Making an entrance: My time at the 'Crown to Couture' Exhibition
- jackdradey123
- Oct 29, 2023
- 6 min read
So ever since I heard that Kensington Palace was holding an exhibition called ‘Crown to Couture’ I was like right I need to go and when I read the description, which was, ‘This brand-new fashion exhibition for 2023 takes over Kensington Palace's State Apartments and Piggott Galleries, featuring over 200 items from ball gowns to court suits and handbags to jewellery. The exhibition draws fascinating parallels between the world of today’s red carpet and the Georgian Royal Court in the 18th century.’ I was like RIGHT I really need to go. However, I am a very busy person and spending most of your time in bed watching RuPaul’s Drag Race for the 100th time is very time consuming, so I never brought tickets. However, I saw that it was ending on October 29th so I was like I am NOT missing this cause who knows when it will come back and who knows where so on the 26th October 2023 I went to the ‘Crown to Couture’ Exhibition at Kensington Palace and these are my thoughts.
First of all, the walk to Kensington Palace was so nice it was a nice summer autumn day, the sun was out but the air was cold, and the ground was wet it was really nice. We looked at the Princess Diana statue in Kensington Gardens which was really nice to see. We then queued up eager to go in and the women who was just walking around the queue making sure everyone is in the right place and everything was lovely she seemed like she really loved her job but let’s be honest you’re working at Kensington palace who wouldn’t love their job. We went in and they said photos are okay but make sure no flash or videos which did confuse me a bit, I understand no flash but videos? Maybe it was so you don’t ruin the experience for others I’m not too sure.
So as seen in the description above the whole idea of this exhibition is to see the similarities of red carpet fashion and 18th century fashion and I enjoyed seeing how fashion trends of the 18th century have trickled down into mainstream fashion. Above is one of the first dresses I saw, and it was giving DRAMA, this is a 18th century court dress worn possibly by Mary Flaxman and it is amazing its silk with tons of embellishment and those hips don’t lie. They are so outrageous but that’s what you wanted back then. Women would wear dresses with ridiculously massive hips to show off their wealth and status, fashion throughout history, even now, is all about symbolism so bigger the hips the richer you looked.
I really enjoyed the little section about undergarments, on display were some corsets and some stockings and even a pair of skims, but next to the 18th century corsets was this stunning corset worn by Dita Von Teese, the burlesque queen. She wore this in 2016 during her ‘Strip, strip hooray’ tour and it was styled by her but designed by Mr Pearl. Mr Pearl is often described as the world’s best corsetier and has created some amazing pieces. Corsets have been used through out history and for a long time it was a staple in many women’s clothing. Doctors were and I guess still are concerned over the risks of regular corset wearing but Dita Von Teese was like yeah no and wears them anyway, kind of iconic if you ask me. Here I saw the parallel between 18th century fashion and red carpet/celebrity fashion as the corset is clearly embellished with amazing jewels and intricate embroidery which echoes wealthy women’s stomacher’s (which is the part of the dress that sits on the torso and covers the corset).
As the exhibition went on and we saw some really stunning pieces from Kendall Jenner’s 2021 met gala dress by Givenchy to a 1740s ladies day dress. But I turned the corner and my friend, and I were shook when we saw Billy Porters 2019 met gala look. The theme for that year was ‘Camp: Notes on fashion’ and he got the memo. Obviously when I saw this in photos or videos in 2019, I thought it was amazing, but nothing compares to seeing it in person, it was so iconic and eye catching. Porter came dressed as an Egyptian sun god and it looked amazing, even if you’re not a fan of fashion you must still appreciate the work that goes into these looks. Take this look for example it is head to toe embellished in jewels, beads like throw in the kitchen sink whilst you’re at it and they were probably all stitched on by hand. In an interview with Vogue porter said ‘My goal is to be a walking piece of political art every time I show up. To challenge expectations!’. This is where the parallel comes into play when looking at 18th century fashion to red carpet looks, yes you might not see someone dressed as an Egyptian god when going to court in the 1700s but you wanted to stand out like Porter wanted to when he dawned the iconic piece of fashion.
I then saw other iconic Met Gala looks such as Billy Eilish 2021 met gala look and Katy Perry’s 2019 camp chandelier look that lit up the room…quite literally.
I was so happy to see Blake Lively’s 2022 met gala look now the theme for that year was ‘In America: An Anthology of fashion’. In one classic look she paid homage to so many iconic monuments in New York. At first, she was giving empire state building realness paying tribute to the empire state building and then she ever so elegantly removed the bow to release a gorgeous blue train which was inspired by the constellation décor at the grand central station and then her seven tiered crown was a nod to the statue of liberty. Also, I don’t know if this was an actual reference or not but starting off in a copper coloured gown and then revealing the accents of that really nice blue/turquoise colour that felt like a tribute to the statue of liberty as it originally was copper but due to oxidisation it has turned a green/blue colour. Look at me giving a science lesson maybe I should change my blog to scientific fashionista.
Throughout the exhibitions you saw stunning pieces from an array of designers, garments I saw were made by designers spanning from the late great Vivienne Westwood to Erdem. Now I have to admit I actually didn’t know who Erdem was but after seeing one his garmets (on the left) which was from his 2022 Spring/Summer ready to wear collection, it is clear that he is influenced by the fashion of the 18th century. With this garment you can see that the floral trail on the dress reflects the floral patterns you see on 18th century fabrics. He has also designed corset dresses with embroidery parallel to 18th century gowns. Erdem also pays attention 18th century influences so you could say he is influenced by influences which is hard to get your head around but 18th century fashion was sometimes influenced by Greek and Roman attire so you can often see that his designs are influenced by 18th century’s take on Greek and Roman fashion.
Overall, this exhibition was such a treat and there was so much to look at. If this ever comes back regardless of where it is I can only recommend that you go, see if it you didn’t get a chance to the first time. But even if you did see it still go again cause why not. My favourite thing that I saw would probably of have to be Blake Lively’s Met Gala look as it is one of the most memorable met gala looks if not definitely one of the most memorable from that year at least. I really enjoyed how the 18th century and runway fashion was integrated with each other throughout the exhibition as it made it easier to see the parallels between the two eras of fashion. There are influences which stem from hundreds of years ago that are seen in runway and everyday fashion that many people might not realise so I think that this exhibition did a great job at showing that to people who might not necessarily pay attention to these influences.
Sources:
'Crown to Couture: The Magazine'
(All images have been taken by myself)
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