London’s Victoria and Albert museum looks at Indian fashion

While the Victoria and Albert museum is renowned for housing artworks by popular artists from around the world, including few of the most beautiful art works belonging to the Mughal dynasty, jade objects and rare manuscripts, the museum is now aiming to work also with contemporary Indian design, fashion, architecture and product design.

Dr Mark Jones, director of the museum, says, “A lot of people do not know that the museum was set up primarily to work in the design field, and art was only secondary in the process. Apart from working regularly in art, we have also been concentrating on design.”

After a successful project on Chinese design in 2008, Victoria and Albert is all set to find out more about contemporary design in India. For this five-year project, Jones confirms that the museum will be collaborating with Indian contemporary designers, textile experts, architects and product designers. He says, “Expanding from the peripheries of galleries and art studios, we want to enter the living space of Indians and evaluate how contemporary design has influenced what clothes the regular man wears, and what shoes he wears.”