Hollywood Costumes at The V&A

Throughout the festive season, London’s V&A museum plays host to Hollywood’s finest costumes.  As sponsored by red carpet jewelers, Harry Winston, The Hollywood Costume exhibition landed at the V&A back in October and brings the best of iconic on screen costumes to the capital.

Taking 5 years to collate and organise, the exhibition features costumes from all corners of the globe and all genres of cinematic history. The exhibition comprises a bounty of our much loved screen characters; from highflying heroes and dancing queens, to vindictive villains and comedy classics.

For arguably the first and last time Margret Thatcher sits alongside Darth Vader, Marilyn Monroe alongside John Travolta, Indiana Jones and Holly Golightly, Sweeny Todd and Jack Sparrow, Rose Dewitt Bukater and Cruella Deville, Spiderman and The Queen.

Clips from which the costumes made their name and facial projections of the character accompany each costume. Alongside detailed insights from the designers of the elaborate and often defining costumes which also stand beside each mannequin.

From the classic to the contemporary, the oldest costume on display is that of Charlie Chaplin from the 1933 film, The Tramp; for the first time is seen in colour. Many of the great classics are on display for the first time; Marilyn Monroe's iconic billowing white subway gown, Audrey Hepburn's black satin gown made famous from the scene in which she enjoys breakfast at Tiffany's, the characteristically scarlet gown worn by Vivienne Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara in Gone With the Wind, to name but a few of the great classics. 

As for contemporaries, John Travolta's Saturday Night Fever Suit and Natalie Portman's Black Swan, Uma Thurman's Kill Bill, The Adam's Family, the Brokeback Mountain Cowboys and Dreamgirls alike add to the gliteratti of character costumes on display.  

  

Forming the crescendo of the exhibition is Dorothy’s classic costume from The Wizard of Oz. Reunited for the first time since the filming The Wizard of Oz in 1939, the unforgettable gingham dress and glittering ruby red slippers sit side by side once again. Brought together, the dress salvaged from a Fleet Street private collection and slippers from the Washington Smithsonian Institution. 

An opportunity not to be missed for any film or fashion fanatic!

Tickets are priced at £14 (Concession discounts do apply)

The exhibition closes on 27^th January 2013

For more information visit The V&A website.

The Name's Bond... James Bond

Released last week, the twenty-third installment to the James Bond phenomenon, Skyfall celebrates 50 years of Bond. The Bond series is today as British as bacon sandwiches, cream teas and red double decker buses. With our latest Bond, Daniel Craig, accompanying The Queen in her grand entrance into the Olympic Opening Ceremony. From this unorthodox arrival all eyes where on Bond, the buzz had begun and the globe was hungry for a fresh Bond fix. The latest instalment does not disappoint and takes the Bond franchise to a new pinnacle of quality.  

Glittered with high-flying top stars, the Skyfall credits give any A-List guest list a run for its money. Directed by Sam Mendes and starring Dame Judi Dench, Daniel Craig, Ralph Fiennes, Albert Finney, Berenice Marlohe, Naomie Harris to name but a few. Also boasting a star-studded Leicester Square premiere to match, with guests including Rachel Weisz, Kelly Brooke, Tess Daly and Tamara Ecclestone. 

The blockbuster movie has cashed in on the biggest opening week in James Bond history, grossing £20.1 million in Britain and Ireland alone and the theme by Adele shooting straight to the number one in the iTunes chart less than 10 hours after its release. 

From the moment the iconic theme tune boomed through the cinema with the opening credits, we knew 007 was back with vengeance! Immediately immersed in the action, the film begins with a car, motorbike and train chase across the rooftops of Istanbul in which Bond is in hot pursuit of the stolen hard drive containing a list of MI6 special agents. The plot follows the mission to track down the villain who has penetrated the MI6 computer system and planted a bomb in the department’s Millbank HQ that leads them underground.    

Arguably the best bond yet, Skyfall contains every magic ingredient audiences lush for – special effects, storybook villains, fast paced chases, exotic eastern locations, beautiful Bond girls, Daniel Craig steaming with sex appeal, flawless acting from Judi Dench for the 7^th time, a smart, savvy and sarcastic sense of humor and more excitement and energy than ever before!

Aston Martins, pyrotechnics and heart stopping action scenes leave you hanging to your seat and holding your breath throughout. Concluding for the first time ever, the final credits confidently suggest another film coming soon. 

From a group of girls with no great interest in male orientated action films, we give Skyfall a outstanding 10/10, and that’s saying something when our primary motive was to stare mindlessly into the piercing eyes of Daniel Craig.  

Incase you are yet to see it, here is the Skyfall trailer to have you salivating for more…