Culture Tiger

Since my childhood obsession with flamenco, I have adored fans. Fans are effortlessly stylish,convey expression as well as being practical in the heat. I also have a life-long affair with Greenwich - I feel lucky to have been born in a leafy part of London rich in multilayered history. Based in a couple of Grade II listed 18th century townhouses, next to the immense Greenwich park, The Fan Museum satisfies two of my loves. The only museum in the UK completely dedicated to fans, The Fan Museum provides a comprehensive guide to the materials and elaborate skills used to create these handheld accessories, from all over the world, spanning centuries. And, of course, the building and its countless exhibits are a treat for the eyes. Apart from displaying fans from the past, including an exceptionally rare embroidered number from around the Elizabethan period, The Fan Museum also works towards reviving the disappearing craft of fan-making. Workshops are frequently hosted and recent campa...

Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty is not just the latest V&A blockbuster exhibition - it’s immersive theatre from another planet. Upon arrival visitors stand face to face with a large photographic portrait of McQueen that slowly contorts and transforms into a gold skull - it’s a bold and unflinching tribute to the late designer that keeps its audience spellbound.  Exploring the late McQueen’s groundbreaking and unfortunately short lived career, each room envelopes you with a thematic dream that can simultaneously fascinate and terrify just like the fearless creations on show. Dark, oppressive walls of skulls and bones form the small Romantic Primitivism room which leads to the grand opulence of gold and red in the Romantic Nationalism room. McQueen’s multifaceted world is one of uncompromising contradictions that command your attention and Savage Beauty thrusts you into a thrilling journey of a rare talent who gave fashion a much needed kick up the backside into the 21st Century...

Photo by Natalia Kinsey The V&A usually takes all the glory for exhibiting the most extraordinary of fashion designers. Yet the Barbican has a particular knack for truly transporting visitors to the wonderfully peculiar worlds of design (Viktor & Rolf’s kooky dolls in their decadent miniature homes in 2008 immediately spring to mind). It is no longer just about the garments and sketches, it is also about the dreams that drive them. The Barbican’s recent offering was the first major exhibition dedicated to everyone’s favourite French rebel - Jean Paul Gaultier - and completely immersed one in his world of clever playfulness and unconventional bold sexiness.  

Following the success of Hollywood Costume, the V&A brings us another box office smash hit with David Bowie Is. So far in 2013, David Bowie has reappeared at the forefront of the public conscious with the build up to this exhibition and the release of new album The Next Day following a refreshingly subtle marketing campaign. The V&A’s latest offering will undoubtedly attract masses of visitors even more eclectic than usual to a single exhibition - there is no such thing as a typical Bowie fan. My first memory of Bowie was his introduction in the TV production of Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman with butter yellow hair and patterned jumper. But for others, their first Bowie memory could be anything from a Top of the Pops appearance from one of several decades to one of many feature films.  

Valentino: Master of Couture at Somerset House explores the career of one of the world’s most prolific (and smoothest) Italian fashion designers with a vast display of his couture from the past fifty years.This exhibition is full-on excess glamour with a nod to the craft that went behind it. The first room is a walk-in biography of Valentino Garavani (famously known by only his first name just like Cher) with timelines highlighting key points in his career and displays of candid photographs, sketches, show invitations, press cuttings and correspondence from the likes of royalty, film stars, fashion editors and fellow designers. It resembles shoeboxes and scrapbooks of memoirs tipped out and meticulously categorised. I did become a little weary of the constant celebrity name-dropping - is it too vulgar? -  but it does emphasise the incredible influence Valentino had in the world of high fashion. Jackie Kennedy in a one shoulder Valentino gown during her visit to Cambodia i...

Hollywood Costume is the V&A’s latest show stopping event, dazzling with an immense collection of costumes from silent film  to contemporary blockbusters and a highly thorough insight into the painstaking work that goes into creating costumes. Walking into the exhibition evoked the feeling of walking into a darkened cinema  - spine-tingling dramatic music and a huge screen ahead of you with a montage of popular films from the past century. Rather than using the orthodox method of showing exhibits in chronological order, Hollywood Costume is laid out according to subject such as characters’ backstory and ever-changing technology so you’d have exhibits made in different time periods placed right next to each other. There are also in-depth case studies such as the research that went into each character’s costume in Ocean’s Eleven - brilliantly displayed with the costumes (with actors’ faces on suspended small screens) sitting around a table filled with projected images of s...