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New Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of it
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Theatre
A smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusion
Cock
Restaurants
Kitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave
Kitchen W8
Too long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effects
This is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flaws
Alex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factor
London,
Evening Standard rating
Reader rating
Description: The hat designer curates a retrospective look at hat design from the 17th century to the present day, including an examination of the inspiration, the creation, and the ettiqute of millinery.
Phone: 0207942 2000
Website: www.vam.ac.uk
Email: vanda@vam.ac.uk
Trains: Tube: South Kensington 
, Tube / Bus: 14, 74, 414, C1 
Extra info: Telephones, Pub, Food, Party Hire
Regal: Stephen Jones’s Crown for the Comme Des Garçons show
Extravagant: a silk and straw bonnet from 1807
The economy is in freefall, the V&A has an exhibition of hats. The timing is sublime. Volatility + overspending = recession but, historically, it also equals hats. The more unnecessary an item of clothing, the more fundamental, at certain periods, it becomes — and during depressions, hats cock a snook.
Look at Schiaparelli’s 1937 Cuban-heeled hat, aiming a flying kick. A clipped male voice narrating a “Special Pathé Pictorial Selection for the Ladies” explains that “the latest models have all gone military”. We see “a beautiful example of the Fascist cap that Mussolini is so fond of wearing”, while another hat “is adorned with little bells that tinkle as one walks”. All these hats are “guaranteed to bring men to attention”.
Curated by milliner Stephen Jones, the show, with more than 300 hats from 600BC to now, is pure camp. In this world, reality is suspended, feminism exalted, fantasy cajoled to burlesque — with a handful of buckram and glue, felt, fur, flowers and feathers, or Perspex, plastic and Barbie dolls’ legs. Anything can go on top of a head. Even a pair of fornicating figurines, in Sex on The Brain, by Kirsten Woodward.
The show is themed rather than historically substantial — but gestures have been made. Famous hats include a black-and-white number by Cecil Beaton for My Fair Lady, while setting Darth Vader’s headgear next to a Samurai helmet is inspired.
Peculiar is an ostrich-feather dress/hat by Stephen Jones for Giles Deacon. There is also, in what looks like the naughty corner for hats, one made of lolly sticks and another of twigs — the sort of thing teachers of nine-year-olds throw away at Easter.
Traditional hats of straw, blocked felt or flowers jostle with the off-kilter extravagances of modern mad-hattery (in the 1950s, requirement for hats died out in all but formal, ecclesiastical, professional or royal situations).
There are so many exuberant hats here that everyone will find one to laugh at — but at least one hat secretly to covet, to wish to possess… Or, to wish on someone else: such as a huge cone of orange and pink marabou by David Shilling; a dunce’s cap for a comedian; the perfect bonnet for a banker?
Until 31 May. Daily 10am-5.30pm (Fri until 10pm). Admission: £5.90 (020 7942
2000, www.vam.ac.uk)
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
