Fitzrovia is both arty and villagey, in the confluence of Marylebone, Soho and Bloomsbury it is the home of IT and Media SME’s, restaurants and bars. One outstanding attraction is the Rebecca Hossack Gallery, a town house lovingly hollowed out into a three tier modern exhibition space. On the ground floor is “Ben’s House” a bakery and coffee shop selling delicious individual artisan treats, gin, jam, cakes, gourmet chocolates and healthy snacks, everything is cured, created, crafted in London and can be enjoyed in the peaceful company of the artworks. Presently the exhibits are Iain Nutting’s sculptures of endangered animals composed from reclaimed scrap metal, bringing together art, wildlife and conservation. The exhibition is called “Help! I Need Somebody” and the metallic Orangutan , Gorilla and Mandrill are silently crying out for somebody to save them, while the man-made Komodo Dragon has crawled out of his natural habitat to the first floor to stare in wonder at the colourful dresses of couturier Jet Shenkman.
On the ground floor is “Ben’s House” a bakery and coffee shop selling delicious individual artisan treats, gin, jam, cakes, gourmet chocolates and healthy snacks, everything is cured, created, crafted in London.
The dresses are like a game of consequences but more carefully thought out, combining prints and braids from contrasting cultures, from South East Asia to West Africa, the prim shapes are inspired by vintage dresses ofthe 1950s and ’60s but the fabric combinations surprise even the imaginative. Shenkman is Dutch, for many years she was a private client stylist in Hong Kong and Tokyo, she is very well-travelled and sources her fabrics and trims from as far away as Thailand, Ghana and Vietnam; the bespoke dresses are embellished with pearls and sequined motifs, clusters of flower heads to tiny green sequined aliens, they are exuberant and uniquely elegant. With Petar Rogachev from Bulgaria who is Shenkman’s expert tailor and pattern cutter, Shenkman works from a studio in Kensington, where she has a another more conservative designer label named “Eponine”, an anagram of her children’s names and a homage to the feisty but feminine character in Les Miserable; certainly the bespoke frocks on display in the Rebecca Hossack Gallery would need a confident lady to wear them, the Duchess of Cambridge is already a fan.
The upstairs floor is an artistic and literary sanctuary, presently hung with wonderful Aboriginal artwork, the naïve pointillism or dot-art of ancient Australian myth and the permanent home of Hossack’s unique personal art library, which is available for the interested to consult. Although the Gallery has been established for thirty years, today it is clear the owner’s eye is as fresh and searching for talent as it has always been.