BlackWhite

In tandem with the physical exhibition, SHOWstudio.com broadcast performances by Judy Blame, Edward Griffiths and Gareth Pugh from the LiveStudio in Bruton place. Objects made during the LiveStudio were then subsequently displayed in the Shop.

Blackwhite is conceptually limitless, structured only around the most celebrated aesthetic relationship in fashion: black and white. While the stark palette tied the pieces together, the diverse range of mediums and objects visually makde way for new associations and investigations into the aesthetics of black and white.

Including Irving Penn's famed portrait of Lisa Fonssagrives, Harlequin Dress (1950), and photographs by Cecil Beaton and Nick Knight that had never been exhibited, the show was anchored by the elegant simplicity of black and white fashion portraiture. Against the clarity of these carefully composed photographs, bespoke sculptures by Amanda Harlech and Peter Saville mingled among iconic fashion artefacts like Michael Howell's "drained" Union Jack, sections of floor from the infinity cove of Studio 4 at Park Royal Studios West London, Chanel Haute Couture headpieces made by Kamo for Karl Lagerfeld's internationally acclaimed S/S 2009 show, and two of Visionaire's earliest issues, Black and White.

Together, the sharp contrast of these varied objects and images became a landscape full of new consequence. Minimalist totems built from Haute Couture headpieces and compacted layers of paint from a floor; appropriated erotic furniture and a colourless flag to take on new formality; a simple drawer and reworked jacket became grave memorials to love, life and death.