Amy Winehouse exhibition in Newbridge celebrates singer's style and career

Amy Winehouse truly was 'the architect of her own look'. That's what makes her the perfect subject for this exhibition in Newbridge that is well worth a pit-stop, writes Maeve Lee

Freya O’Dwyer styled as legendary singer Amy Winehouse at The Museum of Style Icons at Newbridge Silverware. Picture: Conor Healy / Picture It Photography

Within the walls of the Museum of Style Icons at the Newbridge Silverware Visitor Centre is a time capsule that takes you back into the life of the legendary Amy Winehouse.

Tucked away amongst an array of other iconic outfits (including Princess Diana’s ‘Revenge’ dress), is a new exhibition with a selection of some of Winehouse’s most memorable outfits. Poignantly, it includes several dresses that the Back to Black singer never got the chance to wear publically before she passed away in 2011 aged just 27.

'Beyond Black – Celebrating the Career and Style of Amy Winehouse’ features a number of dresses designed for Amy Winehouse’s cancelled 2011 tour by her close friend and stylist, Naomi Parry, as well as the singer’s favourite Rimmel eyeliner and a couple of Parry’s sketches. 

At the launch of the temporary exhibition in Newbridge, Kildare, Parry explains how some of these sketches were created in Winehouse’s flat, while she sat on the couch across from her, offering her (typically) very honest opinion. “It looks like a brain,” Winehouse said of a flamingo design drawn up by Parry. That sketch was scrapped, re-drawn and turned into what is now on the display at the museum and called ‘the Flamingo Dress’.

The name of each garment is inspired by Winehouse and her initial thoughts on the design. Another anecdote from Parry reveals that the name for the ‘Itsy Bitsy Camden dress’ came about after Winehouse erupted into song when she laid her eyes on the tiny yellow number.

“When she saw it – the yellow polka dot – she started singing ‘Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini; and so that became the Itsy Bitsy Camden dress,” recalls Parry as she makes her way towards the glass cabinet filled with her bold designs.

Naomi Parry at the ‘Beyond Black – Celebrating the Career and Style of Amy Winehouse’ at The Museum of Style Icons, Newbridge Silverware. Picture: Dee O Keeffe

Each piece was made for Winehouse in her preferred silhouette – short, tight and low-cut. Each dress, I learn, also had built-in spanx because of Winehouse’s love for wearing “French frilly knickers exclusively”.

“Everything that she did was her own. Even if you suggested something, she would put her spin on it,” continues Parry. “Her make-up artist would do her eye makeup perfectly and Amy would go off to the toilet and just add an extra bit onto it and kind of – not ruin it – just make it her own thing.” 

The pair met at a pub in Soho in 2005 and by the end of 2006, Parry was working as her stylist. She describes working with Winehouse as “totally unpredictable”.

“You never knew what was going to happen and sometimes that could be quite stressful but when she was good, she was so much fun to work with. What was amazing about her – and I’ve worked with a lot of people since – she just didn’t behave how people expected a celebrity to behave and it was really, really refreshing.

“She would treat everybody exactly the same and it was just really nice. She was just a nice person.” 

Winehouse was, as Parry aptly puts it, “the architect of her own look”. She knew what she liked and more importantly, what she didn’t like. Her iconic look was truly her own and that is what makes her the perfect subject for such an exhibition.

“I used to know roughly what it would be that she would like,” explains Parry. “Occasionally there would be something that I was like, ‘oh my God she’s going to love this. I’m so excited to show her.’ One, in particular, was this little purple dress that I found…she took one look at it, and she said: ‘Nay, I’m going to look like a Quality Street,’ so that didn’t happen.” 

Also launching the exhibition was Winehouse’s former flatmate and close friend Catriona Gourlay. She described their living situation as “carnage” with clothes scattered all around the flat (Gourlay worked in a vintage clothing shop at the time). They had two cats and one hole in the roof – but had an “amazing time”.

Catriona Gourlay, Aileen O'Brien and Naomi Parry at the ‘Beyond Black – Celebrating the Career and Style of Amy Winehouse’ at The Museum of Style Icons, Newbridge Silverware. Picture: Dee O Keeffe

Between the clothes, colourful graphics and other belongings on display, you soon get a real sense of the person Amy Winehouse was. Getting the items together was an emotional process for her friends.

“I remember we unpacked some body cream and a perfume, and the smell hit me - and even now, it makes my eyes glaze over,” says Gourlay, “when the smell of somebody that’s no longer there washes over you again it’s a very powerful sensory thing that you don’t experience anymore when they’re not around,” she continues, getting a little emotional.

“It’s nice to see that her stuff is being looked after. People can admire her, they come to these sorts of things, are still curious about what she was into, what she was like, perhaps what she might have been like now.” 

With over 350,000 visitors each year, I’m embarrassed to admit this was my first trip to the Museum of Style Icons, considering it’s just a stone’s throw away from Dublin — and free. Just 30 minutes outside of the capital, the museum opens seven days a week and is located upstairs in the Newbridge Silverware Visitor Centre on Athgarvan Road.

And if you’re feeling inspired after your visit, the museum is conveniently located just across from the Whitewater shopping centre.

The exhibition, ‘Beyond Black – Celebrating the Career and Style of Amy Winehouse’ does exactly what it says on the tin. Whether you’re a massive fan or would simply enjoy a glimpse into the star’s life, this is the perfect pit stop en route to Dublin.

‘Beyond Black – Celebrating the Career and Style of Amy Winehouse’ is open to the public at the Museum of Style Icons at Newbridge Silverware in Newbridge, Co Kildare until May 7.

• See visitnewbridgesilverware.com