Bright Young Things by Helen Spiegelhalter

Set / Fashion Design

Model: Lina Ruoff
Sash with silver chains 100 cm; Armour chain in silk stocking 30 cm; Garter with Keshi Barrock Beads 15 cm
Unique pieces

Through my research on the "Bright Young Things", the extraordinary group of young aristocratic bohemians of 1920s London and their sensational fancy dress parties, where they liked to portray extraordinary characters and swap genders by changing their appearance in the form of costumes, I came to the actual topic of my thesis. The question of the search, the development and the creation of one's own identity and how these processes are related to gender identity. How do we define our identity? How do we express it? It was important for me to clarify under which aspects gender is understood and if and how it is changeable. How do we define gender and which instances influence this definition? Do we limit ourselves by certain categorizations and the expectations associated with them, and if so, how can we break them down? The work of Cecil Beaton, who was himself a part of the Bright Young Things, played a special role for me. He documented the extravagant party guests through his photographs and staged the members of the "Bright Young Things" in theater-like settings and costumes. "Reality and Masquerade - Creating an Identity" explores the creation of one or even multiple identities through staged self-presentation and the effect of clothing. How clothing as a masquerade, and here I mean clothing as an overarching term that includes jewelry and accessories, provides an opportunity for expression. An artistic free space in which through the change of the exterior can playfully explore their own inner, a kind of rebellion against the historically and culturally determined conventions.