First of all, it is vast. As the world's leading museum of art and design, there are around 60,000 items on display spanning two thousand years of art in every medium and from many parts of the world. The building takes up what amounts to a city block, covering seven miles and consisting of six stories.
The V&A, Cromwell Road Grand Entrance. The courtyard and brown brick building behind also is part of the V&A. It's huge. Image from: http://fiscal-muses.com/v-and-a-ballgowns-and-coutts/
The displays are beautifully, if rather haphazardly, organized, and there is no way everything can be seen in one viewing.
The Ironwork Hall. It went for an entire wing of the third level.
Maps are available, and they help narrow down the options so one can focus on three or four areas, but even using it I got lost. Stairwells are obscure, and not every flight of stairs goes to every floor. Construction and improvements are going on in several wings as well, causing detours and difficulties moving from room to room.
However, I was able to find what I was looking for, and stumbled upon something I wasn't expecting.
Obviously, the fashion section was where I headed first, conveniently located on the first floor. Displays can be difficult to plan, but it always helps when you have an absolutely gorgeous room to do it in:
Fashion rotunda. The regular, permanent displays were located around the perimeter, the special exhibit, Shoes: Pleasure and Pain, was in the special inner room located in the center.
The costumes were displayed chronologically, moving clockwise. They begin in the 1750's and moved up through the 20th century, which seems to be a common theme. (This is because there are very few surviving garments from the 17th and 16th centuries, and any thing pre-1500 is considered an archaeological find. These clothes are often found in the earth, either naturally buried or in graves, and are often attached to decomposing human corpses. Such clothing therefore requires different removal processes and care from the clothing you normally see displayed.)
The curators at the V&A chose to display the costumes in a mash-up between the Bath Fashion Museum's Georgian display and Victorian display, with a bit more naturalism thrown in. They were put in their own little "rooms" like the Victorian, but without the boxes and with more style like the Georgian. They also interspersed period furniture, accessories, and paintings throughout to create little snapshots or vignettes of the time.
Tailcoat, left, England, wool with buttons covered in silk thread, waistcoat, printed silk;
Riding coat, right, England, wool, waistcoat, embroidered silk;
Both circa 1790
Tailcoat, wool; waistcoat, silk; under-waistcoat, cotton, 1810-15, England;
Walking dress (Spencer, skirt and bodice), 1817-20, England, silk
Detail of Spencer jacket
The use of props added to the level of engagement with the costumes, especially the paintings, where actual people could be seen wearing and living in their clothes.
Court mantua, back view
1755-60, England, silk brocaded with gilded silver thread
Detail
Dress: robe a la francaise (or sack-back gown) and petticoat
1760-70, England, silk damask
Fichu, 1760-70
Painting, "Lady in a Blue Dress," about 1700
Detail
Dress: robe a l'anglaise retroussee
About 1775, England, silk
With reproduction petticoat
The clothing, to no ones surprise, was absolutely exquisite.
Day dress, 1797-1805, England, cotton
Shawl, about 1780, India, cashmere
Detail
Waistcoat, 1780, London, silk
Detail
I forgot to note what this dress is made out of, so I'm going to make an educated guess.
Dress, silk, with what appears to be a net overlay, probably silk, embroidered with with gilded gold thread, around 1815-20
Detail
Detail, showing rear view
Detail of hem
Detail
Again, I forgot to note the details. My guess: tailcoat, wool, waistcoat, silk with silk embroidery, around 1810-20. The presence of a sword and the embroidered waistcoat signifies this ensemble would be worn at court.
Detail
Wedding dress, probably 1851, England, cotton muslin lined with linen and bobbin lace
Shawl, about 1850, Great Britain, printed wool and silk
Detail
Princess-line (no separate bodice-skirt pieces) evening dress, 1878-80, Great Britain, Jacquard-woven silk, silk and machine-made lace
Day dress, about 1885, Great Britain, printed cotton
Jacket and skirt, about 1895, England, superfine wool, trimmed with velvet and braid
Evening dress, Lucile, 1912. I think it's silk, but the type on the picture I took is fuzzy.
