June 23: London

Sylvia V reporting in once again.  This morning, at breakfast, I met a lady who is a third-grade teacher from the US and who had grown up in London, and she and I were both going to the V&A.  We pooled our resources together, and Nancy Teague-Horner, the Oyster cards you had given me for use worked like a charm (thanks very much!).  Between the Circle Line and the District Line, and the sporadic striking of rail and tube, we took the wrong tube stop, but reconnoitered and ended up on our correct one.  She was on her way to see the Beatrix Potter exhibit at the V&A, so after walking through a tunnel to Floor 0 of the Museum, we parted company.  I roamed several floors, depending on what interested me.  An assortment included the following:

**Design—1900 to now

**the Leighton murals fashioned for the original museum;

**Photographic Center, including photographs of a number of industrial demolitions in the 1960s and 1970s, the firing of long-time employees who had given their all to their profession (powerful themes that resonate with all those who have been scattered to the four winds in the name of “progress”);

**Gold, silver, and mosaic objects;

**Sacred silver and stained glass, as well as reliquaries and an amazing reliquary casket that I can’t wait to send to you in the near future;

**Jewelry, stunningly displayed—several Art Nouveau and Art Deco objects caught the eye as well.  

After spending about 2 1/2 hours seeing the above, I had lunch at the museum—pureed lentil soup with a baguette, and rhubarb soda.  I was a bit early for my timed ticket to the next exhibit, but they let me through nevertheless.  The name of the exhibit is “Fashioning Masculinities: the Art of Menswear,” in partnership with Gucci.  The “sets” were stunning, and started out with men undressed, then in various eras of being dressed and how the function of clothing really was secondary to the great emphasis on richness and splendor—man as peacock, shall we say.  Fabrics were rich and, as fashion reached into the current age, more bizarre, but fascinating.  There was even a clip of Greta Garbo in “Queen Christina,” in her disguise as a young man, when she meets John Gilbert, who soon realizes what she has been hiding.  Gender-bending became even more pronounced as we headed into the 21st century, with cross-dressers populating a dizzying phenomenon of change, come what may.  I found the exhibit very interesting, since one so rarely finds male fashion exhibits.  Well done!

After quite a few hours on foot, I took the subway home, and have been reading, doing crosswords and listening to the WRR classical station in Dallas.  Tomorrow I am off to the V&A again to see more, and then in the afternoon I am off to Westminster Abbey for a tour and then Evensong celebrating the Feast of St. John the Baptist, sung by the Westminster Abbey choir.  Can’t wait.