Lifework: Norman Parkinson’s Century of Style at the National Theatre

 Barbara Mullen shot in India by Norman Parkinson for Vogue, 1956

The National Theatre is marking the centenary of fashion photographer Norman Parkinson’s birth with a small but well formed exhibition, exploring all aspects of a diverse career that spanned seven decades. Parkinson is regarded as one of the greatest photographers of the 20th century, remembered for taking fashion photography out of the confines of the studio and placing it on a far wider stage – the rest of the world. As Jerry Hall recounted to Nicola Roberts (director of BBC Four programme about the photographer’s life), “he had a sense of “big” – you know, big spaces – he would choose panoramic views and had a great sense of movement across the page…”

Parkinson favoured glamour almost as much as exoticism and was responsible for many iconic Vogue covers. However, the exhibition avoids an over-reliance on these, instead focusing on the photographer’s portraits (subjects varied from Dame Barbara Cartland to David Bowie, Princess Anne, Mick Jagger and Ava Gardener) and his less-familiar editorial efforts. These make up some of the strongest images – The Young Look in the Theatre, shot for Vogue in 1953, includes a collection of emerging actresses – including Natalie Wood set against the geometric confines of a gymnasium’s apparatus.

Wenda Parkinson by Norman Parkinson for Vogue, 1951

 The Young Look  in the Theatre by Norman Parkinson, 1953

 Pamela Minchin by Norman Parkinson, 1939

Audrey Hepburn by Norman Parkinson, 1955

 Adele Collins by Norman Parkinson, 1959 

The African Queen: Katharine Hepburn as Rose Sayer

In (admittedly belated) celebration of Katharine Hepburn’s birthday (May 12, 1907), and following on from the analysis of The Philadelphia Story, it seemed pertinent to take a closer a look at one of the actresses’ greatest: The African Queen. Hepburn (as the strait-laced Rose Sayer) starred alongside the inimitable Bogart, and director John Huston took the duo (along with Bacall’s girlfriend Lauren Bacall) to the Belgian Congo, Africa to film on location – an almost unheard of practice in the early 1950′s.

Much has been written about the story behind The African Queen, indeed what went on behind the scenes was almost as interesting as what played out in them. Later in her life, Hepburn wrote a book about her experiences (The making of the African Queen, or how I went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall and Huston and almost lost my mind, published in 1987). Hepburn’s account, in particular, offers some fascinating (if somewhat convoluted) insights into life on set, detailing – in the actresses’ characteristic, matter-of-fact style – lavatory arrangements, crew and cast ailments and Bogart’s preference for an alcoholic beverage.

Hepburn’s costumes were designed by Doris Langley Moore. The designer was, unsurprisingly, Hepburn’s first and only choice, as she recounted:

On costumes we’d [Hepburn and Huston] had one talk. I told him that I didn’t want his woman; I wanted Langley Moore and I would go to see what she had in the museum. Also, she’d been born in Africa and knew of missionaries from a grandparent who was one. He said fine. He gave up so easily on his choice, I was taken aback. His lady was never mentioned again. 

According to Hepburn, Langley Moore – who would go on to found Bath’s Fashion Museum in 1963 – had a large collection of Victorian attire that she allowed the actress to rummage through. Hepburn, by her own admission, was concerned about her age, wishing to remain appropriately dressed whilst remaining true to character. Accordingly, Rose Sayer wore layered linen suits, comprising of prim dresses and blouses, complete with long sleeves and high necklines, accessorised with Sunday best hats, full skirts and nipped-in waists.

Those full skirts were cumbersome, they dragged in the mud and in the water but Hepburn claimed that they ‘never showed the dirt. You could not tell whether it was wet or dry. Brilliant Doris Langley Moore. A great designer. Just as important – she had common sense’. From Hepburn, praise indeed.

Other problems also plagued the production. There were no real dressing rooms, and Hepburn had to make do with a freestanding mirror that was propped out against the trees and required delicate handling when the crew changed location. In typically stoic fashion, she eschewed make-up, preferring to style her own hair, despite the heat and humidity. The weather also made the brims of hats dip and obscure Hepburn’s face during shots, much to Huston’s annoyance. Wardrobe mistress Vi Muarry had the idea of starching the brims to make them stay; she and Hepburn did it themselves by pressing the water that had been used to boil rice into the hats, which effectively made the brims firmer.

