Invitation Strictly Personal, Iain Webb

Somerset House is hosting a small exhibition, launching during London Fashion Week, which will feature a collection of items associated with the catwalk show. The exhibition is of items collected and curated by award winning fashion writer and professor Iain R. Webb. ‘Invitation Strictly Personal’ will also coincide with the release of a book by the same name, and features a range of objects, including invitations, as the title suggests, in their various forms. Often whimsical, political, humorous, artistic and sometimes controversial, the invitations were mainly sent to Webb and kept as part of his collection which dates back to the 1960’s.

Also on display at the exhibition will be sketchbook notes and newspaper reports made by Webb from the front row, with highlights from a number of top designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier, Alexander McQueen, Thierry Mugler and Comme Des Garçons. The exhibition harks back to a pre-digital age, where journalist’s scrapbooks and reportage of shows was the only way to see the images and gain opinions on the collections featured. The exhibition provides an intimate and fascinating insight into one journalist’s experience of attending the exclusive world of catwalk shows throughout his career.

The curator of the exhibition is a professor of fashion at the Royal College of Art, and is also known as an award-winning writer. He began his career as fashion editor of BLITZ and went on to become fashion editor of The Evening Standard, Harpers and Queen, The Times and ELLE, while contributing to various publications including the New York Times, The Guardian and Vogue. Webb has published several books, including the highly acclaimed ‘As Seen in BLITZ: Fashioning ‘80s Style’ and ‘Postcards from the Edge of the Catwalk’, so the new exhibition and book are sure to be a success.

Somerset House

London

WC2R 1LA