right, so despite my kind lovely comments on my last Kensington palace post, I went ahead with the plan and on the 26th of July I trudged through London's liquid sunshine to the Enchanted Palace Exhibition. Obviously like any other London landmark, it had a very beautiful exterior, but there were hardcore building works taking place which detracted from it. Inside the palace some of it was cornered off for the enchanted palace and it was so surreal, it was like a more sophisticated tinkerbells house at Disney land. There was an anti camera policy but I took a few cheeky shots with my phone hence the pixelated low-res pictures. oh and also it has decided to not let me put more than one picture on here so a new post will have them on.
The purchase ticket room was illuminated with purple lighting and had these fake trees and branches all entwined with each other climbing the walls, from there the corridor that takes you to the exhibition was just painted white with drawing and messages on the walls in purple ink.
You were given a map that contained details about the rooms and some history, some rooms had a picture of a red crown by them which meant a name of a princess was hidden somewhere in there - by the end seven princesses should have been found. The reason I had originally wanted to go was that the palace had collaborated with artists and designers such as Vivienne Westwood, William Tempest, Stephen Jones, Boudicca, Aminaka Wilmont and Echo Morgan.
Vivienne Westwood was portraying ' a dress for a rebellious princess', it was brilliant it was a dress standing up on the staircase which was a reddish colour, it was the shape of a puffy princesses dress and had two badges on it! It was meant to be about princess Charlotte whom after she died left the country in mourning for over 20 years - so much so that they ran out of black cloth.
A couple of my other favourites were 'a dress of the world' by Echo Morgan, and 'a dress for dreaming of freedom' by William Tempest, this was meant to be about the young Princess Victoria - it was one of the most grand, draped from the ceiling with tiny origami birds flying off of it, however it was quite a busy room and someone was bound to have their eye on me if I took a picture, so sadly that will have to be imagined.
The final room was the room of dancing shadows which had one wall with illuminated pictures of the seven princesses, and the rest was dark with a projection of dancing people's silhouettes on the ceiling. It may not be everybody's cup of tea, but it was certainly mine - I would highly recommend it for anyone who is visual or is just interested in learning some of Great Britain's history. The exhibition goes on through august so there is still plenty of time left!
On Sunday 13th June 2010 was the Marylebone street fair in London, since it was the end of my exams I was free to roam the streets of one of the city's most beautiful areas armed with a camera and no time limit. Every year Marylebone does a street fair, however this was my first time of going (shameful)! I had breakfast in some really random upstairs cafe which when you looked out the window you saw a patchwork of modern diverse sculptures, tied in with Banksy like graffiti, these 'roof' gardens were so small but very well presented. It was at the back of residential areas, with inventive window sill displays! It seemed to be a balancing act competition, one house had managed to display a life sized cow and duck statue on a wall, where another had melting shoe sculptures, in a weird way it looked really amazing - like the kind of thing you find in an urban photography gallery that has subtly been photo shopped to make some crazy medley of different art styles in one picture. After a pretty heavy (and regretful) breakfast I began my voyage around the stalls of Marylebone stopping to yet again stuff my face with highly calorific and glutinous food, I just couldn't help myself - you should've smelt the place! Despite the liquid sunshine that continued to drizzle at times throughout the afternoon, the market was packed and thriving. It was a massive sense of community - literally everyone was there! The fire brigade with 'open truck(!)', all the local shops, the 'Blue Zone' was my finest of discoveries - it was an open stage where local up and coming artists were playing on into the night. It was like a mini-Glastonbury!! There was an audience consisting of about 100 people, all jamming with picnics and balloons, then at the heart of that ravid mosh pit little toddlers were dancing around. All in all I can say that it was a very good day, there was a lot going on so in some respects it was hard to see it all, but regardless I enjoyed it thoroughly and hopefully will be going again next year. Also I hope you like the pictures I took, there are only a few up there, but enough for you to get the whole jist of what was going on!!
When I found out Kensington Palace - one of London's most beautiful landmarks was doing an enchanted palace theme, I was pretty damn exited, and when a venue like that features my favourite designer Vivienne Westwood I am definitely going to go. The stories of Kensington's princesses are being told with an array of fashion, music and performances. The reason this is happening is due to the £12,000,000 renovation of Kensington Palace. The way the experience is planned is playing on the senses, e.g. sounds and visuals - using music and fashion to tell the story of the seven princesses of London. Here's a link to a video of the designers speaking of the stories of Kensington. http://www.hrp.org.uk/KensingtonPalace/stories/Palacehighlights/EnchantedPalaceintroduction.aspx 
What do you think of the old 'a legend has just died lets mourn by getting money out of it' card, this was played with Michael Jackson and Diana, now it seems Lee Mcqueen's next on the hitlist, Vogue are publicising some of his new collection items to be auctioned - fair enough we all want to get our hands on something of his, however not for nearly £20,000 and certainly not directly after his death, it seems no one is taking the time to appreaciate his genius, instead a group of rich women are fighting eachother out for some items of his. If I was in control of this i would do a V and A exhibition of his works throughout his life, this was all the young fashion and art students could see his stuff instead of it being locked away in a London penthouse wardrobe - whats your views?
