Some musings and meetings from the 4 weeks I'm spending in Somerset in spring and summer 2008
This weekend I made an arduous but worthwhile trip back to Exmoor for a local preview of my work from the Triparks residency. I had 5 portraits of local people wearing my Exmoor National Dress and also my 20 minute film of the project, which met with much amusement from the locals who recognised their friends dressing up and looking daft.
In Tom’s living room on the eve of the Exmoor National Dress shoot, I sit down opposite him and try and discuss a price for the unique and beautiful headdress he has made for me from antlers. Though initially very reluctant to get involved with the project, it becomes clear that Tom is quietly thrilled with the ‘crown’ and sad to part with it. He describes how hard it was to find just the right antlers and how he lay in bed at night awake, turning over its construction in his head. He is in his eighties and will not make such a novel and complex thing again.
Neither of us is very comfortable with the negotiation, but after my persistent assurances that the piece will be treasured we agree a price. I give him as much cash as I have on me, and we shake hands on the outstanding sum owed. I drive off into the night with it cushioned on the passenger’s seat beside me.
Without wanting to give the game away on what the actual costume looks like, here is a wee detail of the finished Exmoor National Dress, just about to get its final pressing before being wrestled into a garment bag for its trip down West tomorrow.
I am looking forward to photographing and filming on Exmoor later this week with it - and have been busy planning who and where. Confirmed locations include Cutcombe Cattle market where we hope to upstage the Charolet crosses...
Thanks to Phil Shepherd at Somerset Film who has helped organise the film crew of Alex Richardson and Sacha Atkinson
Enjoying reading about the 'invention' of tartan as Scotland's national dress....
I knew of Sir Walter Scott's involvement in its 're-invention' for the King's first Scottish visit post the Jacobite rebellion (after which tartan wearing was banned for all but the military). Scott - who was a megacelebrity at the time - was given the job of organising the monarch's visit to Edinburgh. (This might be like David Beckham getting the job of organising the Queen's last Jubilee - imagine.)
Anyhow, Scott decided that mass tartan would look fabulous lining the streets and thus a trend was born, with the king apparently decked out in salmon pink trews (thats skintight trousers to you) in a bid to bond with this Scottish subjects.Hmm.
It turns out though, that Scott was more of a purist than I thought. Two brothers - the Sobieski Stuarts- predated Scott's trendsetting by publishing a copy of a spurious 'found' manuscript - the Vestiarium Scoticum. This fake supposedly verified the lineage of clan tartans, and also their own claims to the Stuart royal bloodline. The Frasers of Lovat even built them a villa on their island, Eilean Aigas, where they lived it up for quite a while in Highland style (the house and island was recently for sale BTW).
Scott publicly rebuked these claims and the veracity of the book, and though the brothers' reputations suffered, the book (and the brothers' lifelong mania for all things Scottish) remains influential on Scottish identity and culture to this day.
Today I finally knuckled down to some (dress) making, something I have a love / hate relationship with ever since the hell-and-back 10 day lock-in when Nina and I had to make our Tudor costumes for our last film. Let's draw a veil over just how long it took to get even the basics right for 1578 - well, all I can say is you try and design a fitted bodice without darts or lycra....
So - back to Exmoor National Dress - this lovely print on canvas donated to the project by Exmoor painter Maurice Bishop appeared simply as an Elvis-style cape at Dunster Show but I thought I'd better explore other treatments, so attempted my first bit of smocking with it this afternoon...
I think it's rather too stiff but nevertheless it's an interesting effect...
Nearly since my arrival on Exmoor people of all ages had been saying 'Have you heard of Dean Thomas?' when I mentioned the Exmoor National Dress idea.
Dean is a young fashion designer originally from Dulverton, who made a name for himself at his recent St Martin's degree show, with a collection of superb (and I found out, all his own handiwork) tailoring, based around the theme of Exmoor 'cultural icon' Lorna Doone and using many local materials.
The Collection is on show this week in the town's Guildhall, and the opening night was mobbed, though I managed to get close enough to the pieces to realise that here was a guy who knew his stuff - there's loads of exquisite details that refer to English historic dress, but also a contemporary slant with neon paint and some quite radical cutting.
The next morning I returned to meet Dean there with the hope of talking him into getting involved in my project. His lovely parents were helping clear up the empty wine bottles whilst we chatted, so watch this space to see where we might be able to take it.....
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