Stay ConnectedA smart, playful and interrogative take on contemporary fashion and its context – weaving together sartorial and social history to tell powerful, surprising stories of identity.
Hosted by Lucy Clayton together with a selection of special guests including designers, artists, writers, activists, academics and of course, the dresser uppers themselves, this show explores the way we dress in all its creative, sequinned and chaotic glory.
Copyright: © 2019 Lucy Clayton
In this week's episode, Ben and Lucy are taking their diamanté magnifying glass to the face itself, and thinking about a new fashion coinage: Ugly Make-up, or Brutalist Make-up. Reflecting on the origins and motivations of this creative, conspicuous beauty trend, the Dress: Fancy duo also offer some of their own cosmetic tips. Surely, not to be missed.
Peter Brathwaite is a man of many talents but most recently he's been the shining star of the Getty Museum Challenge – the social media sensation that has captivated art lovers, creators and costume fanatics during global lockdown. Using the challenge as platform to explore the history of Black Portraiture – Peter has brilliantly captured the spirit of works of art across the ages and drawn attention to stories that have been too long neglected or considered marginalised. Join Lucy and Peter as they discuss the process behind this extraordinary project.
To vote for us in the British Podcast Awards, visit britishpodcastawards.com/vote, type "Dress Fancy" into the search box and follow the instructions. Thank you!
As the global lockdown eases and we all begin to think about wearing clothes in public, possibly for the first time in three months, Lucy and Ben discuss how the pandemic could change the way we dress. Looking to the past, politicians, and always with an eye to the playful, a range of sartorial options are considered and, of course, judged. Before venturing beyond your four walls, this episode could contain some essential dressing up pointers...
The past months have been strange, difficult and trying. Fancy dress has been worn by people around the world to provide joy during the pandemic. In this week's episode, Lucy and Ben consider how fancy dress costume performed a similar function in the past as they invite themselves to the first bal costumé hosted by Queen Victoria, a medieval extravaganza celebrating the court of Edward III and Philippa of Hainault. Gold, glitter, silks and furs: what could be more joyous than this…
It's about time! Lucy and Ben wear their smudgiest eyeliner and descend into the subterranean world of the Cabaret. Focusing on two examples from early twentieth-century Europe, in England and Germany, they discover curious parallels between the past and present and reflect on people's universal desire to live as themselves and without fear.
For many people, the essential part of any fancy dress costume is a face mask. Concealing one identity and making another possible, face coverings have been a source of excitement and anxiety throughout history. Today, in the midst of a global pandemic, this costume staple now means something very different. In this episode, Lucy and Ben discuss the many and varied meanings of masks in different cultures and across chronologies.
This week, in the second of our designer-focused mini episodes, Lucy and Ben discuss the bold and beautiful, strong and soft, powerful and playful creations of Molly Goddard. Since 2015, Goddard has won various industry accolades, designed for the Met Gala and for the small screen, combining technical skill with a unique sartorial flair. This episode tells you all you need to know about the fantasy and force of her work.
This week, Lucy and Ben walk towards the precipice and consider the role and meaning of clothes in six different cults. Reflecting on the relationship between fashion and fanaticism, the show considers how distinctive dress is used to control and champion the spread of controversial ideas and behaviours. The nature of this week's discussion means that this is not for the whole family: listener discretion is advised.
Lucy and Ben sacrifice comfort to probe the dark, sometimes demonic, always disruptive world of the New York Club Kids, a diverse group who caroused and challenged in the City That Never Sleeps during the 1980s and 1990s. Offering a counterpoise to last week's episode on the Bright Young Things, the Club Kids used their (clothed) bodies to challenge and provoke social norms in a way that would have intimated Beaton and his crew.
This week, Lucy and Ben explore the life and times of Dress: Fancy's patron saint, Cecil Beaton. The social upheavals in Europe between the First and Second World Wars created an unsettling mix of expectation and fear. Weary and wealthy, a privileged group of twenty-somethings attempted to turn doubt and despair into delight and delirium. Their antics and fancy dress shenanigans became legendary, but, Beaton apart, their hopes for escape remained tragically unfulfilled.
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