BAZAAR

(Opposite page) Woven silk train for an evening dress, France or Britain, c. 1897-1905(This page) Cape of curled cockerel feathers, Auguste Champot, France, c. 1895# Last year, it was announcedthat the only known surviving fragment of QueenElizabeth I’s wardrobe had been discovered.The intricately embroidered skirt, sewn with goldthread, had been made into an altar cloth and layundisturbed for centuries in a quiet Herefordshirechurch. Covered in roses, dafodils, and a menagerie ofanimals, insects, and caterpillars, this exquisite relic isa testament to how nature was such an intrinsic part oflife that even its humblest creatures were elevated intodecorative symbols to adorn the costliest of royal fabric.Humans have always reliedupon the environment forsurvival, but it is easy toforget that it is also the sourceof the clothes that we wear.In the past, this connectionwas acknowledged and evencelebrated, but our increasingdetachment from the naturalworld makes it harder toappreciate that the mostluxurious pieces of coutureare still made from thesimplest of materials. Thisrich and unexpected history,from the early 17th century tothe present day, is the subjectof a major new exhibition at the V&A.Fashioned from Nature charts the complex and ever-evolving relationship between our clothes and theenvironment. It relects the inspiration that fashion hasalways drawn from lora and fauna, and the industry’simpact on nature, these two strands combining to revealhow our own attitudes have altered over the course ofseveral hundred years.“Previously, people really understood where theirclothes came from and valued that knowledge,” saysthe V&A curator Edwina Ehrman. “Even in my ownchildhood in the 1950s, your ‘best’ garments werecherished and cared for. They lasted for years—theywould be mended and preserved and handed down.They were prized possessions.”``````The earliest garments in the exhibition date fromthe early 1600s and are perfect examples of how thewonders of nature were displayed through clothing.There are jackets and dress fragments embellished withlowers and twining vines, their details picked out withbrightly-coloured silks, and silver and gold threads.For almost as long as patterned textiles have beenproduced, the natural world has provided ideas fortheir designs, and in the 17th century these motifs heldfar more power and signiicance than they do today.Courtiers were well-versed in the language of lowers,and used these emblems to convey sentiment, frompurity to political allegiance. Certain furs, such asermine, were highly regarded and worn only by thenobility, while silk had a similar high status, due to thediculty of obtaining it—the silkworms from whosecocoons it was made only thrived in certain climatesand so the raw material had to be imported.These elaborately embroidered cloths were soexpensive that they werenot cut unless absolutelynecessary. Instead, thedressmakers would fold andpleat them into shape, usingrunning stitches so that theircreations could easily betaken apart and reused fornew items of clothing orecclesiastical vestments.As the mania forexploration gathered pace andnew trade routes opened up,fashions relected the ever-changing map of the world.Ivory, mother-of-pearl,and tortoiseshell becameextremely sought after for hair accessories, buttons, andfans, and were often intricately carved by hand. Dyeswere produced in ever-richer hues—the cochineal insect,for example, yielded the rich crimson used for soldiers’red coats—while imported animal pelts, such as beaver-skins from North America, were prized for their usefulqualities. By the 19th century, Britain’s colonial expansionhad reached a peak, and with it came a widespread interestin the horticulture and wildlife of these overseas nations.This desire to chronicle and catalogue was a particularlyVictorian passion—Charlotte Brontë famously spent herhoneymoon gathering and pressing ferns with her newhusband, while generations of little boys robbed birds’eggs from nests to add to their amateur collections.VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM The fashions of the day mirrored this passionate``````117``````➤