Cecil Beaton’s Fashionable World

I have had a day trip to London - quite an event as I haven't been more than 40 miles from home since February! The reason for this jaunt was to see Cecil Beaton's Fashionable World at the National Portrait Gallery, and it did not disappoint.

Setting the scene

The exhibition covers Beaton's life from his early photography to his work designing costumes for the stage and film versions of My Fair Lady. Initially, he photographed family and friends.

Barbara Beaton, c1925

As well as photographs, there are a number of his illustrations.

The Charm of Paris (Gaby Deslys) c1929

His first fashion work for Vogue came in 1927.

Outside Claridge's Hotel

Even as his reputation grew, he continued using the basic camera that he was given at the age of 12 for a surprisingly long time. What made his name initially seems to have been less technical skill and more his compositions and use of unusual props and backgrounds.

Beaton's Kodak 3A folding camera

Princess Emeline de Broglie in raincoat and hat, 1928

Society portraits from, L to R, 1932, 1929 and 1928

The 1930s saw a move to more surrealist images, albeit with a playful slant.

Mona Williams, 1936

Hats are High, 1936

Coats by Charles James, 1936

Although he could still, knowingly, refer back to the illustration styles of the Edwardian era.

Hand-tinted print, 1937

He also spent time in America, where he photographed a number of Hollywood stars.

Karen Morley, 1932

Despite his extensive work for both the American and British issues of Vogue, he designed relatively few covers. In part this was because he found colour photography tricky and also because, as the exhibition notes tactfully put it, he was "resistant to the art director's brief". The exhibition includes a full set of his covers, both photographed and drawn.

American Vogue covers, 1935 and 1936

Mildred Morton on the cover of British Vogue, 1948

1939 saw Beaton switch to war photography, although one of his best known images from the time mixes war and fashion.

Fashion is Indestructible, 1941

The same combination occurs in this immediately post-war shot of Balmain clothing in Paris.

Wool coat and trousers, 1945

Beaton himself admitted that "I started out with very little talent, but a lot of strong ambition", and this does seem to have prompted fallings out with a number of people over the course of his life. Greta Garbo was allegedly furious when the images from what she believed to be a private shoot were sent to Vogue.

Greta Garbo, 1946

Post-war, Beaton applied himself to mastering colour photography.

The Second Age of Beauty is Glamour, 1946

Late Day Richness, 1948

But it's hardly surprising that someone whose compositions were so theatrical should also get involved in costume design. He designed the costumes for the London production of My Fair Lady, starring Julie Andrews as Eliza Doolittle.

Julie Andrews, dress for the Embassy Ball scene

And then worked on the film version, with Audrey Hepburn.

Publicity still

Beaton with Audrey Hepburn, 1963

This post only shows a fraction of the material in the exhibition, which runs until 11 January 2026. It is a long way from being the grittiest exhibition I've ever been to, and at least one reviewer has criticised it for this. However, I'm not entirely sure what else they expected from an exhibition which begins with the Bright Young Things of the 1920s and ends with a film which is all about artifice. I for one was happy to be immersed in that world for a day.

The last month

Having finished my Reyna, the urge to start another project is strong. Especially as one of my recent trips to Shrewsbury hospital involved a detour to Ewe and Ply and the acquisition of further skein of their lovely Corrie-Mo yarn. Despite my substantial Ravelry queue, it's now caked up, and calling to be made into another Close to You.

Ready to go

The shade is called Leaf Peeping, and I can see why.

With an autumnal backdrop

But for me the colours are more reminiscent of carousel horses, like these ones.

Blurred, but you get the idea

As if that wasn't enough, I’ve also bought wool for my so-good-I-bought-it-twice cardigan. I knew exactly what yarn and shade I wanted to use for this, so when I discovered that my local fabric and wool shop was selling it at 15% off for Black Friday - well, it seemed rude not to!

King Cole wool aran in shade Cranberry

Despite all this, and the suggestion that there are psychological benefits to having multiple projects on the go*, I am trying to resist adding to my works in progress. Mainly because it's December tomorrow, and I don't feel that I've done a lot this year. So I'd really like to spend the last month of 2025 finishing a few things.

