Artist Althea McNish and history of the Met Gala

The History Hour

BBC

History, Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 879 Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2023

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Max Pearson presents a collection of this week's Witness History episodes from the BBC World Service. We hear about Althea McNish, the Trinidadian artist who designed fabric for Queen Elizabeth II.

Former Vogue editor Suzy Menkes on the success of the fashion celebration, the Met Gala.

The Guatemalan Bishop, Juan Gerardi, killed in his home, after presenting the conclusions of a major investigation into abuses committed during the country's civil war.

We remember Harry Belafonte, with a look back at his historic duet with Petula Clark.

Plus the fight by the BBC to televise Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953.

Contributors: Rose Sinclair, Lecturer in textile design at Goldsmiths, University of London. Gavin Douglas, Programme Leader and Senior Lecturer in fashion design at Manchester Metropolitan University. Suzy Menkes, former Vogue International Editor. Ronalth Ochaeta, former head of the Catholic Church’s human rights office in Guatemala. Steve Binder, TV producer. Lady Jane Rayne Lacey, a lady in waiting at Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953.

(Photo: Althea McNish Credit: Getty Images)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the History Hour Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson,
0:09.5	the past brought to life by those who were there.
0:12.3	Coming up, Guatemala's Bishop
0:14.0	Gerardi killed for uncovering civil war abuses. We remember Harry Belafonte
0:18.7	and his history-making duet with the Tulula Clark. Plus the glamour and
0:25.0	plus the glamour and history of the celebrity studied Met Gala in New York.
0:33.0	I said to Princess Diana, I love your dress,
0:36.0	because it was from John Galiano,
0:38.0	who was very much the person that everybody loved in the fashion world
0:42.0	at that moment.
0:43.2	And the BBC's fight to broadcast the Queen's coronation in 1953.
0:47.8	Brought the people closer to her. I think they felt she was close to them because as if they were taking part themselves.
0:56.4	It really would have been a crime, I think, if they'd been denied that.
1:00.5	That's all coming up later in the podcast, but we're going to start by going back to 1966, and this story has a royal connection too.
1:08.0	It was in that year that an acclaimed artist from Trinidad, Althea McNish, was specially selected to design fabrics for the most famous woman in the world, Queen Elizabeth II.
1:19.0	Rina Stanton Sharma has been listening to archive recordings of Althea and speaking to one of her friends. They actually flew over the national flower, the Chaconia, from Trinidad to Britain.
1:40.0	She designed the fabric. They had it printed here in England and then flew it back.
1:45.1	That's Rose Sinclair a lecturer and textile design at Goldsmiths University of London.
1:52.0	She's talking about her friend the artist at Goldsmiths University of London.
1:52.6	She's talking about her friend, the artist Althea McNiche.
1:56.8	Althea was considered to be the first Caribbean designer
1:59.9	to achieve international recognition.
	...

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