Activities Week trip to V & A

L6 visited the 'Botticelli Reimagined' exhibtion at V & A as part of activities week. They were able to explore the variety of ways in which artists and designers from the Pre-Raphaelites to the present have responded to the artistic legacy of  Botticelli. This is the largest Botticelli exhibition in Britain since 1930. It includes around 50 original works by Botticelli from great collections across the world shown alongside more recent masterpieces of art and design including work by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones, René Magritte, Elsa Schiaparelli, Andy Warhol and Cindy Sherman.

While they were there, students also had the opportunity to see 'Undressed: A brief History of Underwear'. It was fascinating to see how the silhouette of the body has evolved through fashion across the ages, as demonstrated by intricately hand-made pieces on show. The exhibition explored dress reformers and designers such as Poitier, who argued for the beauty of the natural body, as well as entrepreneurs, inventors and innovators who have played a critical role in the development of increasingly more effective and comfortable underwear. Below is a 'cage crinoline' made from linen and steel. Other pieces were constructed from whale bone and the students marveled at how women were able to wear  some of the pieces, which must have been highly restrictive and very uncomfortable!