Punch drunk by Penn

For reasons we will soon start to reveal on this site - we have only just been able to visit the Irving Penn exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Simply titled 'Portraits', perfectly echoing his puritanical ethos, this is an exhibition of some of the West's cultural titans of the past 7 decades. Candidates for the Fantasy Dinner Party? They are all here... But this is Penn. It's not a mere log of 120 faces - every picture is an intense and revealing study. Shunning elaborate props, sets or gimmicks, he distills to the very essence of the sitter in each image. The youthful Peter Ustinov is cherubic, Schaiparelli - screamingly defiant. For anyone interested in recent Western Culture - this is unmissable - but be prepared to be hit 120 times right between your eyes.

Irving Penn Portraits, The National Gallery until 6th June.

Say Grace

Think of timeless, unerring beauty and think instantly of the inimitable 1950s style icon, Grace Kelly. Imagine a world of old school Hollywood glamour, of black and white movies, of giving up a glittering career at only 26 to fall in love and become the Princess of Monaco ...

And it doesn't stop there! From Yves Saint Laurent to Balenciaga, the actress packed a lot of breathtaking couture outfits into her life. No wonder we can’t wait to see how the celebrated beauty transformed herself from actress to princess when the V&A opens its doors on Grace Kelly: Style Icon on April 17th.

Set to contain over 50 pieces from her spectacular wardrobe, we're anticipating a revival of classic sophistication. And to accompany the exhibition, the first book to look exclusively at Grace’s unique style will be published. We'll definitely be buying a copy of this... Hermes didn't name their most luxurious handbag after Grace for nothing.

Happy Campers

Dancing until dawn at festivals, vintage shopping and weekend breaks at country estates, are our top three summer pastimes.

So you can imagine our excitement when we discovered Vintage at Goodwood. The vintage fashion/music festival, which debuts this August, at The Goodwood Estate on the Sussex coast.
The festival is organised by Wayne Hemingway, (of Red or Dead fashion fame) and the Goodwood Sussex coast estate owner, Lord March.
Hemingway says 'We have carefully curated a celebratory, that re-unites music, fashion and culture; that is unashamedly about dressing up rather than down’.

Fashion
Va are already planning what to wear, although it sounds as if you could arrive with an empty backpack, and leave with a whole new wardrobe, with plenty of vintage shops, including a carefully designed ‘vintage high street’, housing the Kenwood Emporium and a recreation of Oxfam’s first High Street shop from 1948. The curators have also selected pieces from today’s collections, for the ‘Tomorrow’s Vintage’ exhibition, showcasing what they think will become covetable items of the future.

What To See
Catwalk shows, like Mods v Rockers and ‘The British New Look’, discovering cuts from the forties, run in the same bill as the musicians, who range from Imelda May, Sandy Shaw and The Noisettes. Lily Allen is in attendance, but not on the stage, instead she is using the festival to launch her new vintage label. Be sure to book in afternoon tea with the WI, a place in the roller disco, or visit the 40s-style nightclub and a recreation of the Northern Soul venue Wigan Casino.

Camping
Expect preferential treatment if you turn up in a classic camper. If camping in your vintage finery doesn’t sound too appealing, you can book into one of the festivals ‘posh tents’ which come complete with a butler to prepare your breakfast on-site.

August 13-15 of 2010, Tickets are already on sale with adult day passes for £55 and weekend camping tickets at £150. Go to www.vintageatgoodwood.com

Talk to the Walls

VA has just returned from a country estate auction, held yesterday in a secret location in the north of England. Although we can’t yet reveal our new purchases, we can report on what we did once we had finished shopping.
Before boarding for Euston we went to Manchester’s Whitworth Art Gallery, for the newly opened exhibition, ‘Walls are Talking:Wallpaper, Art and Culture’, as recommended by this month's Vogue.The exhibition extensively explores artist-designed wallpaper. Featured artists include Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and Julie Verhoeven. It is interesting to see how many artists have utilised this medium, and subverted the domestic associations with wallpaper to convey their messages. A truly underated artform.


(www.whitworth.manchester.ac.uk,250 Oxford Road, Manchester,0161 275 7450. Exhibition runs 6th Feb - May 3rd)

Comfort Cinema

It’s raining, it’s February.
There’s only one way to spend today: find your nearest indie cinema, and get a ticket for one for this afternoon's screening of a classic film . No need to share popcorn, and just think it could be sunny by the time the film finishes!



If you can't make out what VA's afternoon film was, here's a clue-

“I could find a real-life place that'd make me feel like Tiffany's, then - then I'd buy some furniture and give the cat a name!”

VA’s top Indie Cinemas

1.The Cornerhouse
Oxford Street, Manchester (cornerhouse.org, 0161-200 1500)
2. The Duke of York’s
Preston Circus, Brighton (www.picturehouses.co.uk, 0871 704 2056)
3. Chapter Arts
Market road, Cardiff (www.chapter.org, 029 2030 4400)
4.Ritzy Picturehouse
Coldharbour Lane, London (www.picturehouses.co.uk, 0207 733 2229)

Pop Goes The Shop

We are delighted to announce that for London Fashion Week, February 2010, VA will be curating an installation, and holding a week long pop-up shop at Topshop’s Oxford Circus store. The installation will showcase the most important pieces from our collection of 20th century fashion. The display will range from 20’s Vionnet and Chanel, through to 90’s Alaia and Herve Leger.
What more on the 19th and 20th of February, our founder, Clare Nicholls and VA Curator, author and fashion historian, Judith Watt will be in-store to give the history behind some of the clothes and the designers who created them.

Visitors will be able to try on some of the pieces – with vintage-styling advice from Topshop Style Advisors – and some pieces will be available to buy.

London Fashion Week, 18th-23rd Febuary 2010.

Book Club

This week at VA we are using the miserable weather as an excuse to stay in, and finally address the pile of books still untouched from Christmas presents. Top of the pile is More is More: Tony Duquette, a beautiful book about the iconic American decorator Duquette, famous for his extravagant film-sets and interiors. The star of the book however is his artist wife, Elizabeth ‘Beegle’ Duquette. Beegle was the favourite painter of Hollywood director, Vincent Minnelli. She created murals that appear in a number of his films – the painting of Elizabeth Taylor in The Sandpaper was painted by the artist. Beegle often wore her husband’s creations and was famed for her love of expensive jewellery. All the top fashion designers fought to dress her, and her vast collection was said to be so big, it took a whole day to pack for a trip. Imagine if we could have a peak into that wardrobe!
More is More:Tony Duquette by Hutton Wilkinson(Abrams,£45)

Christmas with Leonor Fini

Lazily relying on the marvel that is Amazon for the Christmas presents for the 'impossible to buy for' crew, we unearthed a rare gem: Sphinx The Life and Art of Leonor Fini.

An exquiste and exhaustively researched account of the life of one of 20th Century's most important and curiously underrated artists - we've been devouring it. A prodigous talent, she was first exhibited by Christian Dior before he became a couturier, designed the renowed 'May West' bottle for Schiaparelli's Shocking Perfume, was the subject of some of 20th Century's most important photographs and the first woman to paint an erotic male nude. However, her foremost talent was that of an artist, painting some of the most powerful paintings of her time, exploring the power of the feminine. We couldn't have wished for a more brilliant present.