Thursday, September 13, 2007

London - Day 6 - V&A Fashion Exhibit


"After the 2nd world war, London emerged as a major fashion capital largely on the strength of it's ready-to wear collections.
A constant in London Fashion has always been the desire for individuality. " - V&A


The beginning of fashion weeks looms - and today I started to feel the buzz. My good friend Laurel arrived today for the week and after a bit of lunch she needed to settle in and nap off her jet lag so I found myself with time to peruse my favorite museum in all of London - the Victoria & Albert. I only had a bit of time before our evening engagements so I headed straight for exhibit room 40 - my favorite of all. The Fashion wing. Fashion from 1750 - to Today. Please excuse the quality of the photos as the light was quite dim and museum glass causes a wretched reflection - but here is a smattering of a truly enjoyable exhibit of fashion through the ages of the 200+ years. My how fashions evolve - but one thing remains true....
"Fashion is a mass phenomenon but it feeds on the individual" - Cecil Beator
Men's and Ladies evening Wear from the late 1700's


Men's and Ladies Evening wear from the 1920's


Day Dresses from typical London Style. The Green one dates from the 1800's. The 2 to the right date from 1912 and 1924 respectively.









A Suit by (and perhaps worn by) Lady Duff Gordon - renowned fashion designer and survivor of the R.M.S Titanic. - Circa 1913


Typical undergarments, bustle pads, corsets , cages and bustles worn by respectable women of fashion. Egad! How comfortable could any of this luxurious fashion bee - remembering that there were multiple layers on top of this of silk brocades, velvets, muslin etc - and of course no such thing as air conditioning. No wonder women were always suffering from "spells" of fainting!

Here we see the transition of men's undergarments. An undershirt from the mid 1800's - cut to Calvin Klein Boxer briefs of the mid 1990's. What a long way we have come - and so we move forward to fashions designers of the recent millennium.....



Catherine Walker Beaded Dress - 1989



Dame Vivienne Westwood - 1996

Christian Lacroix - 1996


Halston Silk Jersey - 1976


Left - Alexander McQueen - 1995 Right Karl Lagerfield for Chanel "Piano Dress" 1999 both of London

Milan - Left to Right - Valentino Garavani - 1960; Franco Moschino - 1088; Gianni Versace 1997


Cristobal Balenciaga - 1967
Zac Posen - Leather and Metal - 2000

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

no offense but those weren't that great...Sorry, you should've given more detail! And it hd mostly in the 1900's there were no outfits from earlier than 1780 which was surprising! no pilgrims?!?!?

Anonymous said...

omg!! i've looking for these images for a verrrry loong time , this website or blog has help to do my project.

thank you . :)

Anonymous said...

You don't get many clothes older than about 300 years because they have all rotted away. They didn't make clothes in those days for posterity. And they didn't wash much, either! We only know what people wore from paintings, sculpture and illustrations.