YSL in detail at the Bowes Museum

Another chance to visit the YSL exhibition at the Bowes Museum over the weekend. Amazing that so many of the garments are not behind glass and it's wonderful to be able to examine them so closely... The whole show has an other worldly air (Who wears these clothes and when? Who can afford them?) and you feel that visitors are transported by it to a sort of fairy tale reality where you can be Cinderella for a day.
An invigilator tells me too that lots of keen seamstresses visit and there's as much interest in the process (the various toiles on display) as in the final result: someone asked if they had turned a dress inside out to look at the seams....

Ghostly words at the Bowes Museum

Wonderful transparent black panels in the Bowes Museum at the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition with quotes from the man himself:  the best make-up is passion and the most beautiful clothes that can dress a woman are the arms of the man she loves...

The world's most expensive lace at the Bowes Museum

Exquisite lace at the Bowes Museum, County Durham.
Here the world's most expensive lace at the time - raised needlelace from Venice, dating from the 17th century.

This is what it would have looked like on a dress.  A fabulous costume section at the Museum - details of a temporary exhibition by artist Sarah Casey here.