Yesterday we went to the Princess Diana exhibition -- the one her brother is sending around the world. It has been to Japan, and its currently in Toronto, and I think its next stop is San Francisco. Well, the best part of the $25.00 admittance fee was seeing the wedding dress. Come to think of it, that was the ONLY good thing about the exhibition. The exhibition has 6 rooms. The first room is a tribute to the women who married into the Spencer family, with some family jewellery. Well, the jewellery was all very uninteresting, and I failed to see why I would give a whit about the women who married into the SPencer family, when the reason I came to the exhibition was to see the clothing of a woman who notoriously married OUT of the Spencer family... and I do mean it when I say that the jewellery was exceedingly underwhelming. Room 2 was an expose of Diana's young life. A letter to her parents, childhood ornaments (some broken!), her school uniform, photo albums and some home movies of her at birthday parties. This part of the exhibition made me feel kind of dirty, like I was looking at something I wasn't supposed to see. I can't explain why, but the manner in which it is exhibited is cloying, not celebrational. Room 3 is worth the price of admission -- The wedding dress. I remember staying up until some ungodly hour in Vancouver B.C. watching the wedding back in July 1981, and then later that day lying about why I was late for the theatre box office summer job I held -- and being subsequently fired! Diana was exactly my age, well 4 months and 1 week younger, and I very well remember the first moment I saw her emerging in her neo-romantic wedding gown and thinking to myself -- wow. The dress is a fascinating blend of demure drama and sacharine sophistication. In hindsight, her wedding dress said a lot about her character. I do remember in 1981 thinking that the train was a titch excessive, and indeed, I still think that 8 feet could have been lopped off. The construction and detailing display superb craftsmanship through its finely gauged gathering and pleating of the ruffles and bows, and delicate sequining and beading of the lace. The one thing I didn't think worked well were strips of lace used to decorate the length of the train about a foot in from each side creating the illusion that the lace was covering a seam, which it was not, but in effect cheapened the dress. Room 4 is bizarre, because after traversing along a series of hallways with some photo tributes to her work you immeadiately enter a room devoted to her death. This room is devoid of artifacts but there are two (I think) tasteless padded seats in the centre of the gallery that resemble two draped coffins -- HUGE "ICK" factor here. Also an overwhelming scent of rose potpourri to get across the idea of the flowers, but I felt it was too theatrical, and the floral tributes always looked more like tributes of plastic and paper wrappings than flowers to me. The one element that held morbid fascination was the first draft of her brother's eulogy. His "SCREW YOU" version, as it were. It was interesting that he couldn't resist, and still felt he had to put it on parade so that it was clear how he felt. It came across as little more than sour grapes now however, like a disgruntled ex-employee dissing the boss years later. Room 5 is the fashion room. What became painfully clear very quickly, was that the clothes on display were almost entirely those of her current wardrobe at the time of her death. If you remember, her big auction of Princess dresses had happened just weeks before her death. So Diana had already done a thorough clean sweep of her wardrobe. FOr the most part, I was underwhelmed with the fashion parade. THere was a pretty cotton dress that emulated her wedding gown, that she wore for a dance at Balmoral just months after her wedding, an exquiste Salwar Kameez made for one of her official trips to Pakistan, a couple of stunningly beautiful black beaded dresses and the white crepe dress with the ill-chosen beaded snake trim from 1997 that illustrated her post divorce look, as well as a handful of other plain frocks and suits that made the room look more like a Harrod's shop window than an exhibition of fashions from a Princess' wardrobe. THere was even a pile of Vuitton luggage -- uh, okay... why? Because she could afford them? THe last and least of the 6 rooms was the book tribute room, where volumes of tomes with condolences signed by millions of people were shown library style. Well.... who cares!. A photograph of the volumes in situ at family estate would have sufficed. I hate to think of the cost of shipping those books to each exhibition centre. Of course, that wasn't really the last room.... there was still the gift shop with the tacky bells and teacups one expects with museum exhibitions these days. So, all in all, I would say miss the exhibition but for the wedding dress. It's certainly one of the most important dresses of the 20th century and should be seen close up to be fully appreciated, but otherwise --- not impressed.
Interesting review Jonathan...thanks for the play by play. We were actually thinking of maybe taking it in this week, but since our time is limited and other places may be more interesting (like Kensington Market LOL), think we will pass. Sue
THe one good thing is there was NO crowd. It was expensive, but the most number of people in any one gallery at one time was maybe 12 people. From the way the exhibition is set up they were obviously expecting thousands of people to be streaming through, and maybe it was like that at the beginning of the exhibition, but now its dead.
I don't know where I have been I hadn't heard about this. Where does the $25 admission fee go? Sounds to me like some of it was in poor taste and some just plain tacky!
I asked the ticket takers whether the money was going into the pockets of the Earl SPencer or the Design Exchange (where the exhibition was), and they said they felt it was a bit of both...
Thanks for the review Jonathan. I did want to see that when in town, but wouldn't drag Jim through it. I would have loved to see the wedding gown. I worked at the Bay's bridal department at the time of the wedding and clearly remember steaming our replica version of the gown for hours when it came in!!
You know, I havn't really ever herad anyone refer to the Earl of Spencer as a arbiter of fine taste. Hollis
Jonathan, thanks so much for the play-by-play. Like so many people, I have a great fascination with Diana and, I'm sure, I would attend any exhibition containing ANY of her clothes...no matter how mundane. However, you really make the whole set-up sound rather tacky and maudlin..as someone said, "the Earl of Spencer has never been an arbiter of taste." LOL. I would have loved to see the wedding dress! Yes, I agree with you, that would have been worth the price of admission. Thanks for the description. I loved reading it. joey
Forgot to mention that if anyone is interested in seeing it while in Toronto, it is up until April 11.
I watched the program about her tapes last week. Did they have a navy blue gown in the exhibit? I have to find the photo for you. That was my favorite
