Fashionistas

Displayed over two floors at the V&A Museum, Ballgowns: British Glamour Since 1950 features more than 60 designs for social events - private parties, royal balls, state occasions and opening nights.

The exhibition covers over sixty years of a strong British design tradition that continues to flourish. Eveningwear from the V&A's vast collection, by designers including Victor Stiebel, Zandra Rhodes, Jonathan Saunders and Hussein Chalayan, are on show alongside dresses fresh from the catwalk shows of Alexander McQueen, Giles Deacon, Erdem and Jenny Packham.

Giles Deacon's tumbling black silk dress from 2007 was inspired, he says, by a visit to a car wash.