Last week, we got early access to V&A East Storehouse, the East Bank location where the V&A has opened up its GOATed fashion collection for the public to explore. By getting involved in the V&A’s new “Order an Object” service, we had the chance to get up close with some of the legendary objects in its collection, actually getting to handle real parts of fashion history.
Open now for anyone to access, V&A’s Order an Object service allows you to head into the world of archive fashion that the museum has accumulated, spanning from high fashion to streetwear. Aiming to reshape the way we interact with archive pieces inside museums, the four floors at V&A East Storehouse are packed with over half a million archive pieces spanning fashion items, photography, sculpture, and more.
Hitting up V&A East Storehouse, we got to get up close with a ton of iconic pieces, including one of legendary Italian designer Gianni Versace’s most emblematic creations: the Spring/Summer 1992 Studded Leather Jacket. With gold and silver metal studs detailing the jacket in the famous Versace Greca Print, the jacket was originally made in Italy and is a truly grailed piece.
Another piece of fashion history we got to see up close is Vivienne Westwood’s single-breasted blue wool tweed jacket with detachable sleeves, which real fashion fans will recognise from the designer’s Fall/Winter 1988 “Time Machine” collection. The theatrics of this show have stood the test of time as well as the jacket itself, and seeing it up close was insane.
Another item from Vivienne Westwood’s legendary archive that we had the opportunity to handle is the 1991 “Portrait” Pendant necklace with an orb and satyr emblem, before we hit up Issey Miyake’s archives where we found an insane piece from 1991. This black and grey pleated dress by the designer is next level iconic.
But it wasn’t just high fashion pieces we got the chance to explore: there were two grailed tees in V&A East Storehouse that stood out, the first being a legendary t-shirt by Jamie Reid, promoting the release of the Sex Pistols’ single, “God Save The Queen,” during the Queen's Jubilee in June 1977. The other was the Stüssy “Skate tough you little boys” slogan tee, which has been highly sought after since its 1992 release.
To explore V&A East Storehouse and get up close to real pieces of fashion history, hit this link and find out more about the V&A’s “Order an Object” service.
Featured image via Culted©
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