Plaster Shoots: a dinner for Linder

A double-booked diary left our editor Harriet Lloyd-Smith with a busy night on Wednesday, beginning with the Plaster store launch, then – in the mother of all vibe shifts – a Chanel Culture Fund dinner at Mayfair club, Harry’s Bar. Hosted by Yana Peel and Laura Bailey, the event celebrated British art icon Linder Sterling’s first London retrospective at the Hayward Gallery.

Since taking Manchester’s 1970s punk scene by storm with the cover design for the Buzzcocks’ debut single, photomontage queen Linder has been probing consumerism, sex, food, pornography, and fashion to eke out all its grotesque and glamorous secrets. Her Hayward Gallery show, ‘Danger Came Smiling’, is a cut-and-paste ride through 50 years of squashed stereotypes and mischievous social critiques that cement her work as an evergreen source of intrigue – can you tell we’re fans?

In the bar, Bellinis, Martinis, small and big talk flowed, before someone announced: “Linder has arrived”, prompting guests – the great and good of the arts – to swarm. Colin, our photographer, was flexing his new Polaroid toy to attendees charmed by the nostalgia of it all.

Guests were taken to Harry’s private dining room which was giving hall of mirrors at the Palace of Versailles, featuring photomontage floral arrangements by Hikari Yokoyama. The setup took ‘intimate dinner’ to a new level, as OBEs and CBEs contorted their bodies to locate their seats. Among the guests were Royal Ballet prima ballerina Francesca Hayward, who found time in the middle of her Romeo and Juliet run to attend in full look vintage Chanel (no connection to The Hayward, whose director Ralph Rugoff was also present to celebrate).

Actor Eddie Redmayne, accompanied by his wife Hannah and clearly channeling the creative juices flowing from Linder, was spotted fervently doodling on his Polaroid and chatting animatedly with Katy Hessel. An initially Polaroid-shy Peter Saville soon warmed up, still oozing Factory Records cool in a quintessential black turtleneck. Other guests included Frieze mag and fair co-founder Matthew Slotover, CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour, Kiln theatre director Indhu Rubasingham, Hayward chief curator Rachel Thomas, Lady Jill Shaw Ruddock and playwright Lee Hall.

Accompanied by Domaine de l’île Blanc 2023, we were served a full burrata (each, obvs, Good Girls don’t share), followed by enough Dover sole to cleanse the soul, a slice of Linder’s kinky cake by ‘cake wizard’ Stolzes (topped with the same lips that covered the nips on the Buzzcocks cover) and fruit that looked like it had been harvested from the Garden of Eden.

After a night of sharp anecdotes (some unpublishable), guests departed (no French exits clocked) with hearts and bellies full, and arms wrapped around a signed copy of Linder’s Hayward catalogue. I guess punk is chic now!