Watching Valentino

(The peal of church bells striking the half-hour wakes me up this morning, and as I lie there luxuriating in the hotel bed, my first thought is that this time time next week, I'll be waking to the call to prayer instead.)

The Valentino Exhibition was fantastic, although photography was not allowed so I couldn't take pictures to show you, and the big book of the exhibition had sold out at the gift shop, so I couldn't buy that to show you either. I've ordered a back copy, but it'll arrive after I've gone to Bahrain.

The Sister Of My Heart and I spent a good three hours wandering the halls of the Gallery Of Modern Art, oohing and aahing over the dresses. And the dresses - there were many of them, and they were wonderful!

We each chose our favourites - which ones we'd wear out for cocktails, to a black-tie event, to meet Hugh Jackman that night for dinner. I particularly enjoyed choosing the one I'd renew my wedding vows in and the one the Sister Of My Heart would wear to attend me again.

The magnificence of construction was phenomenal - the detail in hundreds of knife-pleated chiffon panels, the shirring of silk voile interwoven with silk taffeta. There were outfits which looked like Black Widow, Mother-of-the-Bride-Of-Dracula, Star Trek ... and plenty of fantastic stuff from the 60s era which I would *easily* have worn out the door if someone had given me the opportunity.

We talked a lot about the difference between style and fashion. About how a lot of the clothes were very much in fashion at the time they were made, but their glamour has lasted and the clothes could be worn today with no problem because they are fundamental expressions of style rather than fashion alone. And there were some that were clearly in fashion when they were made but SO OBVIOUSLY out of fashion now. Yikes. Plenty of the stuff from the 80s falls into that category.

And we enjoyed looking at the people themselves at the exhibition, because a lot of them - and us - had dressed up especially for the event.  The Sister Of My Heart was wearing a short denim skirt, a teal long-sleeved tee, a shrunken purple trench coat, and fantastic over the knee purple tartan socks that I bought for her in Japan a few years ago. I was wearing a purple 50s dress with pleated skirt, a purple knit cardigan from Cue, and black tights with purple stripes......

......and here we are together, resting our feet for a minute at the exhibition.