A new display at the Walker Art Gallery celebrates female designers. Featuring designers of global influence including Vivienne Westwood, Mary Quant and Laura Ashley there's also pieces with an important connection to Liverpool.
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00:00 A new display at the Walker Art Gallery celebrates female designers. Featuring those of global
00:06 influence including Vivienne Westwood, Mary Quant and Laura Ashley, there's also pieces
00:12 with an important connection to Liverpool.
00:15 Women designers, especially those in France, were key to the development of fashion throughout
00:22 the 20th century. Now some of the costumes on display show the influence of Parisian
00:32 fashion houses. So we have two gowns on display which were sold at a Liverpool shop, T&S Bacon,
00:41 on Bold Street. And Bold Street was one of the most fashionable shopping streets in Liverpool
00:48 in the early 20th century and is still fashionable today.
00:53 Creating Visions Women Designers 1900-2000 celebrates 100 years of women designers and
01:00 features 14 items of dress which are on display to the public for the very first time.
01:05 What gave me the idea for this display was a lecture that I attended online about women's
01:14 ceramicists. So that prompted me to think about the women designers in the collection
01:21 at National Museums Liverpool. And although the main display is focusing on women fashion
01:29 designers, we also have another small display at the entrance to the Craft and Design Gallery
01:36 which for the next 18 months will be showcasing the work of enamels, jewellery, glass, all
01:46 made by women. The display features some of the most exciting and significant designs
01:51 from the last 100 years. What we're really hoping people, our visitors, will get from
01:58 this display is a sense of the different visions that women fashion designers were creating.
02:07 So we have the exoticism of Thea Porter, we have the tailored sophistication of Jean Muir,
02:16 of Janice Wainwright, we have the nostalgia of Gina Frattini, of Laura Ashley, the beautiful
02:25 elegance of evening wear in the 1930s throughout the 40s. And then we come to the radical street
02:36 fashion of Mary Quant who pioneered the mini skirt and we have the anarchic urban youth
02:45 look of Vivienne Westwood. Also on show will be a selection of jewellery, enamels and glass
02:51 which will change throughout the duration of the display. They draw from National Museums
02:56 Liverpool's extensive decorative arts collection which is one of the finest in the UK.