Oh. My. God.
For anyone planning a pilgrimage to the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington (always recommended), it’s important to know that the Costume Galleries are closed until SPRING 2012. This is so they can refurbish and enlarge them blah blah blah.
Which is great.
But.
I think they mis-underestimate (to quote George Bush) how much those of us who adore vintage fashion worship and need a regular fix of their collection. Or an occasional visit. Or a once-in-a-lifetime wow.
If I were a curator of the collections (and no, I don’t dream about this on a nightly basis … exactly … but WHAT A JOB …) I would try and arrange for at least, say, 6 display cases of iconic dresses to be temporarily displayed in one of the sculpture galleries. So then visitors would get the incredible juxtaposition (things being next to each other) of sculptural fashion and … the real thing. It would be amazing. And it would give us our fix.
Meanwhile, at least there’s the shop (still iconic), the cafe (ditto), the jewellery display and the up and coming Annie Lennox exhibition. So you can live a bit of Nonie’s life if you want to.
*goes off and has that dream about being a curator at the V&A again*