On 17 October 2008 Bath and North East Somerset Council’s
Fashion Museum will unveil a display of show-stopping ensembles by
1970s fashion designer Bill Gibb. These have been especially chosen
by Iain R Webb, author of a forthcoming book Bill Gibb
Fashion and Fantasy. The display at the Fashion Museum
Bill Gibb: A Personal Journey, continues for a
year until 4 October 2009, and coincides with the publication of
Iain R Webb’s book in October 2008.
The Fashion Museum has an important collection of wonderful
outfits designed by Bill Gibb, a much-loved yet, strangely,
little-recognized British fashion designer.
“Gibb has become one of British fashion’s forgotten stars, and I
am delighted to have had the opportunity to show the designer in
all his glory and record the talent that has, for the most part,
gone uncelebrated by the fashion industry,” commented Iain R Webb,
who has been working with Fashion Museum Manager, Rosemary Harden,
on the preparations for the new display for the last 12 months.
The Bill Gibb display at the Fashion Museum will include
approximately 25 ensembles, all carefully chosen by Iain and the
Fashion Museum to showcase the fashion genius of Bill Gibb. All of
the clothes on display will show the designer’s love of romance and
flights of fantasy, as well as his flamboyant flair for decoration
and dramatic effect.
One of the most stunning pieces in the new exhibit will be a
leather panelled skirt printed with silver chrysanthemum flowers -
worn with a matching jacket - from Bill Gibb’s first solo
collection shown at the Oriental Club in London in 1972. This
ensemble was much photographed by fashion editors at the time, and
Iain R Webb discovered a photograph in the Fashion Museum
collections of a model girl wearing a similarly printed leather
coat from that same debut collection. The panelled skirt itself
appeared in a dramatic Vogue contemporary photograph by Clive
Arrowsmith, and this image is used on the front cover of the
forthcoming book Bill Gibb Fashion and Fantasy.
Iain R Webb’s fascination with Bill Gibb started when he was
young and lived just outside Bath: “The seeds of my journey were
planted in the early 1970s when Bill Gibb was charming the world
with his unique brand of fashion. As a teenager I swooned over the
photographs of his designs featured in Vogue magazine and was
inspired to follow his lead and study fashion design at St Martins
School of Art, the very same course that Gibb himself had taken
years earlier. Growing up in the rural wilds of Wiltshire,
surrounded by myriad siblings, I identified with the designer and
dreamt that one day I might be part of his glamorous world.”
In fact, Bill Gibb’s career was relatively short-lived; from
1977 the display at the Fashion Museum will also include a
luxurious silk kimono with a charming print featuring flowers,
birds and butterflies. Bill Gibb used this fabric, which was
designed by Janet Taylor, to create a Jubilee kimono that conjured
up a fantasy British landscape, complete with purple thistles
symbolising his native Scotland.
Rosemary Harden, Fashion Museum Manager, commented “One of the
things we’re trying to do here at the Fashion Museum in Bath is to
showcase the work of British fashion designers whose names aren’t
necessarily that well known, but whose contribution to British
fashion has been significant. It is therefore fantastic to have the
opportunity to work with Iain to create this display of the work of
Bill Gibb, a truly unsung hero of British fashion. This follows on
from the Fashion Museum’s John Bates Fashion Designer exhibition in
2006. We hope that all the visitors who enjoyed that show will
return to the Fashion Museum to discover the work of Bill Gibb in
the new display.”
The display opens on 17 October 2008 and will continue until 4
October 2009. The Fashion Museum is open daily from 10.30am to 5pm,
exit 6pm March to October, and 10.30am to 4pm, exit 5pm November to
February. Visit http://www.fashionmuseum.co.uk/
for more details.
Bill Gibb Fashion and Fantasy by Iain R Webb, published by
V&A Publications will be available from Fashion Museum shop in
October 2008.
ENDS
Notes for Editors:
Iain R Webb is a fashion journalist of international standing. He
was fashion editor of The Times and Elle magazine, and writes today
for a variety of newspapers and magazines including The Independent
and the New York Times magazine. He is also a visiting Professor of
Fashion at Central Saint Martins, the Royal College of Art and
London College of Fashion. In the late 1970s he trained as a
fashion designer at St Martin’s School of Art (the same course as
Bill Gibb); but his formative years in fashion were spent as a boy
sketching in the galleries at the Museum of Costume. In recent
years, Iain has returned home to Bath and renewed his love of the
museum (now called the Fashion Museum) and its world class
collection of contemporary and historical dress.