Fashioned from Nature

I knew I wanted to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum, but didn’t know which galleries I’d choose to visit. A clothing exhibit called Fashioned from Nature appealed the most. 

I’ve always thought of the V&A as a stodgy place. Its first collections came from the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations in 1851, one of the earliest World’s Fairs. I visited it with my grad school class in 1990, when we looked at decorative arts from the 17th-19th centuries, the kinds of things that influenced American makers. 

The text in this show totally defied my expectations. It’s as on-trend in museum practice as the labels in the London, Sugar, and Slavery exhibit at the Museum of London Docklands.

The “leopard” skin on this dress is made from glass beads.

This stunning dress was once modeled by Gwendoline Christie.