Thinking Pictures

Had today been a leap year, it would still be February, LGBT month. Throughout the month, national institutions and public bodies in the UK have done their bit to raise awareness, erase prejudices and flag rainbows, no doubt. For my part, I went on an LGBT tour at the Victoria and Albert, a museum held its LGBT weekend alongside a very well puclicised digital festival. While the crowds were flocking to workshops that taught how to programme robots to self-destruct and all of that, I was listening to the story of ‘aesthetic dress’, and all things Wilde. I can now share with you that Oscar was a rather precocious wit, moulded by his Oxford rhetoric lessons as much as by his personality.  However, it wasn’t just a desire to shock or stand out that determined his choice of luscious, softly cut velvet clothing. As a Mason, he wore jackets that were tailored differently to run-of-the-mill ‘prèt-à-porter’. I did learn, however, that the short trousers and stockings were entirely his own addition to the outfit, and nothing to do with Freemasonry.

Among the exhibits mentioned on the tour, none were ever owned or worn by the playwright, but connections could be made anyway. Oscar, at a rather young age, it seems, felt that it was ‘difficult to live up to his blue and white china’. In the days when most men wore slippers embroidered with flowers, it seems hard to believe that this sensitive soul struggled to compete with the beauty of his dinner service. Ah, the demands of luxury!