"I have to be seen to be believed"

[click any photo to enlarge]

The sumptuous exhibition Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style, that we went to see with our mother on Saturday was everything one could have asked for, and more.

Frocks and outfits that traced the life of the late, dearly departed Queen - from her childhood and teenage years to debutante, to her marriage [gown #3, above], accession [Coronation dress, #4 above], through all stages of her long reign, formal and informal, from the most sparkling ballgowns and outfits from her myriad Royal tours and Silver, Gold, Diamond and Platinum Jubilees, to the headscarf-and-tweeds she wore on her estates, right through to her latter "Rainbow Queen" years with her famous bright coordinated single-colour outfits ["I have to be seen to be believed", was her quote] - everything was on display [in the relatively small series of rooms that comprise The King's Gallery at the rear of Buckingham Palace]!

..and then there were the tiaras!

It was a fantastic exhibition! What an indelible legacy HM The Queen left us...

A meeting of true minds?

Anna Wintour and Meryl Streep wearing Prada on the cover of Vogue. [Photograph: Annie Leibovitz/Vogue - click to enlarge]

Read more in The Guardian

A dressing-up box beyond compare

"We entered Cosprop as ourselves and walked out as the person we were playing." – Helena Bonham Carter

The genre known as "costume drama" has been an absolute mainstay of the entertainment world, in the theatre, in film and on television, since time immemorial. In latter years, we've lapped up the likes of Great Expectations, The Duchess of Duke Street, A Passage to India, A Room With a View, Out of Africa, Poirot, The House of Elliott, Howard's End, Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth, Sense and Sensibility, Downton Abbey, Peaky Blinders and Gentleman Jack - and original costumes [many of them never exhibited in public before] from all of these (and much, much more) were on show at the ever-fascinating Fashion and Textile Museum, in the exhibition Costume Couture: Sixty Years of Cosprop that we went to see en famille on Saturday.

Cosprop was founded by Oscar and BAFTA-winning costume designer John Bright in 1965, and ever since then his company's peerless work has appeared in thousands of film, television and stage productions.

We should let the clothes speak for themselves, really...

Costumes worn by [l-r]: Dame Maggie Smith and Hugh Bonneville in Downton Abbey; Cate Blanchett in Elizabeth; David Suchet in Poirot; Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle in Pride and Prejudice.

"Actors walk in with just a script and the name of their character. They walk out with that character fully formed in their mind, having brought him or her to life through the angle of a hat, the fabric of a coat or the feel of a pair of shoes." – John Bright

Costumes worn by [l-r]: Helena Bonham Carter and Dame Maggie Smith in A Room with a View; Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean; Ralph Fiennes and Liv Tyler in Onegin; Leslie Manville in Mrs Harris Goes to Paris.

"It’s a beautiful exhibition where you will want to take in every perfect little detail, and has been arranged so you can see the costumes from several angles." - Lucy Sutton-Long

Costumes worn by [l-r]: Meryl Streep in Out of Africa; Vanessa Redgrave and Emma Thompson in Howards End; Kiera Knightley in The Duchess; Suranne Jones in Gentleman Jack.

By the end, we were utterly boggled by the sheer array of items associated with films and TV series we loved! The most gorgeous ones of the lot were, however, from some less familiar productions.

[l-r] A pair of embroidered jackets worn by Basil Henson in War and Peace (BBC, 1972); evening gown worn by Natasha Richardson in The White Countess; fancy-dress costume worn by Uma Thurman in The Golden Bowl.

Simply wonderful. So pleased we caught this on its last weekend before the exhibition closed.

Fashion and Textile Museum - Costume Couture trailer

The other "Unsinkable Molly"

In her time, she was fashion editor for The Sunday Times, penned successful erotic "bonk-buster" books, started a bistro, designed hats for hip fashion store Biba, was a judge at the Alternative Miss World contest from its outset, presided over orgies in New York, was a regular at the debauched and notorious Colony Club, was banned from BBC chat shows for swearing, and became a much-lauded designer and painter in avant garde circles in her later years; she counted numerous "counter-culture" characters such as Quentin Crisp, Andy Warhol, Mary Quant, Francis Bacon, Anita Pallenberg and The Communards' Sarah Jane Morris among her friends; and her myriad lovers included James Robertson Justice, George Melly, Anthony Shaffer, John Thaw, Bo Diddley, John Mortimer - and she snogged Louis Armstrong!

What a life dear Molly Parkin - who has very sadly departed for Fabulon, presumably to cause havoc - had!

We adored her...

