Yesterday, Tuesday April 10th 2019, I had the absolute pleasure of spending a day in Manchester. Up early for the train and armed with butties and a banana for brunch en-route, I boarded the train for a very special day. I'd been invited to Manchester by ITV and Manchester Fashion Institute to see an exhibition that's not open to the public. I wasn't even sure I would be allowed to blog about, but confirmation came through once I arrived there that I could blog and tweet and sing and shout about it as much as I wanted to. And oh boy, did I want to share this with other fans!
The exhibition I went to view was part of an international conference, the International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes (IFFTI). Each year the IFFTI conference is held in a major city around the world and this year, the conference was held in Manchester and hosted by the Manchester Fashion Institute, which is part of Manchester Metropolitan University.
And as part of IFFTI this year, there was an exhibition entitled Coronation Street - A Female Northern Identity. It was curated by Jackie Rayner, a Senior Lecturer and Maria Malone, a Principal Lecturer. Both Jackie and Maria work at Manchester Fashion Institute and not only are they passionate about fashion but they're passionate about Corrie too.
Here are a couple of my pictures taken from the Corrie exhibition at the conference. The first Corrie episode was playing from one of the small black and white screens.
While on the other screen, a video played showing interviews with fans. Each fan talked about some of their favourite Coronation Street women and why they enjoyed watching them.
And our own Coronation Street Blogger Sophie even made an appearance on the video too! We had been contacted some time ago by the Manchester Fashion Institute and Sophie was keen to take up the challenge to speak on video about characters she loves.
And so on to the exhibits of clothes. I asked Jackie Rayner and Maria Malone why they felt that fashions from Coronation Street deserved to be shown at an international fashion conference.
Maria told me: "When I'd attended the IFFTI conference in other countries in previous years and told delegates that I work in Manchester, their usual response was 'Ah! Coronation Street' - it's the universal language of Corrie!"
I can certainly vouch for this. At lunch at the conference, I sat happily chatting to a Dutch fashion designer about Coronation Street. He knew the cultural references after watching the show for 20 years in Holland. When I told him why I was attending IFFTI, he was excited to hear about the Corrie clothes and my writing involvement about the show in books and this blog.
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| Carla Connor's outfit along with Hayley Cropper's clothes |
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| Liz McDonald's outfit |
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| Carla, Hayley and Liz's clothes from the Corrie set |
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| Hayley Cropper's iconic red anorak on loan from the People's History Museum in Manchester |
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| "In the style of" clothes Bet Lynch's leopard print coat, Hilda Ogden's pinny and Elsie Tanner's fur coat and no knickers were on display. |
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| "In the style of" Hilda Ogden's pinny |
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| "In the style of" Bet Lynch's leopard print coat |
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| "In the style of" Elsie Tanner's fur coat |
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| Carla Connor's size 5 black high heels |
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| Carla's outfit |
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| Carla and Peter wedding photograph. I wonder what was tippexed out?! |
Farewell Manchester, until the next time! I had a smashing day.
Glenda Young
Author: Belle of the Back Streets
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