Britain a la mode

As British fashion basks in the international limelight and London Fashion Week prepares to swing its hips, the V&A could not have chosen a better time to stage a retrospective of the past 50 years. Amy de la Haye, its curator, tells us how she put the show together, from a 1950s summer dress to a 1990s pair of heat-reactive trousers

It took a full year to select and gather the exhibits. Some were easy to track down , from a hat by John Boyd ideal for Ascot to full Highland evening dress by Kinloch Anderson, royal warrant holders, which will cut a dash among the romantic evening wear and wedding dresses.

Others were not so easy. The ultimate 1950s summer dress by Horrockses, in rose-printed cotton with bouffant skirt, proved elusive. After days spent scouring Portobello Road emporia, it became apparent that a leading French designer had cornered the market. Inspired by the spirit of 1940s backs-to-the-wall resourcefulness, an appeal was launched via an article, in the Financial Times, headed "Your country needs your clothes". The response was amazing. The owners of these creations are still passionate about them 40 years on and they all thought the V&A was a fitting home for their prized dresses. We accepted them all ... all except one. The pretty pink curtains that arrived by post, with a seaside snapshot of the owner wearing the dress that was later re-cycled were regretfully returned.

More than 100 separate items were collected from the most far-flung reaches of the British Isles, including the invaluable contribution from Mrs Annie Thompson, who at 74 was the last Fair Isle resident to hand-knit commercially the patterned sweaters made so fashionable by the Prince of Wales in the 1920s.

Acquiring the clothes was one thing; presenting them was another. I wanted to avoid the usual chronological approach and chose instead to identify specific areas of British fashion expertise. Four themes identified themselves: romantic evening wear, tailoring, bohemian and country styles - as well as a special tribute to the work of the late Miss Jean Muir.

You don't have to be a fashion expert to know that a peculiarity of British fashion is its preoccupation with historical style: the past is constantly re-worked and re-presented as the future in both classic and radical ways. The exhibition displays reflect this: the country section includes the finest traditional hunting, shooting and fishing clothes, by Bernard Weatherill, Hackett and Cordings respectively, as well as modern interpretations of these traditions by more radical British designers - Antonio Berardi's green tweed suit with long extended, split sleeves; Hussein Chalayan's paper suit, printed with a flower design and a Norfolk-style suit by Vivienne Westwood, fashion's greatest exponent of "Britishness".

The mannequin design was tricky, too: it had work for the magnificent embroidered gown that Norman Hartnell designed for the Queen in 1957 as Owen Gaster's modernist, aquatic-looking two-piece made in a heat-sensitive material, that changes colour like oil on water. Classic calico proved perfect to cover torso figures by Stockman London.

I hope the exhibition will be seen as a fitting tribute to the designers, tailors and manufacturers whose work constitutes British fashion identity. High fashion in Britain is a maverick industry, populated with high-achieving designers who survive with precious little infrastructure. For while British state-funded art schools provide the finest fashion training in the world, once qualified these designers are frequently enticed to work abroad where fashion is given the respect it is duen

'The Cutting Edge - 50 Years of British fashion 1947 to 1997' opens at the Victoria & Albert Museum on 6 March. The Independent is hosting a private viewing for 300 readers, with guest speakers, on 19 March. Details to be announced next week.