VISIT BY BOSTON HIGH SCHOOL

On Monday 21 June, 20 or so delightful girls from Boston High School, accompanied by three wonderful teachers (Mrs Stubbs, Mrs Anderson and Miss Davidson) descended on Doddington to gain inspiration for their own personal entry in our 'A Designer Dress for a Doddington Wedding' Competition.  The weather was extremely hot outside so the cool of the Hall was very inviting.

However, there was a huge obstacle in the way:  another school visit.  60 or so primary school children to avoid is not an easy thing to do ... but somehow I managed it.

I started off by giving the students a brief history on the Hall and then took them round each of the rooms - there is a lot at Doddington to gain inspiration from whether it be textiles or wall paper.  I also made them think about lots of obstacles in the Hall that could make life difficult for the bride who had to wear the dress that they designed. 

All of the students who were part of the visit were studying Design and Techonology and quite a few of them wanted to go onto study fashion in some form or another at University.  I spent a lot of time in the company of Francesca and Mina - they were both very inspirational.  Francesca was born to 'be' in fashion ... she was wearing an extremely cool T shirt with an amazing quote by Coco Chanel ... so brilliant I can't remember what it was!!!

During lunch a brought a few of the dresses that will be in the exhibition into the garden for the students to have a look at and perhaps take inspiration from.  Two of the dresses are shown below:  the heavily decorated dress designed and made by Angela Vickers was a huge hit.  I also showed the students the Elizabethan dress (also designed and made by Angela Vickers) as earlier on that day when we were in the Drawing Room of the Hall, I had shown them a sculpture of an Eizabethan collar - the dress also had a very similar collar. 

The students were absolutely amazed by the difference in size of the dress belonging to Vicky Jarvis, the current owner of the Hall's mother - many of the students actually thought it had been made for a child.  The dress was worn in the 1960s whilst the others are modern from around 2000 and was made by Hardy Amies.

There was lots of humurous moments in the tour but one stands out: I turned round to explain a dress and all I could see were three bottoms sticking out from under a dress .. obviously very eager students who needed to see the construction of the petticoats and hoops.  I have saved the ladies' dignity and will not publishing it!

The students left around 2 pm as they were very eager to get home to work on their designs.  All of the designs will be with me by Monday 28 July and judging of the competition will take place on 1 July.  The winner will be announced on 5 July.  

I shall inform you of the lucky winner in due course.