The Victoria and Albert Museum is one of the world's largest and most influential museums of decorative arts. Its collections reflect centuries of achievement in such varied fields as ceramics, textiles and dress, furniture, glass, jewelry, metalwork, sculpture, woodwork, paintings, photographs, prints and drawings--spanning all continents and dating from 3000 BCE. Established in 1852 to motivate and educate designers and manufacturers by building on the success of the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Victoria and Albert Museum has to this day remained an important focus for learning and inspiration for students, designers and industry.
No other garment in Western history has assumed such political, social, and sexual significance as the corset. Lucy Johnston, assistant curator at the textiles and dress department of the Victoria and Albert Museum, takes us through the history of the corset, from the ascension of Queen Victoria through the first decade of the twentieth century. She explains the many different phases, shapes and fabrics of the corset, as well as the technological innovation involved. Suzanne Lussier, also of the textiles and dress department, sees the corset through to contemporary fashion, to reveal how our obsession with the corset has persisted and evolved to incorporate modern sexual and aesthetic tastes.
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The ambivalence of British attitudes toward India--"the jewel in the crown" of the empire--can be traced through the development of the Victoria and Albert Museum's Indian collections.
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