This is a heads-up
for BBC4 at 20.30 on Wednesday 24
January when the clothes Dido Belle wears in this famous
painting will be analysed, unpicked and re-created by historical costumier
Ninya Mikhaila in the series A Stitch in Time
presented by costume historian Amber Butchardt.
At least that’s what is promised, so I hope the programme does
concentrate on Dido’s diaphanous gown
which is pictorially obscured by the bowl of exotic fruits she holds to
signify her own tropical origins.
A Stitch in Time is a good series that has not received the attention it
deserves. As with Lucy Worsley’s
efforts, there’s much prancing and smirking and dressing up, overlying more
serious historical presentation, but the latter prevails, packed into a useful half-hour. Especially informative was the programme
devoted to the vast green gown worn by Signora Arnolfini in Van Eyck’s painting,
where she looks pregnant but is in fact clasping a whole fistful of fabric in
order to be able to walk forward.
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