Museum Of Costumes London

The designs of eighteenth-century woven silk in England and France exemplified skills acquired over two millennia: in their range, quality and beauty, they have perhaps never been excelled. The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, contains by far the most important and extensive collection of English silk designs in the world, some bound as they were originally, others loose, and still more as samples of fabric in pattern books. The designs changed with the season and, through these pages, we can... [Read More]

Provocative and original, this fresh look at Leonardo da Vinci’s formative years in Florence and Milan provides a radically different scenario of how he created his signature style that would transform Western art forever.The traditional view of Leonardo da Vinci’s career is that he enjoyed a promising start in Florence and then moved to Milan to become the celebrated court artist of Duke Ludovico Sforza. Young Leonardo presents a very different view. It reveals how the young Leonardo strugg... [Read More]

Cassiano dal Pozzo's print collection was unique in its scope and organisation. Some 3,000 prints are known, in nine albums and many loose impressions mainly divided between the British Library and the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. Cassiano (1588-1657) and his younger brother Carlo Antonio dal Pozzo (1606-89) did not commission printmakers to engrave plates (as they did drawings), buying instead what was available from the flourishing printmaking industry of the time. The material they collec... [Read More]

Dr. Lucy Worsley explores the royal wardrobes of our kings and queens over the last 400 years, from Elizabeth I to the present Queen Elizabeth II, explaining how the royal wardrobe is a carefully orchestrated piece of theater managed by the royals themselves to control the right image and project the right message to their subjects. Royal fashion is, and always has been, as much about politics as it is about the cut.

The Archive of Art and Design at the Victoria & Albert Museum contains Britain's foremost collection of primary source material relating to art and design, particularly of the twentieth century. Established in 1978, the Archive holds over 200 archives created by individual artists, craftspeople and designers and businesses and societies involved in the manufacture and promotion of art and design products. The Guide describes each archive in detail, offering information about its creator, its con... [Read More]

Twelve sheets of 19.5 x 27.5 inch wrapping paper are folded into a paperback book, which has a notepad binding for a clean, easy-tear off.

In 1947, Christian Dior’s “New Look” was greeted with both shock and delight, making headlines around the world. Accompanying the exhibition opening at the Victoria and Albert Museum in September 2007, this lavish book focuses on Parisian and British couture between 1947 and 1957, the decade Dior hailed as fashion’s “golden age.” The “New Look” symbolized a new femininity. The full skirts and hourglass silhouettes were considered highly decadent, synonymous with luxury and prospe... [Read More]

Book by London Museum