The Alice Look

An Aladdin's cave of antique dollhouses and Alice in Wonderland memorabilia - probably not on your list of "things you might expect to see in Bethnal Green" - unless you've stumbled across the hidden gem that is the V&A Museum of Childhood. Perfect for big and little kids alike - and by big, I do mean over 25 - it really is a treasure trove of a place to visit... Unfortunately, I didn't have time to scope it out fully, but I had to catch their (free) exhibition on "The Alice Look".

When it comes to literary characters, few have proven as influential as Lewis Carroll's 150-year-old creation - and, from Gwen Stefani's "What You Waiting For" video to the awe-inspiring dance-based reinterpretations by the Royal Ballet and hip-hop supremos ZooNation which ran concurrently at the Royal Opera House over the Christmas period, the Alice effect shows little sign of letting up - I even got the chance to try her band for size myself in my theatre company's own physical theatre-based interpretation last year.

So just what is it about Alice? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it's probably not the timelessness of white pinnies and universally-flattering nature of horizontally-striped socks - it's down to the unceasing human desire to believe in magic and possibility (or impossibility) - a desire that, as this exhibition illustrates - seems to transcend time and place. From 19th century English schoolgirls to 21st century Harajuku girls, the world has spent a century and a half hoping to stumble across its very own rabbit holes...

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Degree Show Report 3: Central Saint Martins (Fashion & Jewellery Design)

And so to our final UAL Summer Show, at Central Saint Martins... Revived by a quick coffee on the train over from Chelsea (well, Vauxhall), we arrived with just enough time to spare to elbow our way through, seemingly, the entire population of North London, whilst checking out the fruits of the fashion and jewellery design grads' labour before the exhibition closed.

Fashion: Womenswear

The womenswear display was pretty epic, no way round it. Structure (well, perhaps "scaffolding" might be a more fitting term), layering and deconstruction were the watchwords of the collections, and, whilst I couldn't help but adore the drama (teetering on that borderline with the theatrical to which I am such a recurrent visitor myself) of standout pieces such as that red dress a couple of shots down, I also fell for the quieter charms of the - equally innovative - deconstructed pieces (beige can never again be accused of blandness), given added impact by some very canny layering with contrasting pieces.

Fashion: Menswear

In terms of the pieces themselves, I was equally impressed by the menswear collections - lots of exciting boundary-pushing going on, whilst the temptation to simply "run riot" without due thought and attention was skilfully avoided. However, I was a little saddened that they were given so much less "airtime" than the womenswear collections - no mannequins or complete looks on show, just lots of rails... Which made photography, as well as gaining a full appreciation of each student's collection, pretty tricky...

Fashion: Graduate Diploma

Although this was a much smaller showcase than that of the BA students, some of my favourite pieces were tucked away in this little collection... So innovative... well, would you have thought of doing that with a silver pipe?

Jewellery Design

This was a real treat. I am a sucker for a statement accessory, and you'd be hard pressed to find a bigger statement than the ones made in this room... headdresses, harnesses, full-face pieces, even full-body pieces... #betterthanTiffany.

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