|
|
 |
| |
Supremes and the sequins of success
IT'S just a pop show filled with those fabulous clothes worn by the queens of song, I thought. This is The Supremes – Diana Ross, Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson – when they ruled the charts with delight and enchantment during the 1960s, to become the most commercially successful group ever.
But you are in for a surprise if you pop into the V&A to see this exhibition.
The bejewelled fantasy outfits of dazzling colours and design worn by the Motown girls come from Mary Wilson Collection in America and are home-grown, just like the trio from the back end of town in Detroit.
And the shimmering dresses that wowed audiences round the world undoubtedly bear out the comment made by the American author Zig Ziglar who declared: “You cannot climb the ladder of success dressed in the costumes of failure.”
The exhibition deliberately starts with a sewing machine and some simple outfits and ends with the elaborate, stylish gowns The Supremes that became synonymous with all those smash hit singles like Baby Love, In the Name of Love and Back in My Arms Again.
“We started out from very meagre beginnings,” explains Mary Wilson on screen. “We could not afford to spend money on clothes, so we just made things. As we got a little money here and there, we began to buy dresses, and then as we became famous, we got designer outfits.
But apart from the dishy dresses and the joy of song – the music is continuous – this small exhibition puts its immaculate finger on pop and politics, demonstrating how the rise of The Supremes played a vital vanguard role in the emancipation of black America and the revolution that has followed.
The exhibition, brilliantly alive and compelling, presents The Supremes in direct relation to the fight for civil rights. So it is the sound of freedom that you also hear from the girls who called themselves The Primettes – there were four of them then —when they set out to change the discriminatory culture in which they were brought up. And from which they broke free.
So what is their legacy now that they have gone their separate ways after 18 years together following Diana Ross’s decision to quit in 1970 to go solo?
“That we inspired people, especially African-American women,” declares Mary. “But further than that, we helped to show the world what black achievers could be like.”
GERALD ISAAMAN
|
|
|
|
|
|
