Another Rainy Day, Another Museum...

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The weather has started to get colder and the last few days have brought rain. Thank God there are so many museums in London otherwise I'm not sure what I'd do on rainy days.

At the recommendation of one of my clients, I decided to go to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A is museum of art and design. Their collection includes works of sculpture, painting, furniture, and even fashion. I started off with their Fashion section. It was really interesting because well, I love clothes...but also because they showed the evolution of pieces like the woman's suit (which naturally featured a Chanel) and "day dresses". I'm sure all the guys out there can't wait to go, right? There's also a temporary exhibit called "The Golden Age of Couture", which showcases gowns from designers like Balenciaga and Dior. So much fun.

They also had a collection of Raphael Cartoons, which was amazing. And I'm not talking about the Nickelodeon-type of cartoon here. In Renaissance art, the term cartoon refers to a full-size preparatory design for an artwork in another medium. They were used in the creation of frescoes, other large-scale wall paintings, and, in this case, for tapestries. These particular cartoons were planned as full-scale designs for a set of 10 tapestries to be hung in the Sistine Chapel. The cartoons and tapestries depict the acts of St. Peter and St. Paul and they were all really beautiful.

The British Galleries at the museum were really nice as well. There were some recreations of rooms from different periods in British History, as well as cultural treasures like Henry VIII's writing desk and the Great Bed of Ware.

I think the thing I enjoyed most about the V&A is that it was such a unique collection of items. It contained a lot more than what you'd see in a "typical" museum of artifacts and paintings.

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Photos

Foyer
The phallic glass sculpture in the Grand Entrance

Juicy!
Everyone knows how much I loooooove Juicy. This track suit was in the "Activewear" section of the Fashion collection

British Fashion...
has come a long way, hasn't it? I love the detail of this dress though.

Zac Posen
This dress was made from strips of leather connected by hooks.

Vertumnus & Pomona
I liked the story behind this one...Vertumnus was a nature god that could assume any shape and tricked Pomona, a nymph, by hiding behind his mask. Typical male! haha

Staircase
A couple of the stairways were decorated with a different look. This was my favorite.

Wine Bowl
This is decorated with a figure of Bacchus, the God of Wine. I definitely think I could use one of these