There’s more images over on Pinterest.

Shanghai Express: Marlene Dietrich as Shanghai Lily

“It took more than one man to change my name to Shanghai Lily.”

The name Dietrich conjures an image of mystery, intrigue and allure, wrapped up in a sophisticated layer of seduction and glamour. The Dietrich ‘package’ was cultivated with care by director Josef von Sternberg (who directed Dietrich in seven films) and costume designer Travis Banton; according to gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, ‘before Dietrich met Banton she looked like a hausfrau’. For von Sternberg, the actress represented a blank canvas on which he projected his feminine ideal, careful rendering in shadows and desire transformed the actress from a plump unknown to an enigmatic screen siren.

In the spy thriller Shanghai Express (1932), von Sternberg and Dietrich’s fourth film together, Dietrich played the notorious courtesan Shanghai Lily, cementing her position as the go-to for femme fatales with a penchant for destructive behaviour. Encouraged by von Sternberg, Dietrich had lost a lot of weight since Blue Angel, the director and with cinematographer Lee Garmes, played up to her angular face and strong jaw with dramatic chiaroscuro lighting (the latter winning an Oscar for his efforts in the process). The plot veers towards to the unbelievable, but that’s the point; this is von Sternberg’s world, and he’s created it purely for the audience’s visual and sensual delectation.

Banton was Paramount’s chief costume designer from 1927 to 1938, and was responsible for the costumes in over 100 films – including I’m No Angel and Morocco – during which he moulded popular perception of the so-called Golden Age. As a designer, Banton created an understandable persona for Dietrich that worked on and off stage; his ability to cultivate an image and understand the language of publicity and the creation of an icon were his strongest assets. Stories about Banton’s and Dietrich’s working relationship abound. In Hollywood Costume (Deborah Nadoolman Landis’ excellent catalogue from the V&A exhibition of the same name) Dietrich’s daughter Maria Riva recounts that, ‘Day in and day out, they worked, sometimes for 12-hour stretches. My mother never tired, such normal things as breaking for food, bathroom and rest did not exist while Banton prepared clothes for a film.’ 

Banton looked to contemporary fashion, and then reworked it with character in mind. Alongside von Sternberg’s and Garmes’ lighting, he worked to frame Dietrich’s face with fitted caps made from smoothed-out feathers, half-veils and oversize fur collars (note the emphasis on opulence and luxury, this lily favoured the gild). Full-length dresses were cut on the bias to emphasise Dietrich’s figure, and embellished with yet more feathers, chain-mail effect collars and sleeves, draped crystal beads, kid-leather gloves or decorative buttons – simple outfits elevated from the everyday with made-for-screen details. In keeping with the character of Shanghai Lily, many of the costumes evoked pure theatricality, yet Dietrich wore them with admirable aplomb.

Unlike Adrian, the other costume designer du jour, Banton preferred subtle designs with subtle textural nuances to strong tonal contrasts.  Paramount publicity department made sure Banton was on hand to give fashion advice to the adoring female public, who flocked to the cinema to see his gowns on their favourite stars. Banton died in 1958 at the age of 64, a victim of his own excess, but the gowns (and stars) he created live on in his memory.

More images over on Pinterest.

Incoming: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory costume sketches

Roald Dahl fans don’t have to wait much longer for the latest reworking of the authors beloved childhood tales. Sam Mendes (in a considerable change of direction from 2012’s Skyfall) will premiere his musical version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory  in London’s West End in May 2013. Earlier this week, Vogue exclusively revealed some sketches from set and costume designer Mark Thompson. Early impressions suggest that Thompson has bypassed the onscreen adaptions and gone back to basics, taking his costume cues from Dahl’s original text.

Fans of the book will no doubt remember the author’s detailed character descriptions; Wonka’s attire leaves a lasting impression, from that jauntily placed top hat to his preference for purple apparel. The early sketches reveal little about Mr Wonka, but suggest that Charlie and the Bucket family retain their downtrodden poverty through a faded palette, too-short trousers (Charlie) and well-worn layers. According to Thompson, “it’s like fitting together a jigsaw puzzle.”

