Alexander McQueen at the V&A

Well done, V&A, with the Alexander McQueen exhibition "Savage Beauty". In the last week, advance tickets have all been sold, queues for day tickets are long, opening times have been extended till midnight ... and there have been queues at the membership desk, people becoming Friends just so that they can go see the show.

Ever-lengthening queues to become a V&A Friend and have access to the exhibition

As a Friend I've been to the show several times with different friends. Is it heresy to say that, first time I saw the exhibition, I didn't enjoy it? Crowded, dark, hard to read labels, too much to take in ... especially in the (crowded) "cabinet of curiosities" room -

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But in subsequent visits the novelty had worn off and it was possible to see, to take in, more ... to revisit favourites, to look closer, to see things that had gone unnnoticed ... this head-dress for instance -

See lots more photos at fashion.telegraph.co.uk.

These "wearable" jackets were among my favourites -

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whereas Plato's Atlantis, the final room and McQueen's final show, left me cold -

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The "japanese" collection was full of interest - beautiful fabrics, inventive cutting, strange details (underskirt of shells; molded hessian bodice; sudden realisation of straightjacket; etc etc) -

The exhibition is an intense experience, in which you have no idea of the passage of time, or that it might be daylight, even sunlight, when you emerge. 

Exit is via the gift shop, which segues into the bookshop, where I found a few books for future browsing, perhaps even immediate purchase -

Several of the items on display were described as "cuirasses"

Classic books by Janet Arnold; fascinating

Wonderful bedtime reading, or even just looking at the pictures

696 contributors! The book is based on a questionnaire...intriguing and tempting

"It seems to have your name on it" said Karen. So it came home with me.