Blood Harmonies

Grace Kelly Style Icon at the V&A…

In a nutshell, if you are a big fan of Grace Kelly, and are able to bring an extensive knowledge of her life, both pre and post-Hollywood, then this one’s for you. Sadly however, I was not in this target audience, so ended up feeling somewhat underwhelmed.

In part, this is because I went along for the wrong reasons. I’ve been researching vintage designer clothing for the current novel I’m writing (Blood Harmonies). And after over-indulging in such visual feasts as Dean L. Merceron’s stunning book, Lanvin, and the V&A’s own catalogue from their Golden Age of Couture exhibition (which sadly, I missed when it was on), I suppose I had presumed the bar would have been set a lot higher for this show.

In the interests of fairness, I should say that it was obvious to me that not everyone shared my view. Because the show was so crowded, it was impossible not to overhear the comments other attendees were making. It struck me that the crowd was quite evenly split between those possessed of an encyclopedic knowledge of Grace and her life, and who were continually crying out with glee as they spotted outfits they recognised, and were able to blurt out where/when they had been worn without reading the cards. (In many cases, through unavoidable eavesdropping I gleaned far more interesting information than was provided on the cards.)

The trouble is, from a purely frocks point of view there are only a handful of dresses and suits whose stunning lines, glorious fabrics, stellar tailoring and craftsmanship make you thing, now this is Style. One is the famous chiffon dress from Hitchcock’s Rear Window, (above left) which sends out its visual siren’s song to lure you across the room. Another, also chiffon, is the perfect pale blue dress with exquisite detail and fit that Grace wore to the showing of presents before her wedding. There’s also a fabulously floaty maternity gown, a Dior ensemble, and two stunning days suits by Chanel. However, these are struggling to steal the show from under the weight of outfits which just leave you thinking, Grace Kelly wore that?

Even though in most cases there were supporting photos of her wearing the outfits, and even the most dowdy and ill-fitting of the suits improved immeasurably when on her, it was hard to escape the feeling that for those who have not read somewhat obsessively about the Princess of Monaco’s life, there simply isn’t enough Grace about this exhibition.  (However, one voice overheard, who seemed far more up-to-speed on all things Monaco, suggested one possible explanation for the most ill-fitting of the suits may have been that its lumpy design was intended to respect the hierarchy of euro-royalty, and help Grace Kelly not completely upstage those she’s photographed with.)

This is not to say the exhibition is completely without frisson.  In particular, I found the shoes and bags inexplicably moving. Especially, the noticeably bashed ‘Kelly’ bag (it’s more tan coloured than the one seen here) which spoke both about of luxury and banal normality. It definitely struck me as a much-loved bag which had been around the world and back again. Needless to say, this was not the same immaculate black Kelly bag gracing the princess’s arm in the supporting photo but then, what woman do you know whose favourite bag could reasonably pass muster as a museum piece?

Overall, I don’t regret going. After all, it was a day out at the V&A. But if you are thinking of going, I’m sure you’ll get a lot more out of it if you do your Grace Kelly homework beforehand. Which, strangely enough, although I didn’t know it when I set off for the V&A, is something I will now be doing anyway, as I translate Cyril Dewitt’s novel, seen opposite.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 15th, 2010 at 08:09 and is filed under It's dark o'clock in the morning again. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.