Fashioned from Nature Victoria and Albert Museum, London 21 April 2018 – 27 January 2019

https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/fashioned-from-nature https://www.vam.ac.uk/whatson/2018/06/20/day ‘Fashion victim’ will gain a whole new meaning at this show. For centuries, nature has fallen prey to fashion frenzies. In the Victorian era, for example, birds’ body parts were used to make jewellery and trim hats; an 1875 pair of earrings made from the taxidermied heads of honeycreepers (pictured) will be on display. The exhibition will chart the use of natural materials over 400 years, from silk, wool and cotton to whalebone and turtle shell. More environmentally friendly modern materials will feature, too: clothes crafted from recycled plastic bottles or the fibrous remains of juiced oranges; a dress grown from plant roots by artist Diana Scherer; and a leather substitute created from wine-industry grape waste. If that doesn’t wow you, there’s a gown of bioluminescent, genetically engineered silk.