A Grand Day Out - Bowes Museum, County Durham

A View of Bowes

What a day we had, the weather was wonderful, we were all in short sleeves it was so warm.  Bowes is an enchanting place to visit, the house itself is magnificent and stands proud on a hill surrounded by formal gardens.

It has all the amenities you come to expect now in a major tourist attraction.  Excellent shop and a lovely tea room serving most enjoyable lunches and afternoon tea - I can personally recommend the Red Velvet Cake, scrummy but, our real reason for visiting was the Yves Saint Laurent Exhibition - Eternal Style.

This is a major retrospective of the great man's work, featuring a host of originals, toiles, embroideries and design drawings. It was most enjoyable and surprising to find an exhibition like this outside London and I cannot hesitate to recommend this to anyone remotely interested in fashion or embroidery.

 All the great iconic images were there, the Mondrian Dress, the dresses inspired by Picasso and Matisse.  The trouser suits and embroidered jackets, the homage to Van Gough's Irises was just amazing to see.  It is a great collection.  The entrance is so atmospheric, the museum's wonderful marbles with black sheer fabrics in front that have copies of Saint Laurent drawings in white.  They have also married couture pieces with the historic clothing from the museum's own collection of costume to show how period pieces influenced major collections.

We were lucky enough to see Savage Beauty at the V&A in the summer, which was mind blowing.  Alexander McQueen growled and roared at you with his genius, there is no less genius with the Yves Saint Laurent exhibition but rather than growl it purrs at you and the word you think of is elegant - it is classic style.

 Should you wish to see this most excellent collection, the exhibition is open until 25th of October 2015. It is well worth the effort and of course you can visit the rest of Bowes and even see the Silver Swan that swims with little silver fishes up a river of glass rods, probably Bowes most famous piece. I have included just a couple of photos to whet your appetite, there are actually over fifty pieces in the exhibition plus toiles and sample pieces. The attention to detail is just stunning and some of the embroidery was breath taking.

....and if you manage to get to Bowes do try the Red Velvet Cake!