She certainly was never afraid of portraying sex (nor performing it, by all accounts)! [photo: Rob Greig]

Divine and Molly Parkin, taken at the London premiere of 'The Alternative Miss World' at The Gate Cinema in Notting Hill in 1980.

Molly and me, photographed at Polari way back in 2010...

RIP Molly Noyle Parkin (née Thomas, 3rd February 1932 – 5th January 2026)

Fuck normality!

“[She] was an eccentric, dominant London character. In the early 1980s, alongside the likes of BodyMap, Pam reinvented lycra catsuits and disco fashion. In more recent times, she lit up London with her fantastic fashion shows at Freemasons Hall. A prominent figure across the arts, fashion and British music scenes. The fashion world won’t quite be as vivid or rebellious now Pam is no longer with us. She will be greatly missed.” - Zandra Rhodes

RIP Pam Hogg, Blitz club regular, ecccentric, audacious and pioneering fashion designer, a fave of the likes of Debbie Harry, Siouxsie Sioux, Rihanna, Lily Allen, Björk and Kylie Minogue [who wore a catsuit by Pam in her 2 Hearts video], who has left the deafening applause at the end of the catwalk one last time and departed for Fabulon.

“I’m just glad not to be termed normal. Fuck normality!” - Pam Hogg

All hail .

I dared

"Style doesn't have seasons."

"You have to want to dare being a model. You have to dare or you don't go that step further. You have to be willing to stretch - and to not only be willing to stretch, but to want to stretch."

"A lot of women say to me, 'Polly, why aren't there more clothes out there that we can wear?' And I don't agree with them! There are clothes out there that they can wear - it's just that they don't dare to wear them."

"I personally do not think that I have ever done, in my working life, anything vulgar. I know I've done provocative things."

"I like to take things further. Too often, stylists do things to please because they are going to be accepted. You lose the magic that way. You can’t give something special to your readers unless you dare. I was a stronger woman behind the camera than I was in real life. I dared."

And so, farewell, the remarkable stylist and fashion editor Polly Mellen, who has departed to zhoosh-up the glittering catwalks of Fabulon at the venerable age of 100.

Unsurprisingly, during her long career in the fashion world she knew everyone who was everyone - growing up in Connecticut, she was acquainted with the young Katherine Hepburn; a friend-of-a-friend Sally Kirkland (future editor of Vogue) recommended her to Diana Vreeland, who gave Miss Mellon her big break at Harpers Bizarre, and then Vogue; she worked with photographers Helmut Newton and Irving Penn, and her collaborations with Richard Avedon became iconic; she worked with just about every couturier from Cristóbal Balenciaga to Halston to Alistair McQueen, Calvin Klein, Isaac Mizrahi, Vera Wang and Viktor & Rolf, and nurtured the careers of a host of supermodels that included Penelope Tree, Patti Hansen, Lauren Hutton, Nastassja Kinski, Janice Dickinson, Kate Moss, Linda Evangelista, and dozens more.

A most influential fashionista, indeed!

RIP, Polly Allen Mellen (18th June 1924 – 12th December 2024)

Words to live by

We try our best.

Aa-aa-Armani

Officially the most successful Italian designer ever (his fortune is estimated at five billion pounds!), Signor Giorgio Armani celebrates his 90th birthday today.

As famous for underpants, watches and accessories as for his sharp suits, his has been the style of choice for generations of stars of music, sport and the silver screen, politicians, dignitaries and even the Milanese police force.

Facts about Signor Armani:

• He was born in the northern Italian town of Piacenza, of Armenian and Italian descent.
• After military service as a young man, he became a window dresser at La Rinascente department store in Milan.
• Having worked on a freelance basis for myriad designers including Zegna, Cerruti and Loewe, the first pieces he designed under his own name were a series of leather bomber jackets in 1970.
• While building his fashion empire, he also designed costumes for more than one hundred films including American Gigolo and The Untouchables.
• When in 1975 he brought out a womenswear line using men's fabrics, he set the wheels in motion for the "power dressing" look that became synonymous with the 80s.
• Among his many commissions, he designed the costume worn by Spanish bullfighter Cayetano Rivera Ordóñez, the suits for the England football team (twice), and the cover of a book of gospels for the Pope.

So world-famous is Giorgio Armani, he's name-checked in loads of songs, from rap to pop to musical theatre. Not least, this one (a further tribute to another celebrant of a milestone birthday this week, Mr Neil Tennant):

Pet Shop Boys - Paninaro

Giorgio Armani (born 11th July 1934)