My shirtwaist, Butterick 7729, came to a halt when Royal Mail managed to lose the matching covered belt that I'd had made. Harlequin kindly made me a replacement (fortunately I had spare fabric), but by then it was a bit beyond cotton shirtwaist weather.

With belt, but without buttonholes, buttons or hem

I made a bit of progress on my black 1930s dress, Butterick 7598, but it has ground to a halt again. And my Wool Fair cardigan hasn't been touched since May.

So that just leaves my slate Wondrella. Realistically, I'm only going to have the time to complete at most one project in the next month, so I'm concentrating on this one. I completed the fronts, and to my relief, the cable pattern as I had calculated it fitted in very well with the shaped neckline.

It worked!

Now I'm working on the first sleeve. The sleeves are meant to be full length, but on both my blue and aloe versions, they came out as bracelet length. This didn't bother me as those are both summer cardigans, but for a winter cardigan I wanted something longer. I worked out how many extra rows were needed to fill the gap, and recalculated the rate of stitch decreases to make a smoothly tapering shape. I've also added a cable panel down the centre of the sleeve, to match the fronts. The sleeves are knitted top down, whereas the fronts are knitted bottom up. This doesn't make a huge difference to the cable pattern, except that I initially got the rows where the cable widens and then narrows the wrong way round.

Getting these two points mixed up was 'interesting'!

I've still got about 20% of this sleeve, plus the ribbing, to knit. Then there's the second sleeve, the neck band and the button bands, and the ribbon backing to add. Getting this done in a busy month is going to be a real stretch, but I can only try.

Sleeve progress

* - Dr Anne Kirketerp, a Danish psychologist and author of the book Craft Psychology, claims that having a range of projects to choose from gives you the freedom to select one that matches your energy level. I can see the logic of this; if you’ve had a busy day and just want to relax with something non-taxing, then trying to plough on with your complex lace or colourwork project is unlikely to benefit either you or your knitting. So depending on how things go, I may yet end up casting on another Close to You after all!

Reyna update

First of all, I must say a huge thank you to everyone who reached out to me after last week's post. As clearly many of you know yourself, caring for a parent can feel quite isolating at times, so your kind comments and messages of support meant a great deal to me.

Despite saying last week that a) I wasn't expecting to post many completed projects and b) fixing the mesh section of my Reyna shawl was going to be a major operation, here I am with . . . a completed Reyna. Clearly I should stick to sewing and knitting, and not branch out into fortune telling! To be fair, I was unwell at the start of the week (I suspect it may have been my body's way of forcing me to have a rest), and couldn't do much but sit quietly and knit.

The error which required fixing was nothing to do with the pattern. It was entirely self-inflicted, and due to my fondness for working on straight needles. Even when I had only reached rows of around 125 stitches, the work was starting to look a bit bunched up in places.

This is not going to end well

But I continued regardless, squashing the stitches up more and more. Naturally, the inevitable happened - a stitch slipped off a needle, and because it was in the mesh section, I couldn't work out how to pick it up correctly. My first attempt to fix it went badly, and my second attempt was even worse! The project got dumped in the Naughty Corner, and I seriously considered frogging the lot.

Eventually I decided to have one last go at a rescue effort. The first thing to do was accept the inevitable, and transfer the stitches onto a circular needle. Even on a 100cm circular, the almost completed shawl was bunched in places; there is no way that I could have knitted the whole thing on 35cm long needles.

Note to self - learn from your mistakes!

I knew that I needed to unravel back to before the dropped stitch, but I still had the problem that I didn't know how to do this accurately or what the end result should look like. So I turned to what I can only describe as 'stunt knitting'. Like its namesake, stunt knitting does the difficult bits so that the star of the show - in this case my limited supply of 'good' yarn - doesn't have to. I dug some leftover DK out of my stash, and knitted up a quick mesh sample on 6mm / US size 10 needles. This created large stitches, so I could see the structure properly, and I could undo and reknit it until I really understood what I was doing.

