By Pru Farrier

THE Bowes Museum has been chosen as the only UK venue for an exhibition of haute couture by leading European designers who have all used feathers in their fashions.

“Whereas in the past, feathers were generally appreciated for their value and refinement, contemporary designers see them as an expression of freedom and spirituality,” said Joanna Hashagen, keeper of textiles, who is co-curating the show with MoMu, the Fashion Museum in Antwerp.

Birds of Paradise – Plumes and Feathers in Fashion, which opens on October 25, will will examine aspects such as luxury, modernism, femininity, lightness, themes of lost innocence and dark romance, with catwalk creations by British, Belgian, French and Italian designers including Alexander McQueen, Dries Van Noten, Jean Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler, Balenciaga, Prada and Gucci.

The display in the fashion and textile gallery will include beautiful feather work from the Parisian Maison Lemarié, one of the last traditional feather studios, which has been operating since 1880. Feathered as accessories will include fans, hats and sumptuous shoes.

“It will also demonstrate that thanks to design houses such as Alexander McQueen and Dries Van Noten, feathers are firmly back on the fashion agenda and again featuring strongly on the catwalk,” said Ms Hashagen.

The exhibition continues until April.

Also opening on October 25 is a contemporary exhibition, Julian Opie: Collected Works.

The artist, whose style is characterised by minimalist line portraits and animated walking figures, exploded on to the British art scene in the 1980s.

He is also a collector of 17th and 18th century British portraiture by artists such as Joshua Reynolds and George Romney, together with Egyptian sculpture, and some of these will be on show.

Organised by the Holburne Museum, the exhibition is a first in examining the relationship between his work and pieces in his private collection.

Works include paintings, prints, LEDs and video as well as recent experiments in mosaic and sculpture, together with items ranging from an ancient Egyptian funerary mask to a "warts and all" Houdon bust of 18th century composer Cristoph Gluck complete with smallpox scarring.

Opie has work in the permanent collections of the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate in London and New York’s Museum of Modern Art. He has completed public commissions in major cities around the world.

Visitors can also see The Last Communion of Saint Peter Nolasco by Francisco Pacheco (1564-1654) following conservation.

The painting, which forms the centrepiece of new The Spanish Golden Age: Six Works in Focus exhibition, has not been on public display for more than 50 years. It is being shown alongside loans from the Museo del Prado in Madrid and National Gallery in London.

The work is of great significance to the history of Spanish painting, an area in which The Bowes Museum excels with a collection of 76 works by Spanish artists, making it the finest venue in the UK to explore the genre after the National Gallery.