The museum boasts a pretty good fashion history collections which includes threads from the 20th century (some Missoni dresses!) to 18th century shoes and petticoats. There is a good Asian artifacts collection which included Samurai armor and kimonos and the fakes and forgeries hall is interesting with the "We double dog dare you to tell the real from the fakes." Turns out the need to find new and interesting treasures and artifacts was so high people took up the profession of creating fakes so that more people would visit their attractions. It sounded better when they told the story. Anyway...

I flew through this museum in less than three hours, and I left really unsatisfied. The only thing that made up for the disappointment was the awesome collection of musical instruments. Musicians of all ages and types will appreciate this exhibit as evolutions of string and wind instruments are on display.

As with all museums in London: to avoid all those minuature adults running around go right when the museum opens or after 2pm! And as always the museum is FREE!! And never, ever visit this museum on a Saturday--NEVER. And don't forget to donate money.

The V&A museum also has the best gift shop out of all the museums in London. To get there I would suggest getting off at the Gloucester Road tube station. Walk to Cromwell Road (the busy one) and turn right. You can take the tube to the South Kensington tube station, but getting off at Gloucester Road makes for a nice walk and you will also walk past the Natural History and Science Museums as well. So why not, burn off all those extra scone calories!

For the discerning male art lover, two or three hours should do it. For women, leave them there for the day! The Victoria and Albert Gift shop, though, is reputed to be the best museum shop in London. (I found more to interest me in the natural history museum shop) My wife, again, found many things of interest and managed to find some gifts for family and friends in our price range here.

Overall, the museum is well worth a visit, but is likely to be more attractive to women than to men (unless, of course, I am not a typical male!). The price (free entry) is right too, although after going through the Gift Shop on the way out I'm not so sure!

In another wing, they had an explanation of how stained glass was made -- not just the modern kind where the pieces of glass are joined by copper foil or lead came, but the pre-Gothic style, where the glass was pieced together and then artwork was drawn onto the glass.

The gift shop was a wonderful place to pick up souvenirs and gifts for friends at home because the emphasis was on design.

They have a section of the museum dedicated to British fashion designers, and also just exhibits on masters of fashion in general. The main feature is the Vivienne Westwood exhibit, which you have to pay for, but it is WELL worth the money. Here you can see the infamous platforms that Naomi Campbell took a huge plunge in on the runway. Also, you see some of her most artistic pieces of clothing. My favorite, however, was the Missoni display. He is truly the king of color, and if you ask any fashion student in the area, they'll have to agree. The curators of the museum certainly understand the work of fashion designers. They're not just artsy people that make queer clothing for the runway that no one can wear; they're artists that blend color and texture to create something so unique, so pleasing, or at least stimulating to the eye. Other than the fashion section, the museum has so much more to offer. They have an exquisite display of Asian art and artifacts, including beautiful gowns worn by soldiers, royalty, and many more. They have modern art, sculptures, short films, and historical findings that Prince Albert collected from his travels. Save a rainy day for this museum; it'll be your ray of sunshine.

The closest underground station is South Kensington.

As you walk in to the museum, look up and you will see one of Chihuly’s gorgeous glass chandeliers: blue and green glass sculpture coming out of the ceiling. Admission to the main collection is free but admission to temporary exhibits cost money. Students can get discounts, you simply need to ask. The museum also has a restaurant and a nice bookshop.

The main collection is dedicated to decorative arts and it’s unique because it is very large and it is like a review of world history over the last 5000 years – ceramics, glass, paintings, dress collection, silver, jewelry, furniture from different continents – America, Europe, Asia and Africa. Here you can find Donatello’s sculptures and collection of Art Nouveau furniture, ancient African artifacts and a huge collection of Asian art – vases, furniture, sculptures, woodwork, jewelry, carpets, fabrics and tapestries from Japan, China, Korea, India and Arab countries, also among other things a collection of British silver.

In addition to the amazing permanent collection, at the time I was in London there was an exhibit of royal tiaras. This was truly great. There were so many of them, with diamonds, rubies, emeralds, sapphires and any other possible precious stone you could think of, huge pearls, corals, in different styles, in gold and platinum, big and small, Art Nouveau and classic design. I just wanted to stay there for a while surrounded by this luxury, looking at these man-made creations and as any woman out there secretly wishing to once have one of these.