Festive Late at Somerset House

Somerset House is always a great venue for events, especially at this time of year when it is adorned with Christmas lights, an ice rink and one huge Christmas tree.  We were invited to join in the festivities last night as we attended the Festive Late. 

Simon Costin, famous art director and collaborator of Tim Walker lent out his studio to become a workshop for mask making. Guests sat around large tables, sipping champagne and getting to grips with cardboard and glue guns to create their masks. The theme was very traditional Pagan Yuletide, and the creative guests had designed incredible monstrous and animal-like masks by the end of the evening. 

A candy-striped Christmas mannequin pointed to the following room for “Craig’s Xmas baubles”. This second room held a very long table, covered in a huge variety of coloured yarn and materials. Craig Lawrence, fashion knit-wear designer, played host to this room of bauble and pom-pom making. Some of his designs were displayed in the room, including a fantastic pink archive piece, which everyone kept admiring. We were taught how to make the pom-poms and sat around the table as people fastened them to headbands, necklaces and even shoes. 

The guests really got into the Christmas spirit, making crafts and listening to Christmas songs. This was also helped by an Instagram competition for guests to take the most festive picture possible, in order to win tickets to Valentino’s exhibition and the ice rink. 

Simon Costin had created a very theatrical Christmas set for everyone to have their picture taken with their creations. It was great to see the things the guests had made, and made it feel that bit closer to Christmas. 

Bethan Williams