Disney’s Cinderella: The Exhibition

Last night saw me fleeing work on the stroke of 6 like Cinderella running from the ball. The only difference was I was rushing to get somewhere, whilst she was running away. Well, and I was minus one charming prince, two glass slippers and a ball gown to die for, but that was all about to change- I was off to the free Cinderella exhibition in Leicester Square Gardens!

I’d first seen the exhibition advertised in Time Out and at that point excitement struck. Like many girls, I’m a big fan of ball dresses and anything sparkly so a chance to see the costumes used in the new Disney movie couldn’t be passed up! It probably took me all of 30 seconds to reach for my computer and book my time slot to go see the exhibition!

 Now, I guess it’s at this point I have to admit I haven’t actually seen the movie yet. I mean, of course I’ve seen the cartoon, but I haven’t got as far as the local cinema to see how they’ve transformed it into a production using real people (and mice?). But this didn’t stop me being any less enthusiastic about the whole thing.

 When I arrived, I was whisked  swiftly through a marquee entrance into a small room filled with beautiful illustrations, posters and memorabilia. It turned out that these illustrations were from the Disney archive, used in the production of the old cartoon and had never been seen by the public before! I thought they were really beautiful and it was interesting to recognise scenes from the cartoon.

 We were then introduced to Cinder’s evil step mother and step sister (or their dresses at least!) before walking through to Cinderella’s cellar home and her everyday work dress. The detail on all the dresses was beautiful. We were told how the step sisters’ dresses were covered in hand painted flowers and the step-mother’s was green to represent the jealousy she had for Cinders.

 The next room was dedicated to the Fairy Godmother. Her dresses were nestled in a pumpkin patch, all centred around a particularly large pumpkin encased in a glass house... Her dresses were also amazing- one (the one she wears when she’s disguised as an old crone) had a much more earthy feel to it whereas the other was a sparkling affair, suitable for the most regal of fairies!  The attention to detail was just stunning and the dress practically glowed it was covered in so many Swarovski crystals! 

I walked through the pumpkin and turned to see it had transformed into a magnificent golden carriage. Suddenly, it looked like I would be going to the ball!

The penultimate room held the dress I couldn’t wait to see- Cinderella’s iconic blue ball gown! It sparkled as she danced with the prince, surrounded by dresses inspired by countries from around the world (all equally beautiful, if not as show stopping). Cinders’ dress really was stunning and I just wish I could have tried it on!

Then, something caught my eye- a real life glass slipper! Well, Swarovski crystal slipper to be exact. All £20,000 pounds worth of sparkly shoe sparkled and glittered as it rotated inside its case, throwing beams of colourful light around the room. It was just stunning, although I imagine really rather hard to wear! But who cares- with shoes like that, I’m sure I’d demand someone carried me everywhere anyway!

In the final room of the exhibition, I got a chance to try on the shoe. Well okay, not the real one but a virtual one. Better than nothing though!

The whole exhibition, although quick to get around, was beautifully put together and totally magical. It thoroughly brought the fairy tale to life and definitely fulfilled its duty at stirring up excitement about the new film. If I had previously planned on missing it, I can assure you I won’t now!

If you’re interested in visiting the exhibition, book yourself some tickets on Ticketmaster. They’re free but just give you a time slot to visit. Don’t worry thought if they’re sold out etc- I saw people queuing outside and being allowed in and I also turned up before my slot and was allowed in early, although admittedly this may have been because it was a rainy weeknight! Worth a shot though!

New York: The Met and the Rockettes

Since we only had a short break in New York, our days were jammed packed from start to finish. We started our day with a brisk walk through the city, heading for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Autumn had hit the city hard and all the trees along the edge of Central Park were stunning shades of orange, gold and red, glowing warmly in the bright sunshine.

 The smell of cooking pretzels wafted over the 'sidewalk' as yellow cabs whizzed past us, honking their horns. There was no doubt that we were in the Big Apple!

Before long, we reached the Met. Determined to have my Gossip Girl moment, I took a second to pose on the steps....

Blair Waldorf eat your heart out! 

....before delving inside to view all of the museum's treasures!

One of my favourite exhibitions was 'Death becomes her,' which was a collection in the Anna Wintour Costume Centre, showing the evolution of mourning dresses over the years! It may sound a little morbid, but some of the dresses were just stunning!

Another absolutely stunning exhibition called 'Treasures from India' was one showing off some of the Al-Thani (the ruling family in Qatar) collection, which contains beautiful pieces of jewellery, some of which were centuries old! Some of the pieces on display were simply dazzling, set with hundreds of diamonds and other precious stones.

The Met is home to more beautiful pieces of art than I could possibly mention and I was so excited to finally get to visit. I only wish we'd had more time as there was far more there than could possibly be seen in one day and we'd only had a few hours to spare.

Luckily though, we still managed to have time to see a few of the highlights and pose for a couple of silly pictures!

Next, it was another quick dash back downtown to Radio City where we were going to see their Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes!

The show was fantastically kitsch and wonderfully gaudy. We were taken on a 3D adventure with Santa, before lines of perfectly synchronised ladies dressed as reindeer, elves and the Sugar Plum Fairy high kicked their way through the performance, while spreading the magic of Christmas. There was even a real live camel in the nativity scene!

The show was brilliant and the dancers showed some incredible skills. For example, in one scene, the dancers (dressed as toy soldiers), managed to collapse onto each other in almost painfully slow motion after being shot with a toy cannon, while in another, a pair of ice skaters performed graceful tricks on an  impossibly small rink!

 It really put us in the Christmassy mood which was pretty damn impressive given that it was only November!

Upon leaving the theatre, we found ourselves to be rather on the hungry side so, directed by a fellow friendly Brit, we headed to a couple of New York hot spots for dinner and cocktails.

We started in Lavo, where we tucked into a selection of interesting Italian dishes, before finishing our evening over the road at Tao (Kim Kardashian's 30th birthday venue) for a little drink in the shadow of a giant Buddha.

All in all, we had an absolutely fab day, having managed to squeeze everything in from art and culture to good food and beautifully scenery. But hey, we were determined not to waste a second of our time in the city!