As part of my summer activities, I always try to put a Festival in my diary. This year, I made it to the Port Eliot Festival in Cornwall. This one has been on my bucket list for a while as it is not your typical music festival à la Glastonbury or the Isle of Wight. It has a book club, a poetry stage, Cinematheque, dance tents like The Boogie Round, food trucks, meditation, wellbeing workshops and, last but not least, the brand new Fashion Foundation. You can imagine, that’s the main reason I wanted to go and discover this agenda-setting home for fashion and art.
The mix and match line up of fashion connoisseurs was impressive. Over the course of the 3 days, I was absorbed in an overloaded fashion marathon. I had the pleasure of watching Daphne Guinness talk to Will Hodgkinson about the relationship between fashion and music. In her experience, music concerts are the best medium for performers to dress up in exciting and innovative styles. Fashion Revolution activists organised a workshop where we mingled with expert makers and designers for a session of mending, restyling, making and much more. They wanted us to realise that repair is a practical, symbolic way to say: my clothes are me.
I listened to Harriet Verney, a contributing writer and producer, talk about Alexander McQueen. She expressed that he should be considered responsible for putting British Fashion on the map again and embodying its world-renowned eccentricity. There was also an appropriately named exhibition called “Chanson d’Amour” of never before seen pieces of C20 Vintage. This Devon-based warehouse hire inspirational women’s vintage clothing out to the fashion industry, film & TV. Set up in the drawing room of Port Eliot House, the garments were a beauty to behold. My favourite dress on display was owned by Cleo Butterfield, who had a preference for fashion and pop culture of the 1960s and 70s. Her red flower dress resembled the Charleston dress and so made you feel like dancing!
I really had to plan my days meticulously so I had no double bookings or disappointments. The fashion community was really out there: fashion designers, writers, teachers, illustrators, archivists, stylists, curators, critics. It’s quite unique what this festival does. In the Walled Garden, you hang out with like-minded people. I couldn’t get enough of it.
Once I got out of this zone, the night was still young. There was music to stay up late to, plus cabaret, opera and more.
When my hunger for fashion was satisfied, I enjoyed the variety of global cuisines in the cosy food trucks. They even had early risers for Kundalini yoga, a journey of self-discovery through breathing exercises, movement and sound. Or there were wild swims, a natural mud bath and canoeing on Bounty’s End. The organisers kept you busy, but in a very calm and relaxing way. As they say: “This isn’t a place you should rush through.”
It’s a pleasure to attend a lifestyle festival that places such an emphasis on fashion because fashion is so connected to how we live (just as much as music, dance, literature, food and art). You spend days with people you may never see in your life again. But you can never get enough of festivals like this because they give us the ingredients for a balanced life. We should enjoy, embrace, share and dream of the next one, next summer.
To be continued…
TeDe
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