Two Days Out

 

So although the trip south recently was basically so I could go to the Glasgow School of Yarn yarn festival we took the opportunity to drive over to Dundee to see the Kimono Exhibition at the V & A Dundee Museum as well. 

I didn't take any photos at either of these events, and the OH just took the one at Kimono, which is above. 

The exhibition itself was amazing. A lot of care had gone into selecting the images, both the large background ones and the smaller ones on the walls which illustrated the story of the development of the kimono over the years. Plus the garments themselves were spectacular. It's amazing that one garment should stay as a staple for so many hundreds of years, with nothing much changing bar the nature, method and placement of the decoration. It was a bit sad to see how the workmanship and detailed nature of the decoration decreased once Japan was opened to the west and alkaline dyes were imported from Europe. But it was interesting, as was the way the basic shape was plundered by designers in Europe too. I was still suffering a bit from Exhibition Knee but I made it round with just the one break - and there were plenty of chairs and benches for people to sit on and contemplate the beauty around them if you needed them.

After we had looked at all the kimonos we repaired to the cafe where we didn't stay, since it was overpriced and pretentious. We had a look in the shop which has to be the dullest museum shop I've ever seen, which is ridiculous when you think its supposed to be a museum of art and design. To be honest I'm not sure how well the whole plan was thought through. There was a lot of hype over the exterior design when it was first built, as it's in the shape of a ship, as a nod to Dundee's maritime heritage,  but inside there's not a lot of space and a lot of it is wasted. There were lots of rooms for the Kimono Exhibition and presumably that's where they always put the temporary exhibitions, but they didn't seem to have much of a permanent collection on show. It opened in 2015 and I can't  shake off an eerie feeling that it was designed in Westminster to be built as some sort of pre-referendum bribe-cum-sop. It's supposed to be 'Scotland's Design Museum' but I saw precious little design or indeed anything very Scottish except for some Dundee cakes and tea towels in the shop. Which was about as overpriced as the cafe. We won't be rushing back! 

The GSoY was also a bit of a disappointment actually. Several of the vendors I've come to rely on seeing there weren't vending there this year. Whether they decided not to bother, or whether they weren't selected to make room for new ones I don't know but I certainly missed them. Some of the people I go to see had very small or badly placed stalls and certainly Wee County Yarns were suffering from being stuck in  a very dark corner,. They had had to being in extra lights themselves on the Sunday after putting up with it on Saturday. Some of the people who were supposed to be vending weren't there, and it wasn't just the weather that had kept them away because they had been announced as vending but they didn't appear on the floor plan which must have been printed a while in advance. Several of the volunteers had no idea of the answers to the questions we had either. Also I do wish they would extend their refreshment 'offering' from just drinks and cakes to something a bit more substantial. If I'm there over lunchtime I don't just want cake. I mean, obviously I DO want cake, but not just cake.

That said, the friend I went with and I had a very nice late lunch in a small cafe not far away, that we just stumbled over,  and where the staff were fabulous and  there was plenty of choice food wise. And we did then wander off to John Lewis where my friend made a couple of purchases and we rounded off our day with coffee and blackcurrant and marscapone  cake in the cafe. And it was delicious! 

I think I'll be giving GSoY a miss next year though.