Victoria and Albert the First

Once we made it into London, our first full day was spent at the Victoria and Albert museum (hereafter referred to as the V&A). I knew the museum was large going into it, but I didn't actually appreciate HOW large until I realized we'd spent a full day there and only seen about 1/3rd of the collection. In retrospect we made a bit of a rookie mistake - while we'd gone in with a list of certain things we wanted to see, we spent way too long casually perusing the first floor of the museum, leaving us with a very long list for the afternoon. 

There were gorgeous hallways

We did hit a few must-sees in the morning. I dragged my darling husband into the fashion area, and I think he enjoyed it more than he thought he would when I proposed it.

There was court dress from circa 1750-1800.

In case you're curious, here's the undergarment equivalent of a flying buttress to go along with it.

I also loved the patterning on the mod fashion from the 1960's.

I think there's some fun inspiration for pottery decoration to be found there. 

In another room, I found this fabric:

Cotton embroidered with silk from Gajarat, early 18th century

Look closer at this close-up from the bottom right portion of the picture - 

It was all done by hand, and the stitches are teeny! I'm trying to imagine how long it took to embroider the whole large swath.