Undressed at the V&A

This year I really want to visit more exhibitions at museums and galleries. I was a curator pre-children and really miss visiting exhibitions. Now my children are both at school and I’m looking for a job I figure I may as well visit as many as I can, whilst I can. So far this year I have seen Opus Anglicanum at the V&A. On the same day I popped in to see Undressed: a brief history of underwear.

When I first came to London I had a friend who only ever bought and wore matching underwear. Being an M&S kind of girl it amused me how different our tastes could be. So you can probably see why I was intrigued by the title and subject of this exhibition.

Undressed addresses the practicalities of underwear and its role in the fashionable wardrobe whilst highlighting its sensual, sexual appeal. As you can imagine it was all very tastefully done by the V&A. I found it was a little difficult to navigate. The displays were beautiful, but I wasn’t sure which way to go round the exhibition.

There was plenty to see and do, the exhibition telling the story of underwear design from the 18th century to the present day. There was plenty of information to read but I loved looking at the pieces on display. It all seemed to be from a design point of view, perhaps unsurprisingly, but it was amazing to see how designs have evolved and changed according to fashion.

The exhibition was pretty quiet when I went but there were plenty of other women there, and we couldn’t help but talk to each other about the restrictive nature of the corsets! There was an amazing display of the custom-made ‘stays’ worn by a working woman in England in the 18th century, but it was difficult to know if these were the norm or if the majority of the designs were worn by a small elite who only had to sit and look pretty. I think I would have liked a little more information about the type of women who were wearing the more fanciful designs.

There were maternity corsets and bras which surprised me, as well as examples of nursing bras, and all kinds of items which never really get talked about or displayed. Alongside these were modern examples of underwear designed as outerwear which were on display upstairs in the exhibition. I preferred the historical examples but it was a well-balanced exhibition with more modern pieces by designers including Stella McCartney, La Perla, Rigby & Peller and Paul Smith.

There were more than 200 examples of underwear on display, for both men and women. I find it absolutely fascinating and very glad to be born this side of Women’s Lib!

Undressed: a brief history of underwear is on at the V&A from 16 April 2016 – 12 March 2017. You can book tickets in advance or on the day via their website.