Dutch Dare...

Famed for their extravagant collections and their high-concept catwalk shows, the radical Dutch designers Viktor and Rolf have taken the fashion world by storm over the last fifteen years.

The centrepiece of The House of Viktor and Rolf exhibtion at the Barbican Art Gallery is a 6-metre-high doll's house. Populating the house are some fifty specially designed dolls, each about 70 centimetres tall and wearing an exquisite, hand-made perfect replica of a signature Viktor and Rolf piece.The dolls are even made up and have their hair styled to look like the model who first wore the clothes at the catwalk show or photo shoot.

Commissioned from a traditional dollmaker, these dolls combine elements of two types of nineteeth-century European doll: the bisque Porcelain face of French children's dolls, replete with human hair, and the papier-mâché bodies of German fashion dolls.