Fashion illustrator (and Vintage Secret favorite) René Gruau is known for creating iconic images for Christian Dior during the mid-20th century. Gruau’s aesthetic lent itself to capturing the glamour and elegance that the House of Dior embodies to this very day—think fluid lines and quintessentially feminine imagery.
From 10 November 2010 through 9 January 2011, Somerset House will host a Gruau retrospective titled “Dior Illustrated: René Gruau and the Line of Beauty.” This is your chance to see Gruau’s creations up close, from his work with Dior Parfums to sketches for the house’s Haute Couture line.
During the program’s run, visitors can also attend one of many talks, Late Studios creative workshops, or a special documentary screening related to the exhibition. Visit the Somerset House website for full details about upcoming events. Vive le Gruau!
Dior Illustrated: René Gruau and the Line of Beauty
When: 10 November 2010 – 9 January 2011
Where: Somerset House, Embankment Galleries, Strand, City of London WC2R 1LA
Price: £6.00, £5.00 concessions, under 12s free
www.somersethouse.org.uk
Come and get showered with Studio 64’s very special brand of ‘fairy dust’ this Christmas at The Brickhouse as Studio 64 returns after a sell-out run in August.
Produced by and starring international burlesque sensation Agent Lynch, this show inspired by the legendary New York night club Studio 54 will play host to a heady-70s disco inspired rotating line up of cabaret guest stars including: Resident superstar aerialist Roxy Velvet, Burly-pole wonder Glory Pearl, Showgirl supreme Kitty Bang Bang, Hurly Burly star Laurie Hagen, Donald Choi Hula extraordinaire and resident Parisian boylesque superstar Brian Scott Bagely will return with his Christmas disco balls in full spin.
All this hosted by cabaret legend and disco chanteuse Kiki Kaboom. Expect, mirror ball snowflakes, white sparkling reindeer, and an explosive robotics finale. Disco definitely isn’t dead.
3 Course Dinner Including Entertainment £59.50
3 Course Lunch Including Entertainment and Glass of Bubbly £49.50
Show only £10
www.thebrickhouse.co.uk
www.agentlynch.co.uk
www.thebrickhouse.co.uk/london/events/discochristmas.asp
Playing anything pre-2000, from 50s rock’n'roll, little bit of funk and soul, 90s britpop and dance and lots of 80s hits and power ballads, its certainly is a sin 
Friends and pro-femme artists Tinsel Edwards and Twinkle Troughton have married their nonpareil visions for the curation of “Here Today,” an exhibition featuring the work of 11 contemporary female creatives, themselves included. In a very vintage-friendly fashion, the duo has chosen works which take historical ideas and bring them into the 21st century.
Multi-media art, including paintings, sculptures, found objects and more by the likes of women including Sonia Blair, Lakhi Sangha, and Kathy Barber will be on display during the show’s run. Nostalgic, yet modern; political, yet funny; the exhibition is an exploration of the past’s effect upon the present, as viewed through a feminine lens.
Here Today, Curated by Tinsel and Twinkle
When: 3 December – 8 December 2010, 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Where: At the Outside World, 44, Redchurch Street, London E2 7DP
www.theoutsideworld.co.uk
A star of Universal’s Technicolor escape films in the 1940s, the Dominican-born siren Maria Montez became the centrepiece of Jack Smith’s Hollywood idolatry two decades later. (Smith famously singled Montez out in his essay ‘The Perfect Filmic Appositeness of Maria Montez’.) The star who founded her own fan club and who reportedly once exclaimed ‘When I see myself on the screen, I am so beautiful, I jump for joy’ was a blueprint for the (admittedly more knowing and parodic) campness and narcissism of Jack Smith’s stars. With reference to Montez, Smith stated that bad acting can in fact expose a priceless slice of life, an approach echoed in Andy Warhol’s cinema. In Cobra Woman Montez is cast in a dual role as Tollea of the South Seas and her evil sister Naja, priestess of the Cobra People on a forbidden island. The film showcases her charms in Vera West’s sensuously soft, pastel gowns as well as more gaudy outfits. West was a former fashion designer trained by Lucile and became the doyenne of costume design for horror and monster movies in the ’30s and ’40s.