Stunt knitting, wrong and right sides

I unpicked several rows of the shawl (not fun, at more than 200 stitches per row) until I was sure that I had reached a row which was entirely correct, and started knitting again. And to my relief, this time it worked. From there it was plain sailing. I've discovered that long rows of k2tog aren't my favourite thing (although I'm fine with ssk), but the mesh pattern it produces is simple but effective, and really allows the colours in the yarn to shine.

Close-up of the mesh

I added a few extra rows of garter stitch at the end to use up the full skein of yarn. I ended up with a shawl which is 93cm / 36½" along the shorter sides, and 1g of wool left over from a 100g skein.

Blocking the completed shawl

Draped over my shoulders to show the full size

Realistically, I'm more likely to wear it wrapped round my neck.

It's a useful size

And would work well over a coat, too

Although when I'm wearing a shawl with my pinafore dress, I have been known to tuck the ends in like a fichu.

Going (very loosely) eighteenth century

I'm so glad that I persevered with this, and didn't just frog it. I still see myself as a beginner knitter, maybe inching towards intermediate, but every time I manage to fix a problem like this it feels that I am another step forward on my knitting journey.

The new normal

Tangentally-related knitting picture

I'm quite a private person in real life, and that's reflected in this blog; it very rarely strays beyond my little world of making, home dressmaking history, costume, and reviews of books or exhibitions which are linked to these topics. But as I prepared to write yet another piece which started with the words "Only a short post this week", I decided it was time to explain to my regular readers (thank you) a bit about what’s going on. If this isn't your thing don't worry, normal service will be resumed next week.

A couple of months ago I mentioned that my mum, who is 95 next weekend, had fallen and ended up in hospital. Mum's short-term memory had started to deteriorate before then but the fall, the infection which caused it, and the subsequent month spent away from home really exacerbated this. We are awaiting a formal assessment and diagnosis, but it's obvious that she has some form of dementia.

She has always been adamant that whatever happens she wants to stay in her own home, so she has carers coming in (who are excellent), and I go over to visit several times a week. It's not a massive distance but, depending on the traffic, it can take a while. The to-do list never seems to diminish, and Mum has good days and bad days - and I come home from the latter both physically and mentally shattered. And I'm well aware that from here things are only going to go one way.

None of this is to complain. I've been incredibly fortunate to have my mum in good health for so long, and both she and my dad were a huge support both during Mr Tulip's illness and after he died. But there's no denying that my life has entered a new phase, and it's one in which my privileges of time and energy to create, and even research and write blog posts, will be reduced. My promise to Mr Tulip to keep the blog going still stands, but I expect that posts will remain short, and there will be fewer completed projects.

Completing projects is further hampered by the fact that I'm often distracted, and so make more mistakes; both my latest Wondrella cardigan and my Reyna scarf have gone a bit awry recently. I managed to unravel the Wondrella as far as the mistake and then pick up all the stitches again (I impressed myself!), but undoing rows of the mesh section of the Reyna is going to be a major operation. Hence the picture at the top of this post - one thing which is definitely my new normal is lots more safety lines in my knitting!

I made a thing (sort of)

Strictly speaking, I finished a part-done thing. And only a small thing at that. But I have so little time for sewing these days that I'm happy to take any successes where I find them.

Does this look familiar? No, me neither

I had completely forgotten that I had posted about this skirt before; last October to be exact. Then I only had the skirt and lining hems to do, and was expecting to post the finished item the next week. Somehow, this didn't happen. I got distracted by other projects - I know, I know, I'm as astonished as you are - and it completely fell off my radar. It resurfaced recently, and I decided to get it completed for a quick sewing win.

It's not a colour that I wear a lot, so I’m a bit short of tops to wear with it, but it does go well with my blue Wondrella cardigan.

It works well for a fifties look

It also gave me a chance to update the Stashometer.

Not much, but every little counts

On the subject of stalled projects, this week my socials kindly reminded me of a story I posted three years ago.

