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What Wendy Wore: Ossie Clark to See Shakespeare

April 7, 2016 by WendyB

This spring is the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death. (How did I forget Shakespeare’s wife was named Anne Hathaway? LOL.) To mark the event, the Royal Shakespeare Company has brought the playwright’s Great Cycle of Kings to the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Richard II, Henry IV Parts I & II, and Henry V are all being performed through May 1.

MrB and I were invited to a benefit lunch and a special performance of Henry V on Sunday.

king
The lunch was in the beautiful BAM Lepercq Space.

bam
The table setting was pretty.

tablesetting
I couldn’t resist taking the little roses with me after.

cleavage
Then I sneaked a photo of the stage before the performance began.

throne

Henry V is the last play of this particular cycle, and Sir John Falstaff — Shakespeare’s most famous comic character and a major player in both parts of Henry IV — doesn’t appear in it. (Falstaff is also a main character in The Merry Wives of Windsor.) Instead of seeing Falstaff on stage in Henry V, we get other characters talking about Falstaff’s illness and death. The fictional Falstaff is a friend of Henry’s dissolute youth, always getting Prince Hal — as young Henry is known — into trouble.  When Prince Hal becomes King Henry and faces up to his responsibilities, he cuts off his rowdy pal. That makes sense for the plot, but I’m amused by the idea that Shakespeare may have had personal reasons for killing off Falstaff. Some people say that the character was specifically written for an actor named William Kempe (also known as Will Kemp), whose over-the-top improvisational skills made him the Robin Williams of the late 16th century. The theory goes that Kempe either left Shakespeare’s troupe or was kicked out for taking the improvisations too far, and, as a result, Falstaff was killed off. Anyway, I really should try to see the Henry IV plays, because Charles Isherwood, the New York Times reviewer, calls Antony Sher’s Falstaff “one of the greatest performances I’ve ever seen.” Wow!

I wore an Ossie Clark dress to the lunch and play, because I wanted an English design with an Elizabeth I-worthy décolleté.

ossieWhat Wendy Wore
Dress: Ossie Clark (purchased in 2009 from Vintage-a-Peel)
Boots: Prada (2008 or 2009, seen here)
Purse: Prada (same year as the boots)

I felt especially queenly in this photo because of the guy bowing to me in the background. Thanks go out to our friends Barbaralee Diamonstein-Spielvogel and Carl Spielvogel for inviting us to this great day of theater!

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Filed Under: Ossie Clark, outfit post, pictures of me, prada, theater, What Wendy Wore

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Sheila (of Ephemera) says

    April 8, 2016 at 6:32 pm

    Looking fabulous – your cleavage (pronounced cluh-VAHJ) is magnificent!

    • WendyB says

      April 10, 2016 at 1:03 am

      Why, thank you! 😉

  2. stacy says

    April 10, 2016 at 6:52 pm

    What a fabulous event! You looked gorgeous too — love that dress on you.

    • WendyB says

      April 10, 2016 at 9:26 pm

      Thank ewe!

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MEET WENDY BRANDES

Award-winning designer of fine jewelry inspired by women's history and pop culture. A former journalist who writes about jewelry, fashion, medieval history, news, feminism, dogs, cats and whatever else is on her mind. Blogging since 2007.
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Original jewelry designs, photos and text are © Wendy Brandes 2007-2016. All rights reserved.

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