We visited the new exhibition, Italian Fashion at the V&A. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/exhibition-the-glamour-of-italian-fashion-1945-2014/

Fashion and I aren’t really very good friends. I have tried to get on with it a couple of times , but apparently I’m not cool enough to join the club! The strange thing is that I love Sex in the City and seeing how the girls dressed and presented themselves, and gadded about town at all times of the day and night looking fabulous, but just couldn’t find a way to connect that to me. 

Though if I think I can get away with walking around in a tutu for everyday wear, I will be all over that! Top that with some fairy wings and I am good to go, but again I am not sure that is high fashion so much as nursery school fashion! So an exhibition about the birth of fashion and its journey through the eras didn’t seem like an obvious choice for me.

Except that this was an exhibition about fashion with a difference. We were getting the insider scoop from one of the exhibition contributors and a family (in law) friend. Sophia Gnoli (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ySAa52R9x4 ). She knows fashion, and not only professor of fashion history at the University La Sapienza of Rome, the author of several books,  writes a column in a popular Italian fashion magazine but also is a consultant for some of the big fashion houses in Milan!

Once inside we had a guided tour with the background of the fashion industry and style choices of the garments. I am a bit of sucker for the beautiful evening and ballgowns from the 20’s and 30’s with beautiful nipped waists and layers of frothing flared petticoats. As you make your way through the rooms you come to the Hollywood fashion section including original outfits made for the films including a beautiful cream (though suspect this was white originally) and lace dress with delicate puff sleeves, made for Audrey Hepburn, which she wore in Pride & Prejudice in the ballroom scene.

The final rooms are dedicated to today’s fashion with couture from the 2013/14 collections. Several of which have already made it down the red carpets and catwalks.

Some were lovely, some were fun, some were hideous, and it is this last category that won me several glares from the fashion students when I started laughing and declared this in stage whispers to my husband. 

Though I am pleased to be able to report to you that dragon, rhinoceros and stick insect prints on metallic are back in fashion (Valentino Autumn 13/14). Not that I remember the last time they were in fashion but that is beside the point.  Yes that is right, I found a floor length copper metallic dress with panels over it depicting various animals and insects printed onto the silk panels. Though it with all seriousness that I say I would be thrilled to see dragon and stick insect motifs on dresses and jumpers in the coming seasons, as this is my kind of thing!

After the exhibition we headed back to the cafe where we had started our day, for a spot of lunch. The cafe is worth a visit in itself as it is set in the original Morris, Gamble and Poynter Rooms, with high painted ceilings. 

 We are in central London, in a major tourist attraction and I was steadying myself to pay through the nose for a small poor quality plate of processed food or a dry sandwich. What a surprise we were in for! 

There was so much to choose from and everything smelt and looked amazing. There was a deli counter, a hot counter, a sandwich counter and a cake/nibbles counter! There was so much choice and all looked home made and bursting with colour and flavour.  The price was not affordable and better than we were expecting. For a full meal from the deli counter with your main item and then choice of two salads it was just over £10.00.

I went for the fillet of blackened salmon with a carrot, cumin and coriander salad, and a chick pea, kidney bean in a balsamic dressing! So yummy, and we have since made the carrot salad at home and it is fast becoming one of our favourites. The Cafés are run by award-winning London caterers, Benugo. (http://www.benugo.com/) Which would explain it! 

By the time I remembered to photograph the dishes most of mine was gone as i was enjoying it so much, but you can see how yummy they looked. Everyone I was with highly recommends the food!

I had so much fun wandering around!  It has been such a long time since I have lost myself in a photography exhibition, and it made me feel like a student again.

This exhibition contains some of the greats, who I have never had the chance to see any original prints of before! Right there just behind the glass. No rope barrier to keep you a suitable distance away from the work you could get right up to the frame and examine them closely to your hearts content. David Bailey, Helmut Newton, Miles Aldridge, Saul Leiter and Tim Walker to mention a few!

I was getting re-inspired and excited about the art of photography again, and I started to remember what made me fall in love with photography in the first place over 20 years ago.

The exhibition wasn’t even about the fashion for me, and in some of the images I barely registered the outfits at all, I was so taken with the feel of the photo, the pose of the model,  the intensity of their expression, the way the light fell on them. The way the style of photography gradually changed through the years until it almost felt like it has started to come full circle again in the way shoots are being styled.

I came out of there buzzing and invigorated. It made me ask questions about my own photography, and my own take, style and idea of what photography was, why I shot the way I did.

 Is it time to push the boundaries or just get back to basics?  Time to bend the rules to suit my changing style and life to bring photography back into my life, after I have started to drift away from it. Time to do it for the love of it again!