...magic happened!

The first thing to catch my eye at the private view was up on the drying rail in-between the wig hangers. Jess’s bird took me straight back to my childhood to a cartoon strip in my dad’s newspaper where every day a bird was hidden somewhere in the cartoon and you had to find it.
This made me realize that this exhibition has a childlike element of Hunt The Thimble about it as you have to seek out the exhibits which don’t jump out at you as they do in a conventional setting Washing day is mainly on Monday, so the birdie gets surrounded by various wigs hung up drying: an ideal habitat for a creature probably made from the same nylon as the wigs!
We’ve been really busy recently completing orders taken from other fancy dress shops at a trade show and on Wednesdays in the shop, I was on the machine, Ali cutting out and Jess fusing and pressing at the ironing board. I thought Jess was quite happy doing this job until I saw that my ironing board had been attached to the ceiling with chains in such a convincing way that that is where it’s staying. Jess - you should’ve said something if you’d had enough of the pressing!
I headed for my comfort zone/ sewing machine to put my own piece up and there it was, Jo’s intricately hand cut topographical landscape of the Peak District placed in probably the most busy place in the shop and guess what? It’s not even glued together! This is a challenging piece of work which gives insight into Jo’s personality in a very subliminal way. Jo is the only person who I’ve ever seen sat on the floor in the shop amongst the fallen pins, wig hair-balls and off-cuts of fabric so I wasn’t surprised to see her rushing water video nestled down in amongst the zebra and tomato costume.
Mondo Mando, in the blue changing room is a true Mr. Ben experience where you step in and get taken on an adventure into Mandy’s World of beautifully embroidered unique creatures doing strange things on psychedelic backgrounds. I especially like the role the changing room mirrors play as they draw you in for a closer look, when the curtain is partially drawn back.
Over to the usually cluttered window, which has been stripped bare of everything except the glass and the signage, to Rachel’s two idiosyncratic boxes of highly personal items which give you the impression of an introvert until, like I did, you get an impression that in that fairy tale way, when the shop is closed, the boxes sprout legs and start doing high kicks all along the window ledge. Not only that, but did Nina really artfully arrange the display dummies on the floor like that or did Rachels leggy boxes boot them out of the window and throw some cloths over them?
Rachel must have a soft spot for Oli’s work as his is the only other piece occupying some window space, albeit the top right-hand corner. This piece of work, a beautifully designed, cut and constructed flying angel of a coat, accompanied by stunning photographs of his muse, Jess, towers overhead, much like Oli himself. Who would’ve thought that this time last year, he was knocking out bloomers (amongst other things!) in his second year of college!
Nina’s second piece; what a discovery, the lung of the building! I’ve asked my landlord not to bother fixing the plaster on the ceiling which came down over a year ago after some heavy rain because Nina has made a feature of it. I would feel a bit spooked out if I had anything to do with the removal of any vital organs, even if it did only belong to a building. For years to come, people will flock to see the black bag attached to a hole in our very attractive ceiling, inflate and deflate, all on its own, no pumps or wind machines: just a naturally occurring breathing phenomenon. I think Nina can take the credit for this as part of the work because if she hadn’t put the bag up there, we never would’ve known about the breathing....
Last but not least and even smaller than the bird is Nina's 3rd piece. A dim sum- looking ball of paraphernalia from Nina’s own studio, held together with wax a neatly placed on the edge of the cutting table, normally a scene of total chaos, the very point where retail outlet meets workroom. I take this as an acknowledgment from Nina, hopefully on behalf of everyone else who works there too, that the shop has to be the way it is because of the variety of jobs that need to be done all on top of each other!
I hope that the concept of this exhibition can be toured ‘Coming to an unlikely venue near you!’ -maybe to Berlin, where everyone seems to have a fixation with. I can see it in a Supermarket or a Bookshop, anywhere really.
I also hope that we can let this exhibition run for a couple more weeks to make sure that everyone can get to see it and also to give the shop chance to ebb and flow around the exhibition.
Thankyou to everyone involved: it’s a great job done well.