Vogue suggests that the costumes took over two months to complete and the sketches suggest the overall production will retain the whimsical nostalgia of the original text, although there’s no overriding impression of decade or time period. Also missing from the sketches are the Oompa Loompas. Details about the final production remain under wraps but the designer revealed, “there is a lot of puppetry involved…it’s all about tricks of the eye.”

Thompson has previously won four Olivier Awards and two Critics Circle Awards. He has previously worked on Mama Mia! and One Man, Two Guvnors.

Man Ray Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery

  Helen Tamiris, 1929

The name Man Ray conjures images of static Rayographs, cameraless photos that hovered between abstract and representation and delighted Dadist poets during the early 1920’s. But there’s a lot more to the artist, as a new-ish exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery reveals. Unsurprisingly, given the gallery host, Man Ray was a talented portrait photographer who, according to Duchamp, “treated the camera as he treated the paintbrush, a mere instrument at the service of his mind.“

 Ava Gardner, 1951

Man Ray spent over half a century taking portraits, and this exhibition charts his travels to Paris, New York and Hollywood, then back to Paris. During those travel he photographed everyone, his portfolio reads like a who’s who of the 20^th century, including Salvador Dali, Pablo Picasso, Nancy Cunard, Ava Gardner, Elsa Schiaparelli Coco Chanel. His work with Lee Miller, a model who became a famous photographer in her own right, is amongst his most well known. Her Grecian beauty was immortalised in a famous profile portrait (shot in 1929) chosen to front the exhibition, and she appears in some of Man Ray’s strongest shots, including ‘Lee Miller’s Legs with Circus Performer’ (1930), a strong composition that fragments and distorts her beauty.

The final room of the exhibition concentrates on ‘Hollywood’,where Man Ray met Juliet Browner, a 28-year-old dancer and model who became the artist’s muse and companion. Although Man Ray became increasingly preoccupied with painting, he continued to take photographic portraits, including Ava Gardner in her role as Pandora in Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, (directed by Albert Lewin, 1951) and Catherine Deneuve in a wonderful image, filled with props and wearing jewellery designed by the artist.

Man Ray Portraits is at the National Portrait Gallery until 27 May 2013.

 Nancy Cunard, 1926

The Philadelphia Story: Katharine Hepburn as Tracy Lord

Although Katharine Hepburn is the most honoured actress in the history of American film (12 Academy Award nominations and four wins for Best Actress) she is more regularly cited for her style credentials. Her ability to wear a pair of trousers, and wear them well, is the stuff of fashion lore, and the actress was recently the subject of a style exhibition (Katharine Hepburn, Dressed for Stage and Screen) at the New York Public Library. Hepburn protested that she didn’t seek to cultivate an image, she admitted to Calvin Klein (when collecting a Lifetime Achievement award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in 1985) that “I think you should pretend you don’t care…but it’s the most outrageous pretense. I said to Garbo once, ‘I bet it takes us longer to look as if we hadn’t made any effort than it does someone else to come in beautifully dressed.’”

On stage and screen, Hepburn had an innate awareness of what she looked good in, and although she may not have deliberately courted controversy with her preference for trousers over dresses, she created a personal style that was uniquely hers. That style (whether consciously cultivated or not) was, and remains, entirely her own, reinforcing her headstrong, independent spirit and projected confidence.

By the late 1930’s, thanks to a series of film flops (including Quality Street and Mary of Scotland, a Woman Rebels, which lost almost a quarter of a million dollars each at the box office), Hepburn was considered box office poison – until Playwright Philip Barry wrote The Philadelphia Story and the aloof character Tracy Lord just for Hepburn. Lord was based on Helen Hope Montgomery Scott, a Main Line Philadelphia socialite famous for throwing lavish parties at her family’s 800 acre farm estate in Radnor.Hepburn and Barry worked on the stage production during the summer of 1938, the show was a roaring Broadway success the following year. Howard Hughes – Hepburn’s then beau – bought the movie rights and gifted the to the actress, allowing her to negotiate the terms of the film with MGM.

