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Review Sep 08 2010 « | »
Retro Hollywood Glamour at V&A A special late night Friday event at the V&A to accompany the Grace Kelly: Style Icon exhibition

Michael Allen

To accompany the Grace Kelly: Style Icon exhibition currently on show at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Retro Hollywood Glamour brought together a series of small events based upon the iconic status and evocative imagery of 1950's Hollywood. Held for the most part in the entrance hall of the V&A, the evening stirred up silver screen memories to a soundtrack of dreamy brass band classics interspersed with memorable one-liners from movies of the era, supplied by DJ Brett MAV.

Daniel Hersheson's Blowdry Bar service sculpted visitor's hairdos into Grace Kelly curls, whilst L'Oréal Paris' Hollywood Makeover marquee complemented the hairdos with a liberal supply of red lipstick and black eyeliner. Marilyn Monroe lookalikes began to populate the museum, basking in the boudoir glamour of light bulb festooned dressing room mirrors, vintage apparel and mountains of vibrant makeup. Amongst the abundance of classy dames, I felt like a Jack Lemmon, so distracted myself with a compilation of 50's movie trailers playing in the nearby Samsung Gallery.

Archived audio material played in the Ark Book Tower, where Bette Davis could be heard reciting Jane Eyre, and Marlene Dietrich that of Madame Bovary; elsewhere Fitzrovia Radio Hour performed pastiches of British radio dramas whilst printed headscarves began to circulate from a screen-printing workshop, each design featuring patterns of various objects from the V&A's 50's collection.

The filmic fantasy of the evening achieved a ballroom atmosphere, with all in attendance adopting garboesque gestures and burlesque affectations, observing tourists chance unexpectedly upon the chic jamboree from having been browsing assortments of medieval trinkets or Middle Eastern tapestries, entering the throng with all the allure, expectation and ensuing detachment that a themed party entails.

The surreal spectacle of a room full of multiplications of an actress' pop-iconography was the most effective element of the occasion, casting a curiously transient reflection of her likeness amongst an abundance of glass cased material artifacts and marble fragments; the perpetual performance of a dead star's image, summoned back to life time and again to grace endless film screenings, publicity events and cocktail parties.

Retro Hollywood Glamour took place on Friday 27 August; the Grace Kelly: Style Icon exhibition continues until 26 September 2010. See the V&A website here for details.

Anja Savic

"Hollywood is a place where people from Iowa mistake each other for stars."
- Fred Allen

Besides a short red carpet at the entrance (not to be stepped on), the miniature replica of the Hollywood sign the carpet led to, and the voices of Bing Crosby and Frankie blaring through the entrance hall, little else about the late night Friday event at the V&A spoke anything of Retro Hollywood Glamour.

Rather, amidst queues for "face painting," masses huddling over tables waiting to make their own pin-up badge, or groups hanging about waiting for their silk screen print scarf to dry, not to mention, a cafeteria queue!-the whole affair seemed more reminiscent of summer camp. That, or a clueless treasure hunt.

The first clue seemed relatively straightforward, at least for the women. With the two makeover stands set up right in the entrance hall, the message was clear-get done up first. Fair enough, Hollywood glamour was all about poofy hairdos, black eyeliner and red lipstick. But now that I look like Veronica Lake, now what? (It was this question, surely, that plagued the foreheads of the accumulating number of porcelain dolls ambling about). Make a badge? Make a scarf? Participate in the Hitchcock quiz? But, where is the glamour in crafts and quizzes? Alternatively, you could, with your new do, treat yourself to a glass of wine, but then the rest of the "event" would be off limits. Security stood firmly at every door leading out of the entrance hall to remind you drinks were not allowed beyond that point. Now, ain't that a kick in the head?

Perhaps therein lay the problem. The golden age of Hollywood glamour was one in which it seemed nothing was off limits. Throw together a femme fatale, a smoky dancehall, a Sinatra-full jukebox, and there can be no nos. Try to reconstruct this in a museum, where everything is off limits, and there it is.one big, fat, no.

It is difficult to say what was more to blame-the venue, the randomly spread out activities, or the odd mix of people (and dolls) who milled confusedly between them, but Retro Hollywood Glamour at the V&A just didn't work. Is it that we have forgotten how to do glamour? Or is it that glamour never really existed beyond a good blow-dry and some red sheen?

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