Ready For A Close Up

Guest post by Jessie de Salis

The Fashion and Textile Museum’s most recent exhibition, Louise Dahl-Wolfe: A Style of Her Own, features the work of fashion photographer Dahl-Wolfe; one of America’s most influential artists of the 20th century. This is the first time that the museum has ever displayed a photography exhibition, and for gallery goers in London, it’s been worth the wait.

This photographic debut provides a great insight into textiles caught on film throughout the 1900s. The museum has been quite creative in their approach to adapting the space, as the show comprises of a ceiling covered in hanging parasols; a simple layout with a huge focus on the photographs, giving the viewer a strong sense of the artists work and life.

Dahl-Wolfe, who was married to American sculptor Mike Wolfe, helped to define the image of a modern, independent, post-war woman by curating strong poses, captivating expressions and surroundings that were often unexpected in the fashion photography industry at the time. The artist had a fantastic sense of colour and composition. Her photographs maintain an elegant and graceful style, simultaneously strange and striking with an effect that still resonates today...

Louise Dahl-Wolfe: A Style of Her Own, 20 October 2017 - 21 January 2018

The Fashion and Textile Museum, 83 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3XF

To further explore the life of textiles on film, you can read all about the art of pinscreen animation in the new issue of Selvedge.