Detail
Probably the most exciting part was seeing pieces I've poured over in books and online up close and in person:
From the V&A website: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O115837/dress-vignon/
My picture of the same dress. It leaves much to be desired.
V&A detail of the back
Again, my own version. It was much better in person, I assure you.
From the V&A website: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O58915/corset-unknown/
My own picture.
In spite of what you might think from my writing so far, there is actually a lot more to do and see in the V&A than old clothes. Some of the highlights I sought out were the cast courts:
Michelangelo's David is on the right, life-size too.
He's larger-than-life, much more so than I thought he would be from the pictures I've seen.
They even had his specially-made plaster fig leaf.
My hand over the fig leaf, to give an idea of scale. I got several weird looks while I was doing this.
The Column of Trajan, this is massive too. The base of the far-left portion stands on comes up nearly to the height of the balcony I'm taking the picture from.
There was an extensive Medieval and Renaissance collection as well. These are some of the statues and parts of churches.
The 'jewellery' display was jaw-dropping, just row after row of priceless treasures. So many, in fact, that the sheer quantity almost cheapened the value of them all.
Necklace and earrings, Paris, about 1806, emeralds and brilliant-cut diamonds open-set in gold and silver. Gift from Emperor Napoleon I to his adopted daughter Stephanie de Beauharnais.
Spray of laurel, France, about 1805, brilliant-cut diamonds and rubies set in gold and silver. Made for the Empress Josephine, probably as a bodice ornament.
This stunner is a diamond stomacher made in London in 1854, brilliant and rose-cut diamonds (the largest is 12 carats) set in silver and gold.
It's next to a pink topaz broach, possibly London, 140 carat, brilliant cut with diamonds set in gold and silver.
Emeralds, England
Didn't get a chance to get the details on these, but I'm pretty sure the central necklace is sapphire, my favorite.
What I was not expecting was a complete display on Theatre & Performance, which I accidentally came across while looking at Medieval tapestries.
Upon my first entering, I was met with these stunning costumes. The monitor on the floor plays a loop about the theatrical play "The Lion King."
Scar is to the left, Sarabi to the right.
Black swan costume from Swan Lake.
Display on costume design, across from the costumes, of all places.
Blurb on scenery.
Scenery boxes, featuring miniature sets from a variety of plays, from the elaborate (like Hamlet) to the minimalist (like the play about Martin Luther King, Jr.)
This is from Swan Lake.
Swan Lake set text.
There was an area for the modernist, surreal plays, which I don't normally go for, but this dress symbolizing (I think) Birth from iTOMI (in The Mind Of Igor, a play inspired by Igor Stravinski's The Right of Spring and is based on three words: rupture, death, and birth), I thought was visually arresting and warranted a spot in this blog.
Also, that hat is just B.A.
All in all, I got to see everything I wanted to see, but I could easily go back and discover a mess of new things. I walked through art from China, Korea, South Asia (India), and South-East Asia; I browsed sculpture from 1300-1600, I meandered through a room dedicated to Raphael, and lingered over the Medieval and Renaissance artifacts from 1350-1600. And that was only on the first floor.
The building is stately and grand, with an outdoor space for picnicking, chatting, and playing in the large water feature:
The front entrance is adorned with a glorious glass "chandelier":
Emblazoned on the arch opposite, in bright lights all lit up, the words "ALL OF THIS BELONGS TO YOU."
And isn't that what it's all about? The reason museums exist? To show people their inheritance, the great works of the past, be they art or artifact, silk or silver, beautiful or grotesque: All of this belongs to us.
Information taken from:
V&A website- About Us: http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/a/about-us/
V&A website- History: http://www.vam.ac.uk/page/h/history-of-the-v-and-a/
V&A Map, Spring/Summer 2015
London, Pocket Rough Guide. Rough Guides Ltd., Strand, London. 2015., page 135
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