Fashion: Old street style

CALLING people who have great clothes up in the attic: the 20th-century dress curators of the Victoria & Albert Museum would like to hear from you.

'Streetstyle', which opens at the V&A in November, will chart the journey of street dress up on to the high-fashion catwalks. The museum now urgently needs a few key pieces to complete the exhibition, sponsored by the Independent and Perrier.

Did you come to Britain from the Caribbean in the Fifties or Sixties? Did you have a hand-painted tie? Were you a Fifties Teddy boy and do you still have your suits?

Or perhaps you were a Casual, circa 1978, and have kept your navy-blue Adidas kagoul with white racer stripes, your burgundy acrylic V-neck jumper and your burgundy Lois jumbo cords.

Were you a Seventies Soul patroller? Did you keep your clothes? Or perhaps you have a pair of purple or lime-green Kicker shoes. Do you have a French black felt beret, or a white towelling Kangol hat, circa 1980?

You might be into bhangra. The museum needs a current bhangra outfit, head-to-toe, including shoes for a boy and a girl. Or what about a zoot suit, like the one worn by Cab Calloway in the 1943 movie Stormy Weather? A beatnik outfit from the late Fifties or early Sixties, or an authentic suit as worn by jazz aficionados in the Fifties.

If you would be willing to lend any of these articles, please telephone Amy de la Haye or Cathie Dingwall at the Victoria & Albert Museum, 071-938 8412, or write to them at the museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 2RL. The museum would like to thank those Independent readers who have already responded to requests for clothes through this page.