January was a wild whirlwind of final uni assignments and theatre trips amongst other things (trips to Paris come to mind)
The amongst other things also included a trip to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London to check out the Hollywood Costumes Exhibiton that was residing there from October to January, I would have loved to have seen it much sooner than i did but it proved very popular and booked out much quicker than I anticipated, thanks to having to fit so many other things in, I realised it was January or never and i knew i'd be cursing myself for ever if i missed it! I'd hoped originally to see it on the 10th of January but it sold out between me checking it and then deciding to book my train ticket first.. (I spent a lovely afternoon at the Maritime Museum while my bf was in meetings however!) so i booked for the 15th Jan and combined it with the evening showing of Cabaret (limited season at The Savoy Theatre).
Small tip however cold it is outside wearing full skiwear to museums is not a good idea!! I had several issues getting accross London thanks to an accident on the Underground and was already warm when I reached the V&A where they had the heating on full, fortunately despite my ticket stating that if you were late the museum had the right not to let you into the exhibiton, they were understanding, they did point out that 45 minutes was perhaps not enough time and offered to let me change my ticket but as i'd come solely to see Ginger's dress from 'Lady in the Dark' I was fine with the time available to me :)
The exhibition was spread out over three rooms, split into different sections, some themed, others not. My memory of what other costumes were in the exhibiton is limited, although I did stop to look at a few including a scene of 'Royalty' that included one of Katharine Hepburn's costumes from 'Mary of Scotland' (the movie that Ginger wanted to do), i also saw the dress Marilyn Monroe wore in 'The Seven Year Itch' in the scene where she stands above the subway grate, the blue checked dress Judy Garland wore in 'The Wizard of Oz', the outfit Kate Winslet wears at the beginning of Titanic and the outfit Leonardo Dicaprio was wearing, an outfit from The Artist worn by the female lead (I noticed this specially because they had a mini exhibition on 'The Silent Movie' all apart from The Artist were made in the 1920s), Barbra Streisand's gold dress from 'Hello Dolly' and several other dresses worn by actresses that I'm familiar with from the 1930s but can't remember the names of or the names of the movies.. I was able to buy a book for the exhibiton in the shop afterwards but the exhibition had a strict no photography or sketching rule.
The piece de resistance for me in the exhibiton was the red dress with the mink that Ginger wore in 'Lady in the Dark' according to the display at $35,000 it is the most expensive costume made in Hollywood History, according to everything I've found on google this still stands :)
N.B The shoes are reproductions of the original
