I’ve never been one to contemplate getting beach body ready, however, June’s Museum Dump is all about body shape. This Summer you are bound to find your body shape in these two London exhibitions but whether you want to brave a bikini is entirely up to you…
The Biba Story, 1964-1975, Fashion and Textile Museum, until 8 September 2024.
I vaguely remember visiting, and thoroughly enjoying, the Biba exhibition at Brighton Museum which ran from 2012 to 2013 when I had just started this blog, and it is Martin Pel, Brighton curator of fashion and textiles, who has curated this new exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey.
The exhibition traces the story of Barbara Hulanicki, the fashion illustrator, who went from establishing a mail order company selling affordable clothing for image conscious young women, to a fashion empire with lifestyle shops selling everything from furniture to lobster soup!
You get a real sense of what an entrepreneur Hulanicki was by looking at the bottle-green dress from 1970 which was sold as a dressing gown as it was subject to lower tax rates than evening wear. One of my favourites was a black and white suit, I could definitely see myself wearing it to my next press view. I also loved the Hulanicki illustrations in a side room, they were so beautiful and really captured that 60s chic.
Whilst I enjoyed the exhibition I couldn’t help feeling it was a little flat, ultimately missing a bit of that boutique vibe that I have no doubt would have been part of the allure of buying a Biba outfit.
Don’t miss – The gorgeous leopard print jacket and trouser suit owned by Hulanicki, the only Biba outfit she now owns as she discarded almost all of her clothing after the company closed in 1975.
What really caught my eye was how tiny and petite many of the outfits were. The ‘Biba look’ was long thin arms, flat chest, low waist and straight hips, a silhouette that was in complete contrast to the next exhibition I visited…
Beryl Cook / Tom of Finland, Studio Voltaire, until 25 August 2024
Over in Clapham, South London, Studio Voltaire has put on a fantastic Beryl Cook and Tom of Finland exhibition. Whilst Biba was all about small boobs and tiny waists, Beryl Cook captured larger than life ladies living life to the full.
You used to see her work around a lot in the 80s, she was very popular, she was really appreciated artistically and it is the first time I have seen her work in a gallery context. It is a real treat to see her sketches and photographs which are very reminiscent of my family parties when, as a child, I weaved in and out of the skirts of my fragrant aunties in their tight curly perms.
Her work is set to compliment and contrast with Tom of Finland, the Finnish artist who died in 1991. His overtly sexual ‘dirty drawings’ portray masculinity and homosexuality in joyful ‘tongue-in-cheek’ (literally) depictions of muscle-bound men.
Certainly there is an abundance of flesh on display, but it is Beryl Cook I keep returning to. There is such joy in her work, through the lens of time these women no longer feel like the butt of the joke but give me a sense of proud recognition of those mothers, aunties and sisters of a different generation. It reminds me so much of my aunt with her platinum-blonde curls and pink lipstick, she was always decked out head to toe in leopard print, larger than life, a force to be reckoned with. It is a kind of woman that leaves a large hole with her absence. For a few precious moments in the gallery I can imagine her here with us again.
Don’t miss – The wonderful letter from the Devon County Ladies Bowling Association complaining about her ‘most offensive’ cartoon. I can still feel the indignation 45 years later.
I highly recommend a visit to this free exhibition, it may be small but it is definitely beautifully formed.
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Want a more in depth review? Take a look at my blog on the new ‘Six Lives’ exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery which centres the six Queen’s of Henry VIII. https://tinctureofmuseum.wordpress.com/2024/06/20/6-from-six-six-lives-the-stories-of-henry-viiis-queens-national-portrait-gallery-june-2024/
Tincture of Museum 