On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 10:09:15 -0500 Dawn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > I'm looking into squeezing in a day in London on our holiday next > spring, and was wondering what's the best place to go spend half a > day looking at costume and clothing related items? I'll probably only > really have time to spend at one location, so I want to make it a good one, > unless there are two quite close to each other. Tower of London? > V&A? Portrait Gallery? Any suggestions?
For costume related stuff in one location, you can't beat the V&A. That should absolutely be your first choice. The other ones are great too, but you won't get much costume stuff at the Tower. The National Portrait Gallery is nice, but generally the subject is more important than their clothing so it's not really great for costume stuff. The Elizabethan and Tudor gallery is really nice, but you can easily see it in less than an hour and it's mostly stuff that you see all the time in books- there's a kick to seeing the portraits in person, but you won't see anything you haven't seen before. London is chock full of great museums and places to visit, but for many of them the costume content is minimal. One of my personal favs is Hampton Court Palace but you can spend a full day there without even trying and the costume content is scattered. With the V&A you get a good costume collection, as well as a needlework/textiles gallery where you can get within an inch of the items and a jewelry gallery that has a fantastic collection of jewels from the Renaissance on. What is your "period"? I believe the V and A have reopened the Costume Court, but the last time I was there they had closed everything before about 1800! So do check before arriving. My fvourite is the Museum of London (I am a volunteer there so I admit I am biased.) It is a small museum, but they have a nice display of 18thC printed cotton gowns and banyans, and a time line from 1800, both men and women. Some of Queen Victoria's parliamentary robes (replica petticoat by me!) and some late Victorian clothes in another case. There is a lovely "shop window" display of 18th century clothing too, both real and replica. And there is the Cheapside hoard, a wonderful collection of early 17th century jewellery, and two gable headdress frames, and purses and belts from medieval. (And you can get round it in half a day! - the V and A is huge!) Suzi -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web - Check your email from the web at http://mail2web.com/ . _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
