Two-Exhibition Day

On my own I wouldn't have chosen to go to 'Savage Beauty', the exhibition about fashion designer Alexander McQueen at the V&A: it was Ms Formerly Aldgate's suggestion, and I wasn't sure what to expect, but the spectacle was worth the travel and the ticket. I know very little about the branch of the art industry that is high fashion, though perhaps just enough about clothes to be able to recognise when somebody knows how to stitch, but this was extremely entertaining and engaging, even if the weakest element of the show are the words of Mr McQueen himself, scattered here and there throughout the displays - you should never take seriously what artists say, and arguably if they had anything worthwhile to put into words they wouldn't need to make the art. As a former museum curator I find myself paying almost as much attention to the staging of these big shows as to what's in them, and here the arrangement, set-dressing, lighting and even music renders devastating what could otherwise be an enervating experience, if done in a less imaginative way. Of course fashion designers often have the label 'Gothic' slapped onto their work, but there is more justification than usual for describing some of Mr McQueen's designs in those terms, and there's a whole row of black outfits that wouldn't be at all out of place at Whitby.

From there we found our way to the slightly less spectacular surroundings of the London Metropolitan Archives, wedged into a sidestreet in Clerkenwell and not at all easy to get to, for the very last day of their London Gothic show. This is mainly a display of reproduced images and graphics although there are some documents on show too as well as a very odd mock-up of one of those spatchcock 'mermaids' that used to appear in sideshows. The exhibition is a bit of a rag-bag of Gothic themes and history though none the less amusing for that. I liked particularly the 1980s footage of the Batcave (awful), the 17th- and 18th-century Bills of Mortality (who would have thought so many people would have died of 'evil'), and the sketches of Boris Karloff's feet made by a travelling shoe salesman. I didn't take any photos, so this one is pinched from www.badwitch.co.uk. The show is now closed so if you wanted to see it I hope you already have!