Modern Fashion

Modern Fashion At The Victoria & Albert Museum
By Bronwen Elisabeth Roberts

If you?™re a dedicated follower of fashion, only a collection as rich and varied as the Victoria and Albert Museum?™s, containing works by the world?™s top fashion designers, could inspire you. Histories of 20th century dress and monographs on individual designers include details of fabric, construction and trimming. Close-up views reveal the intricate skill, detail and fine workmanship of high fashion. Visitors often spend many fascinating hours examining the complexity of each ensemble.

Leading Couturiers

Clothes by leading international couturiers form the core of the museum?™s collection. These works represent high notes of achievement, where a designer?™s vision has been realised in luxury fabrics by highly skilled seamstresses, tailors, embroiderers and finishers. Most of the images and interpretations offer the onlooker a reverse perspective through the couture procedure, travelling from a detail of the final work back through finishing, construction, cutting, calico toile, fabric choice and, where possible, to the designer?™s original concept.

The Contribution of Street Fashion

To capture the shift in tradition, which occurred in the 1960s, the Victoria & Albert Museum has also acquired clothes, which, irrespective of standard of construction and finish, are deemed to be setting the ?˜alternative??fashionable pace. These youth culture creations often reflect developments in popular music and are indicative of art acting as the mirror of a specific culture. The pattern of fashion often operates in a cyclical manner and these street styles continue to inspire fashion?™s mainstream.