Art Monitor: Little Black Dress at the Fashion & Textile Museum

Art Monitor: Little Black Dress at the Fashion & Textile Museum

21 July, 2008
by: Tom Jeffreys

Good old Bermondsey, with its nice gastro pubs and those odd little shops run by the kooky wives of merchant bankers. And, of course, Zandra Rhodes' recently re-opened Fashion and Textile Museum: I mean, who could be kookier than the pink-haired fashion-aunt?

I still feel that the inaugural exhibition here was a little underwhelming. It basically consisted of lots of famous photos of well-dressed men. Trouble is we've all seen that one of Roger Moore smoking a million times, or David Niven with the jumper round his neck. The whole exhibition felt like a bit of a missed opportunity.

So it was with a little trepidation that I attended the opening of the new exhibition, Little Black Dress. I so want to like this place that all they need to do is put on something half-decent and I'll be in raptures. This evening did not disappoint.

Zandra herself kicked off proceedings with a slightly stilted speech about the ubiquity of the LBD before handing over to willowy super-model Erin O'Connor. O'Connor – as throughout her career – managed to be both super-glam fashionista woman and slightly nervy girl doing a declamation in front of the whole school. A little bit of incompetence, it seems, is a crucial component of charm.

Then the two ladies turned to Richard O'Brian – yes, he of Rocky Horror and Crystal Maze fame – who banged out a little number entitled, appropriately, 'Little Black Dress'. The bald harmonica-playing one sported a very little LBD of his own. 'If I'd known there was going to be a theme, I would have made an effort,' he quipped. Oh, the wit.

And so to the exhibition: lots of black dresses, basically. There's a bit of explanatory spiel about the invention of the dress by Coco Chanel in the mid 1920s and lots of quotations by famous fashion folk about how 'I just couldn't live without my LBD, darling' or 'It's just so darned comfortable' – what, the one made of PVC and safety-pins, love?

But there's some really beautiful pieces here alongside some really wacky ones. There's a latex tea-dress designed for Grayson Perry and some weird Gareth Pugh cyber-armour but also elegant dresses from the '20s and '30s, stunning Oscar gowns by Julien McDonald, Galliano and Alexander McQueen, three dresses from Erin's personal wardrobe, and quite a high number of Zandra's designs on display: but then it is her museum after all.

This is a fun and evocative exhibition that doesn't seek to overload you: if anything though, a bit more info and more clearly arranged signage might have been nice, but hey ho. As we left, Zandra had taken her shoes off and was sitting on the desk swinging her legs happily to-and-fro whilst black-clad minions distributed goody bags. This place seems like home for her: fun and cool but not too glossy or 'finished'. And now, at the second attempt, here's an exhibition that fits perfectly. I'm sold.

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Tom Jeffreys