Fashion worlds collide at Museum of London

Fashion worlds collide as Philip Treacy creates hats for the Museum of London.

The London-based, award-winning milliner, Philip Treacy, has re-created some of his most famous hats for a new exhibition opening at the Museum of London, today ( Friday, May 28th) .

The exhibition is the perfect example of when fashion worlds collide, as Treacy’s 21st century hats are seen as the contemporary accessories for a Georgian masquerade, circa 1760.

His legendary black ‘Galleon’ hat, for example, famously worn both by the late Izzy Blow, and the singer, Grace Jones, is re-designed as a smaller, tricorne of the 1700’s, to accompany a ruffled and bowed, fine-stripe, silk crinoline, worn by a mannequin dressed as a mid-18th century ‘It’ girl. (An inspirational print from 1778 depicts Queen Marie Antoinette wearing a ship head-dress, designed to commemorate a French naval victory over the British).

Treacy’s modernist, sculptural “saucer” designs, in straw, are embellished with organza flowers and spirals, and accessorised with lace masks, to accompany the gowns worn by other mannequins dressed as coquettes, country girls, and ladies’ maids.

The milliner worked closely with the artist Yasemen Hussein, who designed the copper metal wigs for each mannequin.

The backdrop to and theme of the exhibition, as envisaged by the curators, Beatrice Behlen, and Hilary Davidson, is a masquerade in a Georgian Pleasure Garden. One of the party-goers wears a midnight-blue crinoline, printed with golden stars, and topped with a copper ‘antlers’ head-dress, which soars into the twinkling night-scape. The head-dress was crafted by Yasemen Hussein, inspired by Diana, the goddess of the hunt and the moon, which was a popular fancy-dress costume of the era.

The 22 ‘party-goers’, in their elaborate gowns - many of them originals from the Museum of London’s costume archives, which have not been exhibited before; others replicas - millinery and finery, are seen amongst male mannequins variously dressed as highway men or a Turkish ambassador, in a gleaming, gold, silk turban.

The Museum of London, 150 London Wall, London EC2Y 5HN, open daily, 10am-6pm, free admittance; www.museumoflondon.org.uk

Writers name

Hilary Alexander, Telegraph 28-05-2010

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