At the Ballgowns Exhib, V and A Museum «

At the Ballgowns Exhib, V and A Museum

Monday 24th September 2012

Enormous privilege: to take the Ballgowns Exhib at the V and A with Val, whose cutting on the bias is second to none, despite his freedom with the decanter, and his old friend, Augusta Briar-Wilmot, who has fitted a Royal Duchess and a top wife: these two, frockists, cuttists, needlewomen, manipulators of fabric, supreme of their generation.

Val withered Viv Westwood’s grasp of the corset: ‘All the bones showing,’ he condemned.

The two experts gave a huge tick to a Julien MacDonald tube dress, a single piece of stretchy fabric (see graph below), a ghost of a dress, also see-thru, as wholly modern, easily folded,portable,under-stated, to be taken off and put on in a jiffy.

Great thrill and nearness: Would you believe it, I’d sat next to three of the ball gownists on view at dinner: Bruce Oldfield, Sir Hardy Amies, and, of course,Taroudant. Sir Hardy said he’d never seen the undergarments of the Queen. At fittings, he remained in another room while she was inserted into his creations. Most indignant at merest suggestion he’d viewed her petticoat: declining grammar of the Nation also enraging but no restraint with graphic blow-by-blow of ag on lav of an over-90.

I’ve heard, on the other hand, that at Belville Sassoon, Diana accepted a simple knicker-ed state.

Bruce Oldfield, dining, took an interest in educational affairs, while Taroudant, whose highly unusual brown and taupe ensemble for Helen Mirren was greatly admired by Val and Augusta, is crinkly and shy to look at but enquired into more deeply intensely muscular.

Superb Gown in Stretch Jersey by Julien MacDonald

Novel Ensemble for Helen Mirren by Taroudant, Known Rather Well, to Me, Adrian Edge: We Love the Polished Fabric and Colours Tending so Spectacularly Away from Evening