Valentina costume for the stage version of The Philadelphia Story

Valentina designed the costumes for the stage production, setting a stylistic framework for Tracy Lord that Adrian would later develop for the film. Valentina’s wedding dress was an elaborate affair – pink silk organza, chiffon and crepe de chine, a fusion of modern and romantic elements – that personified a contemporary Southern socialite. Hepburn saved the dress in her personal collection, and in 1973, wore it again in The Glass Menagerie (directed by Anthony Harvey), with the addition of a corsage and a neckpiece.

George Cukor’s The Philadelphia Story  (released in 1940) also starred Cary Grant and James Stewart (who won an Oscar for his role). MGM costume designer Adrian was responsible for Hepburn’s gowns; she was later to claim, “Adrian was my favourite designer. He and I had the same sense of ‘smell’ about what clothes should do and what they should say.” In the case of The Philadelphia Story, they ‘said’ glamour and goddess, independence and self-possession. The highlight is a floor-length white silk gown with Art Deco inspired gold sequin beading across the sleeves and bodice. The embellishment recalls Greek key motifs, a visual reference to the untouchable goddess theme that underpins Tracy’s character. The sleek silhouette draws from popular 30’s styles, with a nipped-in waist and tapered sleeves with extended, fitted cuffs. Understated and sophisticated, the dress exudes aristocratic old money and modern independence.

As befits a contemporary goddess, white features prominently. Another standout design reinterprets the toga for the modern woman. Belted at the waist, with wide fluid sleeves and a pleated shoulder detail it’s elegant, fluid and modern, echoing 30’s design features and emphasises Hepburn’s lean frame and defined cheekbones.

In the final ‘wedding’ scenes the influence of Valentina’s design is most apparent. As befits the occasion, Lord wears a romantic and frothy gown, crafted from a lightweight organza. A layered collar frames the face, a wrap-over bodice defined with an obi-style belt, tied with a bow at each side. The sleeves extend to wide, gently ruffled cuffs, the floor-sweeping hem again exaggerates Hepburn’s silhouette. Lord tops the dress off with an oversize, floppy hat with wide ribbons and – at the altar – a bouquet of flowers. This is Lord (and indeed Hepburn) at her most feminine; but don’t be fooled: she might’ve got her man, but that’s not to say she’s given up her independence to him.

More images over on Pinterest.

Further reading:

Katharine Hepburn: Rebel Chic / Adrian: Silver Screen to Custom Label / Valentina: American Couture and the Cult of Celebrity

Dior store take-over at Harrods

There’s been plenty of fashion fanfare in London over the past few months, from Chanel’s Little Black Jacket exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery to the Valentino retrospective and Mulberry-sponsored Tim Walker presentation at Somerset – and now it’s Dior who has their time in the spotlight. Long-term stockist Harrods is the fitting location for a pop-up exhibition, which took over 18 months to create and also includes a café, window displays and a temporary shop.

The exhibition coincides with Raf Simons’ second ready to wear collection at the house and a renewed emphasis on heritage, craftsmanship and design. Archive footage from Christian Dior’s 1947 New Look collection sits alongside work-in-progress toiles from the Spring 2013 haute couture collection, a tangible link between past and present and an important reminder of how the founder and the house continue to challenge and evolve.

A dolls house façade opens the exhibition, peeking through the windows visitors can to see miniature furniture, all created using Dior fragrance bottles. This perfume theme continues in a dramatic installation piece that presents J’Adore bottles alongside the pieces worn by Charlize Theron in the accompanying adverts.  Other highlights include archive dresses (worn by Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor), a homage to the Lady Dior handbag and an elegant stage set populated with numerous miniature dresses, all recreated in the Dior atelier.

Although famed Parisian brand, Dior nods to the locale with historical links between the house and the United Kingdom highlighted in documents and in design elements; a telephone box infused with Miss Dior fragrance, a dove-grey post box and skyline landmarks which are incorporated into the window design.

Dior at Harrods is open until April 14 2013.

This post was originally posted on statement.qa