Edinburgh Fringe 2009
Miss High Leg Kick’s Fashion Bus
Colchester Arts Centre/Escalator East to Edinburgh/British Council Supported
Venue: Fashion Bus, Grassmarket
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
For this week only,
Review
This free street treat drew a large appreciative audience. As the music reminded us that “The Best Things in Life are Free” what unfolded before our eyes was a fashion show with its tongue firmly in its cheek; a warts and all celebration of everyday life. The stated aim is to make the ordinary extraordinary so what we see is far removed from the haute couture of the fashion houses of
The string of characters spilling out of the
This is fashion with a small f. One might also describe it as theatre with a small t, dance with a small d or even art with a small a, but it is definitely Street entertainment with a great big capital S, displaying 21st century culture in all its shabby glory. There are young men in hoodies and low slung jeans, buggy pushing yummy mummies in tight trousers and skimpy tops, a banana-clad marathon runner, a bowler-hatted city banker and tackily tarted-up hen night revellers prancing to all those singalong and dancealong essentials we love to hate.
The only glimpse of the classier brand names is on a plethora of carrier bags with which the truly leggy Miss High Leg Kick herself (creator, Francesca Baglione) elegantly tussles at the
Free fans and programmes are a nice touch but if the show didn’t get as much applause as it deserved this was because we were finding it difficult to hold onto these as well as our own general street baggage and put our hands together at the same time.
This is a fun format which says what it says in a fairly original way but doesn’t say anything new. It could be further developed and would benefit from some more creative choreography of the calibre of the creator’s own cameo flight of the bag-laden fashion victim. It is certainly entertaining but is it art? You decide.
