Ballgowns, lunch and spider cloth

I had a busy week, but took some time out to meet up with a group of lovely friends and take a trip to London to visit the Ballgowns Exhibition at the V&A Museum. It was laid out over 2 floors (more contemporary upstairs), and was well worth the visit.

Downstairs was more of a historical look at the history of Ballgowns with some fantastic pieces ranging throughout the 20th Century, including designs by Norman Hartwell and Hardy Amies, Catherine Walker (the infamous"Elvis" dress worn by Princess Diana on her state visit to Hong Kong, which was stunning with exquisite beading), Elizabeth Emmanuel and Alexander McQueen (a beautiful dress with angels digitally printed on silk). But none of these caught my eye as much as the gown worn by Helen Mirren when she won the BAFTA for The Queen, designed by Jacques Azagury. It was stunning.

Other designs that caught my eye wereJenny Packham's dress that Sandra Bullock wore to the Golden Globes 2011, Burberry gown worn by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, a Roland Mouret gown worn by Maggie Gyllenhal at the 2010 Golden Globes, which was a beautiful salmon pink. A Christopher Kane dress worn by Shailene Woodley at the 2012 Met Ball was an amazing dress. I will try and track down some piccies of those.

After all that beauty, we went an had a quick drink outside. It was such a lovely day, as you can see. I then popped in and looked at the Spider Cloth cape. That was beautiful and such an amazing piece of work to behold. The designers had used spiders in Madagascar that were caught and their yarn extracted before being released back into the wild. This was spun into embroidery thread and a beautiful cape woven and then hand embroidered by local women. It was stunning and the spider designs and stitching were immaculate. I also thought the watercolour painting of the original design was also outstanding. I would quite happily have that on my wall. It was inscribed with inspirational words and poems and beautifully painted.

After all that beauty, it was time for lunch. We stumbled on a cafe in Kensington called L'opera on Brompton Road. We a had lovely salads (very virtuous) but I had to take some pictures inside as it was such a lovely place.

Then we stopped off at Snog for some frozen yogurt (no fat or sugar - what can I say? I'm a saint) and then home. Fantastic.