Part of the ‘Fashion in Film’ festival, a screening of the 1944 film, Cobra woman.
Plus a DJ set by turntable goddesses the Broken Hearts who will follow the screening with ‘Stranded in the Jungle’, a selection of wildly primeval tracks featuring voodoo magic, jungle drums and swinging from the tree tops. Cannibals, savages and feral wildcats all welcome.
Friday 3 December The Horse Hospital 21.15 (Colonnade, Bloomsbury WC1N 1JD)
Tickets £7, conc. £5
A culinary and film extravaganza…
Visitors will be taken on a mystery tour – from the Harley Gallery, around the Welbeck Estate, to the magnificent Welbeck Abbey, which is never normally open to the public. After passing through some of the intriguing underground spaces at the Abbey, the event will culminate in a screening of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom in The Titchfield Library, built for the 6th Duke of Portland. The occasion will be enhanced by lighting and sound effects. At key moments in the screening, spectators will be able to enjoy food inspired by the movie, devised by Bompas & Parr for this occasion.
Sam Bompas & Harry Parr create and curate spectacular culinary events. Their projects “operate in the space between food and architecture”, and explore how the taste of food is altered through synaesthesia, performance and setting. Clients include London Design Festival, UCL, Kraft, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Warwick Castle, Hendrick’s Gin and CABE Climate Change Festival.
Set in the grounds of the Welbeck Estate, the Harley Gallery holds touring exhibitions of contemporary art, craft, photography and design, and has a shop selling high calibre British craft. The adjoining Museum shows magnificent examples of fine and decorative arts from the Portland Collection, built up over four centuries by a single family.
Tickets £7.50 each, plus booking fee. To buy tickets, visit: www.jellymongers.co.uk
http://www.harleygallery.co.uk/
Start the Festive season by shopping at a pop-up jamboree full of vintage wares, hand made crafts and independent artists, created and curated by Anonymous Artists
With Drinks from Hendrick’s Gin, workshops,craft demonstrations and live musical performances, the Vintage Jamboree will bring a flavour of the past with a uniquely modern twist to shoppers in the Brompton Quarter this Christmas.
Anonymous Artists is a London based studio founded by Olivier Ward & Samuel Clarke. Often working in collaboration with others, Anonymous Artists is a collective that crosses disciplines to deliver experiences, immersive events and memorable installations that provoke people’s senses, emotions and their imaginations.
Saturday, December 4 at 10:00am – December 12 at 7:00pm
The Garage, 1 North Terrace, Alexander Square, SW3 2BA
Facebook page
Margaret Harker Hall is a fantastic period venue with a large wooden dance floor in Blofield near Norwich.
On Saturday 4th December it plays host to a Pre Xmas Swing & Rnb Night, with DJs – ‘Lookout Lance’ & ‘The Swing King from 8.00pm – 12.00.
Smart or period dress preferred and feel free to bring your own refreshments!
Admission £5 on the door.
For more Info: call 07956 646503.
All Welcome.
Ham Yard, W1 was the location of the original Scene club. For the background info on this legendry Mod Club have a look at their Facebook page.
Come join the crew for their first anniversary with the following DJs spinning the best of the best:
Mike Warburton, Val Palmer, Thierry Stuave, Paul Newman, Lluis Cardinal, Mickey Collins, Barry Ellis, Richard Early, Michael Sheepmeister.
Where: Balls Brothers Wine Bar. 120 Bishopsgate, London EC2 Nearest tube, Liverpool Street
How much: £6 with Membership card, £8 without. Advance Tickets £6.50 via paypal hamyard@hotmail.com Membership card 50P.
Click on the flyer for the Facebook event page.
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