Fashion and Textile Museum
83 Bermondsey Street, London. Tuesday to Sunday, 11am - 5.45pm; tel: 020 7403 0222

Today’s children, mindful of their street cred, are well up on the brand names associated with the T-shirts, hooded tops, jeans and trainers they can bear to be seen wearing. But what would they make of the creations of Stella McCartney, Caroline Charles, John Galliano and Issey Miyake, to name just a few of the seminal fashion designers who selected their favourite garments to put on show at the opening of the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey last week?

It was a question that teacher Sarah Richardson from Camberwell Arts Week pondered when she took a Year 5 class from John Ruskin primary school in the London borough of Southwark to visit the exhibition hung with garments as contrasting as Donatella Versace’s gossamer-fine beaded gown (autumnwinter collection 2002) and Vivienne Westwood’s `frumpy funk’ brown wool dress (autumnwinter collection 1994). The designers may have done as much as anyone to influence and inspire fashion from the top down, but would they stack up for children whose lives do not, on the whole, come into contact with haute couture?

My Favourite Dress runs until November

For a full preview of the exhibition read this week’s TES Friday magazinenbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;