I went to see ‘Grace Kelly: Style Icon’ at the V&A yesterday. I love Grace Kelly and am a huge fan of her films. I think my two favourites are ‘High Society’ and Hitchcock’s ‘To Catch a Thief’, although a couple of years ago I saw ‘Rear Window’ at the outdoor cinema event Somerset House puts on in the summer, which was a pretty amazing experience. The building was beautifully lit and seagulls were wheeling in and out through the beams of light…very atmospheric. The V&A has staged this exhibition in a part of its permanent fashion hall and I have to say it was a tad confusing trying to follow the clothes chronologically around the showcases. There are items on show from her early film career through the time when two different studios were competing to design for her and into her marriage to Prince Albert of Monaco and her life thereafter as a princess. Her wedding dress itself is too fragile to travel and remains in a museum in Philadelphia but there is a film reel of the wedding and other archive footage of her onscreen and offscreen fashion moments. It is very interesting to see up close the dress she wore, for example, in the pool scene in ‘High Society’ or the suit she wore when they embarked for their honeymoon cruise. Overall I found the clothes are a little less magical, a little cruder in terms of cut and finish than I had expected them to be and I think this made you aware that it was Grace Kelly’s amazing presence itself that really transformed her into a style icon rather than the wardrobe itself.
On a different note, as you leave there is a single Alexander McQueen dress from the Plato’s Atlantis collection, displayed on its own in a circular glass pillar like a monument and it is a poignant reminder that his tragic death has deprived fashion of an incredible talent.
Source: V&A
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