Long live Victoria & Albert

If you still haven't seen it, you can until the end of January. Future Fashion Now: New design from the Royal College of Art is one of the current exhibitions at the Victoria & Albert Museum. It celebrates the fresh creativity of fashion students through the graduate collections of 2008 (Katie Eary and many other talents). It reflects upon the creative process from the sketchbook to the finished garment, enhances innovative materials and shapes and shows many different ways of researching and approaching fashion design, so frankly... Chapeau! I am so happy to see, in a moment when it seems no one gives a chance to young people, as talented as they may be, that a widely respected museum is actually displaying the work of students, showing true respect to their collections and the creative process, and of course helping them become known within the industry. At the same time I wonder why all these amazing iniciatives invariably take place in Britain, the land of milk and honey for young and avant-garde designers. Please will someone explain to me why no one thinks of doing the same in Paris? Are there not enough museums, galleries and fashion schools? or maybe the fashion structure is not big enough? Paris claims to be the worldwide capital of fashion, yet the city shows no interest in any new designer as long as he doesn't prove that he is going to be commercial, mainstream and very, very big (very soon). I don't know whether this is due to lazyness or just some silly old-fashioned form of elitism. Be as it may, I will keep on catching the Eurostar for exhibitions like this.