Having a ball with haute couture

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Sue Ward reports on ‘Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950’ at London’s V&A

As every woman knows, you can never judge the dress when it is hanging on the hanger or on a mannequin, you have to try it on. Unfortunately you cannot do this at the V&A exhibition of ballgowns, but many of the exquisite creations have photographs of royals and celebrities wearing them, and then you can really appreciate their full elegance. Such creations area Norman Hartnell gown designed for Elizabeth the Queen Mother and Princess Diana’s well-known ‘Elvis Dress’ designed by Catherine Walker. Dresses worn by actresses and celebrities, including Sandra Bullock, Daphne Guinness, Elizabeth Hurley and Dame Helen Mirren, are also on show with accompanying photographs.

This is the first exhibition in the newly renovated V&A fashion gallery and it is on two floors. The ground floor features over 30 ballgowns from the museum’s permanent collection. Designs from the 1950s to the early noughties are on display, and this was my favourite part of the exhibition. You can also see newsreels of some early fashion shows featuring Norman Hartnell and others, and glimpse a bygone age. Yes, the models appear larger than those on the catwalk today and definitely moved in a different way as well. This is a puzzle. Today when the average woman is getting larger and the nation faces an obesity epidemic, catwalk models are really very thin, but in the 1950s and 1060s when as a nation we were thinner, our catwalk models appear to have been slim, but certainly not as thin we see today!

The story of the ballgown reflects social change. In the 1950s the ordinary woman could not aspire to the beautiful creations featured on the newsreels and ‘posh’ magazines of the day. The High Street had not evolved with the availability it has today. Instead the ordinary woman and her partner gazed at and felt the reflected glamour; Britain was on the up, in spite of post-war austerity.

For the upper classes, ballgowns were also part of the young debutante’s coming out. The season called for many dresses, and often it was a young girl’s first chance to wear a beautiful gown. The lower part of this exhibition is supposed to tell the story of preparing for a ball in a country house. This theme was unfortunately the least convincing part of the show.

In the 1980s it was the turn of charity balls, and celebrities were seen wearing glamorous gowns for good causes. Today, celebrities wear them to film premiers and award ceremonies, and often what the stars were wearing on the red carpet merits more column inches than the reason for the actual occasion itself.  The celebrity magazines of today tell the stories around such appearances and show many pictures of the fabulous gowns. The High Street copyists then get to work and, a few weeks later, the celebrity influence and choices can be seen in dresses to purchase for your prom outfit or your local ball.

One criticism I had of some of the cased displays is that if a dress was presented showing the beautifully designed back, one really could not see the front. One such dress was a black creation with a large striped red and black bow detail to the back, worn by Anne Heseltine. A mirror should have been installed to show the black and red striped bodice as well. I think I only saw one mirror used to such effect.

The mezzanine level and the newly restored Octagon Court featured a ballroom space with 30 evening gowns designed by contemporary UK makers on open display. Here you could walk around them, the large ‘pearls’ grouped at the bottom of some of the displays and the chandeliers adding to the glamorous effect. One of my personal favourites was a beautiful latex gown by Atsuko Kudo, the latex train was quite stunning, but not the dress for everyone.

I also spent time and particularly enjoyed seeing in the completely re-designed fashion gallery with the newly curated fashion displays by the V&A team, led by Claire Wilcox. Here over 100 outfits are arranged chronologically and reflect the breadth of the V&A’s collection.  This and the Ballgowns Exhibition is a must for fashion students and women who simply love clothes – so many dress designers in one place. Making my way out of the V&A to the Exhibition Road entrance I was able to have another look into the small room showing the silk of the golden spiders of Madagascar which was reviewed in Cassone and is still current.