A memory from 2022

Shamefully the project in question, Butterick 7598, hasn't been touched since October 2023. But as I just haven't got the time or energy to start a brand new project, it seemed a good idea to revisit it. The straight lengths of sleeve trim have now been machined in place with two rows of stitching down the centre. It's been so long since I worked on this dress that I forgot that the edges then have to be invisibly sewn down by hand as well.

Apologies for the blurry photo

Current Elaine has had stern words with Past Elaine about why she ever thought that this was a good idea! The next job is the curved trim on the sleeve head. This is going to be a real challenge, and was probably the reason why I gave up two years ago! Here goes . . .

The queue

How did this happen? How did I go from a person who decided to knit a single cardigan in a knitalong, with a definite possibility that I would never knit anything else, to a woman with a Ravelry queue that runs to double figures (as well as several WIPs)?

I find myself unexpectedly away from home, without access to any of my projects to photograph for the blog. But I do have access to my Ravelry account, and recently listed all the projects for which I have yarn and pattern on my queue. So here, in an attempt at accountability, it is.

I still regard myself as a novice knitter, so prefer to stick to tried and trusted names whose patterns I know will be well written. Or, in the case of Tasha Could Make That's Confidette bolero, a well-written pattern for a garment I would like to have in several colourways. I have yarn to knit it in navy with off-white contrast, chocolate with mocha, and pine green with a warm brown.

Expect to see more of these in the future

Aside from three boleros, a big chunk of my queue is taken up with patterns from Susan Crawford Vintage. Not due to any affiliation, just that I really like her designs, and feel confident knitting them. High on the list is the Helen shrug.

Image © Susan Crawford

This pattern from A Stitch in Time Volume Two - Revisited had slipped under my radar until it appeared on the SCV Instagram account. It's lace, which I love knitting, but also straightforward enough to be a take-to-my-Mum's-and-chat knit. At this year's Coastal Colours pop-up wool show in Port Sunlight I bought some beautifully soft alpaca/merino/silk blend from Town End Yarns, which will make for a super-snuggly shrug.

The Victorian Pennies shawl, on the other hand, is a lace pattern which I've wanted to make for a while. I have a skein of Susan Crawford Vintage Miranda yarn which I think would be perfect for it.

Image © Susan Crawford

My Poppy jumper is hibernating for now, partly because I am a slow knitter so the fine gauge makes progress painfully snail-like. My desire to try colourwork is more likely to be met with a Constant Companion cardigan in DK. I have the kit for the red version.

Image © Susan Crawford

Stepping away from the cardigans, but sticking with lace knitting, I also recently treated myself to the kit for Johnson.

Image © Susan Crawford

Susan Crawford recently released Jamieson, originally in the Vintage Shetland Project, as a standalone pattern. I really like the shape and the mixture of textures, so it became the one (so far) item on my queue for which I don’t yet have yarn.

Image © Susan Crawford

Two of the other patterns in my queue are by designers I'm not familiar with, but they came recommended by other knitters. When I was just starting to knit, someone suggested that the Elskling cardigan might appeal to me. I have a slate blue wool for it, but that's as far as I’ve got.

Elskling by Dianna Walla

I saw Lisa’s Puff shawl when I was knitting my Lothian, which also uses short row shaping, and promptly had Shawl Envy! The wool for it has been in my stash for a while.

Puff by Lisa Mutch

My yarns

The final item in my queue is a major project. I fell in love with the Tiffany shawl at the Port Sunlight fair, and bought the pattern without even being sure if I had the skills to knit it. I think it should be possible, but it's definitely not a take-to-my-Mum’s-and-chat knit!

Tiffany by Kath Andrews Designs

Rather than rainbow colours, I'm going to use the Frosted Berries yarns from Yarn Unique, which I bought at the previous Port Sunlight fair.

Finally found a suitably grand use for these

So there you have it, a queue of eleven items. Unfortunately, knowing my squirrel tendencies, there's every chance that it will get longer rather than shorter!