tickets to see The Good Ladies here.

As well as playing with The Good Ladies my mum and Maura Walsh have always made the costumes for The Good Ladies. They have always been pretty fabulous, from Hennin to Surcoat, they have made a multitude of costumes over the years. Here are two of my favourite pictures from their archive:

For their latest incarnation my mum has made 4 glorious green frocks and jewellery to accompany. I in fine tradition donned one of them and tried to perfect my medieval stare whilst wielding a handful of beautiful fake blooms. 

I say in fine tradition because the various offspring of The Good Ladies have always been roped into wearing medieval costumes for parades, performances and publicity. I'm sure it's had some bearing on my love of dressing up now, and I'm sure in no small part influenced my decision to become a fashion historian. Here I am in a miniature jesters costume standing by a slightly terrifying mannequin dressed in a galloping horse costume that my mum made my brother.

And here I am with my brother, George, on the far right, and the daughter and niece of another member of The Good Ladies. The sweetest picture, I'm really not sure what we were up to. It looks as if we have been instructed to wait patiently (and George is having difficulty doing so!)

 I sadly won't be able to catch The Good Ladies this time but I have heard a sneaky rumour that it                                  might be recorded in which case I'll be sure to share it with you all!

   In the meantime you can check out their Facebook page which is home to a wonderful array of                                                                  photographs from across the years.

Outfit Details

Everything made by Penny MacBeth

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Liberty in Fashion

I hardly ever write reviews of exhibitions on here which is strange as I visit a lot of exhibitions. I always have done. I really enjoy nothing more than an hour spent meandering around a quiet (or loud in the case of David Bowie at the V&A) space ogling carefully selected objects.  However, until the last few years it was tricky to find good fashion exhibitions. The displays were tired and the analysis was dowdy and old-fashioned. So many interesting opportunities for commentary were missed and more often than not I left them feeling frustrated. Thanks to the advent of the blockbuster exhibition and number of smaller more intriguing spaces have been set up in opposition. 

The Fashion and Textile Museum is one of them. Although it was founded in 2003 it's not until the last few years that they've really found their stride. I visited their most recent exhibition Liberty in Fashion last Sunday with a friend and I was blown away by both the display and exceptional curation. Liberty holds a special place in my heart; as a child we had a Collier Campbell for Liberty Bauhaus print tablecloth and a Cote d'Azure print bag, and now I always leap at Liberty prints in the chazzas. Having visited the Liberty archive during my BA and subsequently worked with the Liberty archivist, I can safely say this exhibition definitely does the history of Liberty justice.

Nearly all the garments are open display. It's so great when museums are brave enough to do this, it makes such a difference to viewing the objects: being able to see how they catch the light, what the stitching is like and probably most importantly both the front and back! It works particularly well with the Liberty garments as they are so reliant on print and embroidery, having them behind glass would really obscure the intricacies of each piece. Each display cluster also benefitted from having a wallpaper in a famous Liberty print hung behind. From Ianthe to Hera they all helped the clothes to sing. Liberty is known for it's opulent, pleasant grandeur it would have seemed such a waste to plonk the mannequins in a white cube! I love that the FTM always try to create a visually sensory space using every possible surface to tell the story of the exhibition, it really allows the visitor to completely immerse them self in the subject.

The exhibition starts at the very beginning of Liberty and goes right through to the 1970s. It was fascinating to see the ways in which the garments the prints were applied to changed and morphed to suit changing styles, and also how the prints were adapted and modernised.

I SO SO wanted to nab this Collier Campbell for Liberty skirt in the Bauhaus print but I restrained myself and just snapped a hundred pictures (by the way if anyone ever comes across this- or any other Collier Campbell print- please let me know I'm a nut for it!). My mum did come across a pair of Collier Campbell curtains at a boot sale a few months ago which now hang in her library.

 The same curtains were hung in the exhibition!

Having wandered around the exhibition I was truly delighted to find there was also a small display in the FTM's conference room put together by Sarah Campbell on her and her sister, Susan Collier's designs for Collier Campbell. I've been completely obsessed by their work for a long long time so it was a real treat to see it in the flesh. The displays were gorgeous wall mounted collages of their preparatory drawings and paintings, magazine clippings, textiles and garments. It was a true feast for any textile nerd (which I definitely count myself as) and I came away feeling inspired in a way that hasn't hit me for some time! 

Of course to view the exhibition I wore a Liberty print dress; a Tana Lawn 1970s frock in their Ianthe print. I sadly didn't manage to get a snap of myself in the dress whilst at the exhibition but here I am at home wearing the same ensemble (these were actually taken quite some time ago now and my hair is even longer!).

If you'd like to visit Liberty in Fashion at The Fashion and Textile Museum. It's open 11-6 Tuesday- Saturday, 11-8 Thursday and 11-5 Sunday. The exhibition is on until 28th February 2016 and costs £9 for adults, £7 for concessions and £6 for students. There are also a number of great talks taking part during the course of the exhibition so keep an eye on their events calendar for details. 

I'll be visiting again over the coming weeks as I won tickets through the FTM twitter!

Outfit Details

1970s Liberty print dress in Ianthe Tana Lawn made by Origin via Oxfam

1970s blue and green cotton cravat from a car boot sale

Brown suede shoes from Etsy

1909 silver bracelet made by Smith & Pepper Ltd, originally my Grandma's

Tights from Primarni

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