Cate Blanchett narrates new Vogue Exhibition

Cate Blanchett narrates a new exhibition, VOGUE: Inventing the Runway. The exhibition at the Lightroom near Kings Cross Station opens 13 November and will run until 26 April 2025. Tickets can be booked here.

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VOGUE: Inventing the Runway

VOGUE: Inventing the Runway is a spectacular new immersive exhibition exploring the history of the fashion runway show, from the intimate couture salons of the early 20th century to the unforgettable pop-culture events of the present.

Narrated by Cate Blanchett, the show will utilise Vogue’s remarkable archive and contributor network to create an experience that brings together the industry’s leading voices from the past, present, and future.

It’s the closest you’ll likely get to seeing a fashion show without actually being there. While archival catwalk footage is often featured in film and TV, it’s too brief and one-dimensional to provide a sense of how it feels to be a guest. By contrast, the exhibition at the Lightroom feels truly immersive. Visitors sit in a white cube, while disparate images from Vogue’s archive are projected onto the walls, ceiling and floor.

While footage from Alexander McQueen’s spring/summer 2001 show, Voss, plays out in front, close-up photos of the clothes are projected on each side, and the floor fills with projections of shattered glass, an effective piece of artistic license.

What with the giant visuals, Cate Blanchett’s narration, the subtitles and the music, this is not an exhibition for those prone to experiencing sensory overload. But nor is a fashion show, a medium whose chaotic sights and sounds are mirrored perfectly here.

“But sometimes, location is not about a grand destination, but rather, transporting us to places that are meaningful,” narrates Blanchett, as all four walls fill with vivid purple images of a lavender field, the setting for Simon Porte Jacquemus’s spring/summer 2020 show in the French countryside where he spent his childhood. The film then cuts immediately to the graffiti-strewn streets of Camden, where British designer Martine Rose chose to stage her show that same season.

Most precious of all is the archive footage of memorable shows that have either been long forgotten, or have never been seen as much as they deserved to be. For the fashion purist, a Comme des Garcons show from 1982 will never not be a thing of rare beauty (designer Rei Kawakubo is widely regarded as a once-in-a-generation talent). Patrick Kelly, a criminally underrated New York designer who died aged 35, also gets his moment in the sun. Likewise Hussein Chalayan, whose seminal autumn/winter 2000 show is oft overshadowed by the work of his brilliant contemporary, Alexander McQueen.

This is a thorough history of the runway show that will prove compelling to any fashion enthusiast, though at £25 – £32 for an adult ticket (£15 for children and students) visitors should be mindful of the venue’s dynamic pricing when booking. The film runs for 55 minutes on a loop, with nothing preventing you from watching it twice – after which point, you’ll likely emerge thinking the world looks quite flat and ugly by comparison.

Full review on The Telegraph

@juliahobbs_

Sneak peek of ‘VOGUE: Inventing the Runway’ — an immersive exhibit that opens tomorrow at the Lightroom in London ?@British Vogue

? original sound – Julia Hobbs