Victoria & Albert

The V&A is one among many wonderful museums in London, full of interesting artifacts. This particular museum houses a lot of sculpture. Inside, there are several rooms dedicated to ancient artifacts from very specific regions, such as Iran or Renaissance Europe. There is a two-room that holds only jewelry, from ancient Egypt to the Victorian Era to modern creations. However, my favorite part of the museum was of course the fashion exhibit. This room held dresses, coats, shoes, suits, and accessories from the 1600's all the way up to runway silhouettes from the current year, two-thousand-and-twelve. 



I am such a girl. I love clothes! This exhibit happened to be exactly what I wanted to see on the particular day I ventured into the V&A, whether I knew it before hand or not. The dresses were so beautiful, and some of them so elaborate. The exhibit included an 18th century wedding dress and a veil that I just swooned over. Another highlight was a navy, sequined pants suit with a ruffled white collar, designed by who other than the famous Coco Chanel! These more modern cases also held retro swimsuits and 1950's Hollywood ballgowns.
I learned that to keep up their huge sleeves as women's fashion grew more elaborate, the girls wore these sort-of bags, full of fluff, tied around their upper arms- sort of like a shoulder pad but for a puffy sleeve.


^^  This is the Chanel suit! ^^



After visiting the British museum, with its' rooms upon rooms full of cuneiform tablets, sarcophagi, and sculpted goddesses nearly every day for my Bible class, this exhibit was a fresh concept, and it presented itself not a moment too late! 

The Victoria and Albert Museum has a long history of involvement with the fashion industry in London.