Hollywood Costume was absolutely heaving with people. Around each exhibit, literary shoulder to shoulder two to three people deep, which spoilt it for me quite honestly. I did try and read everything and look at everything, but I have come back and can't recall anything that I found particularly interesting or exciting.
It was the Valentino exhibition that really made the trip worth while. The techniques involved in making the dresses are amazing. After walking down the 'catwalk' where his dresses are displayed, you go down stairs and can look at samples of the different construction techniques used to create certain elements of the dresses. The workers in the atelier sew everything by hand, spending hundreds of hours on a single piece. So many hours, so many women and they never use a sewing machine, they hand sew everything. Apparently Mr Giammetti bought them a machine once and it sat in a corner, unused!
Although, as with the Hollywood costume exhibition, there was no photography permitted, there is a virtual museum you can access online, and the free booklet that supports the exhibit, has a useful glossary in the back with definitions of the relevant terms and the names of construction techniques, which is useful to keep on file for reference.
Such an amazing exhibition, I came out of it feel in enthused and excited about fashion construction, definitely worth a visit!
This short 3-part film is an interesting insight of how the curators of the exhibition decided on how to display Valentino's work.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
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