On Wednesday 18 April 2018 at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, opened the “fashioned from nature” exhibition celebrating sustainable yet desirable fashion. It is the first UK exhibition to explore the complex relationship between fashion and nature from 1600 to the present day.
Innovative new fabrics and dyeing processes will invite visitors to think about the materials of fashion and the sources of their clothes.
As well as nature, the show’s curator, Edwina Ehrman, wanted to put themes of sustainability at the exhibition’s core.
A fancy grape dress made with Vegeatextile, a biomaterial made from winemaking leftovers, is among 300 items to go on display as part of the V&A fashion exhibition.
As well as modern items such as Vegea dress, there will be historical garments as well as more contemporary nature-inspired items such as a Gucci handbag with a stag beetle motif.
Garden-dresses by Christian Dior, dresses by Ferragamo and Calvin Klein and the dress from plastic recovered from the sea of H&M Conscious Exclusive collection will be exhibited at the museum.
The exhibition comes at a time when the fashion industry appears to be waking up to its environmental impact – or re-awakening to that impact, there’s a burgeoning scene of cool brands that put sustainability at the heart of what they do.
“It’s meant to be about transparency and traceability,”Edwina Ehrman, said. But the best thing about the suit is that itis “good fashion”.
Ehrman wants visitors to leave “thinking about their own clothes and what they’re made of and what the impact of their choices might be”.
But, she added: “I don’t want anyone to leave feeling bashed on the head. I want them to leave feeling very optimistic about the future.”
