FASHION RULES: RESTYLED KENSINGTON PALACE
NELL GWYNN – APOLLO THEATRE
By Richard Fitzwilliams
FASHION RULES: RESTYLED KENSINGTON PALACE
This follows the earlier Fashion Rules exhibition in 2013 and spans four decades. It contains some marvellous dresses worn by H. M. The Queen, Princess Margaret and Diana, Princess of Wales, two of whom were based at Kensington Palace. A fashionable royal image is essential for the role. It is disseminated by an insatiable press to a fascinated public and the influence members of the royal family have had, and continue to have, on trends in fashion is huge. This brings substantial benefits to the couturiers they use and also to the British fashion industry, which this show credits the Princess of Wales with having personally revived.
Catherine Walker for Diana Princess of Wales 1992. Historic Royal Palaces © Museo de la Moda
The designers featured include two of the greatest, Sir Norman Hartnell and Sir Hardy Amies and also Zandra Rhodes, Bruce Oldfield and Catherine Walker, who was Diana’ s favourite designer. The task of creating a royal outfit is certainly challenging. It is often themed for the event it is to be worn for and if designed for a trip abroad it may reflect the national colours of the host country. Dresses on show that are particularly striking include the gorgeous Hardy Amies evening gown that the Queen wore on her state visit to France in 1972, which was used in her official Silver Jubilee photographs, and the stunning silk velvet halterneck dress by Catherine Walker that Diana was photographed in so enchantingly by Mario Testino in 1997, just before her tragic death.
Princess Margaret patronized the“ New Look” from Christian Dior with full skirts and nipped-in waists in the 1950s and had a glamorous aura. The Queen’ s outfits have to live up to public expectations and over six decades she has perfected a regal and tasteful look which is often also wonderfully colourful and imaginative.
It is ironic that whilst displaying dresses destined to be worn and appreciated in a grand setting, this exhibition is cramped and makes for extremely uncomfortable viewing in the Piggott Galleries. There are no sheets to read from and iPads are not yet available. The lighting is low of necessity but anyone wanting to read about the dresses and see a photograph of how they were worn has to bend very low or kneel on the ground as the labels are so near to the floor which is absurd. Unbelievably, there is no film footage; all we get is some photographs shown as slides in two of the five rooms. The designers sketches are not labelled either.
If you visit this show you quite literally suffer for beauty and a rethink of how future exhibitions should be mounted in this space is urgently required.
Hardy Amies for HM The Queen 1979. Historic Royal Palaces © Lord Linley & Lady Sarah Chatto
NELL GWYNN – APOLLO THEATRE
Gemma Arterton( Nell Gwynn) and David Sturzaker( Charles II) in Nell Gwynn at the Apollo Theatre.
Photo credit Tristram Kenton
The heroine in this dazzling new play by Jessica Swale has long been part of legend. Nell Gwynn, the prostitute and orange seller who became a top actress and, most famously, the mistress of the libidinous Charles II, is one of the feistiest and most endearing of heroines. Her vivacity, sensuality and force of character is wonderfully captured by Gemma Arterton in a tour de force as the play’ s eponymous heroine. She is pivotal to the success of a play which transports us to a colourful, bawdy and dangerous period in England’ s history. King Charles I had only recently been beheaded, after a bloody and divisive civil war, and the monarch and parliament were still opposed on crucial issues.
The sets are spectacular and skilfully used and the costumes are magnificent. They set the tone for a piece much of which is a riot of colour. It follows the often farcical fortunes of the King’ s Company in the Theatre Royal where the King’ s edict permitting women on the previously all-male stage is still causing heartache. This, like Shakespeare in Love, is an affectionate homage to the theatre. It is there that Charles first sees Nell, who, in a hilarious interlude, shamelessly plays to the gallery and captures his heart to the frustration of the playhouse’ s leading actor Charles Hart, well played by Jay Taylor.
The play contains touching scenes between them and the chemistry between Nell and David Sturzaker’ s Charles works so well. It is clear they love each other. Charles’ s wife, Queen Catherine, and his mistresses, Lady Castlemaine and Louise de Keroualle, are gorgeously clad ciphers in comparison.
The dialogue is deliciously bawdy. It is written with flair and has a wonderful sense of fun. It tells how the theatre, banned by the puritans as a den of iniquity but patronized by the King, was an integral part of the louche new society that he created. Musical interludes, particularly one which conveys the heightened anticipation before a performance, are well staged and the tunes are wonderfully catchy.
The supporting cast are all excellent. We are swept up into another century and into a world where the wildest of dreams, that of an orange seller becoming the first lady of the Restoration in all but name, actually came true. The success of the revival of this marvellous play, which initially closed after a few performances at the Globe and which has now won Best Comedy at the Olivier Awards, captures the spirit of the age with glorious abandon.
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