Up Close and Personal

Yesterday, during a one hour break between sessions at the Brisbane Writers' Festival (held at the lovely State Library of QLD in South Bank), I managed to slip next door to the Gallery of Modern Art and the Valentino retrospective. Oh happiness.
I'm still brimming with joy in fact, despite coming home to a very sick husband and an equally sick apartment. Seeing this level of workmanship and design up close and personal - the retrospective includes some of the most memorable dresses from the last fifty years - made the clothes on my back (and everyone else in the gallery) seem very ordinary indeed.
The intricate beading, the inspired design - from late 50's tulip skirts, to ethnic influenced 60's frocks, painterly 70's and 80's sheaths and suits and finally two rooms filled to the brim with the most stunningly beaded, draped and sculpted evening wear - all of it had me smiling from ear to ear.
I always say it is the little things in life - a delicious meal shared with a lover, a compulsive and touching book you have to read in one sitting, an afternoon on the couch with a dog in your lap and a funny movie on TV - that make life joyous. And the artistry of beautiful clothing is something I would definitely throw in that mix.
Let's face it - a lot of the big things are truly awful.

Unfortunately the GoMA store had just sold out of the exhibition program, so while I put one on order, I selected a few postcards for the time being.

I think Valentino's famed 1968 White Collection - of which they had many items on display, including Jackie's wedding dress from her marriage to Aristotle Onassis - deserves its own post. In the meantime, these postcards are of a few more recent frocks: Haute Couture A/W 2007-08 / Haute Couture A/W 1990-91 / Haute Couture A/W 2004-05 / Haute Couture S/S 2003.