During the swinging 60s, the understated traditional suits of Savile Row were considered boring and the fashionable flocked to menswear boutiques on Carnaby Street for brightly coloured suits and shirts. When Nutters of Savile Row opened in 1969, the two worlds collided. Rock stars, artists and the stylish embraced Nutter’s bespoke suits because they were fashionable as well as beautifully crafted.

The exhibition includes suits, jackets, sketches and a couple of pieces of knitwear. Some of the suits are very much of their time, made from velvet or satin, with flares and flouncy trim. They are the sort of outfits worn by celebs on those old episodes of Morecombe and Wise. But the Fashion & Textile Museum understands the zeitgeist and these suits feel unexpectedly fresh and exciting.

As well as fans of fashion, tailoring and style, this exhibition is also perfect for music fans as suits have been loaned by stars like Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Cilla Black and Elton John. Nutter made astonishing jumpsuits for Elton’s 80s tours, as well as a coral flared jumpsuit for Neil Sedaka which is amusingly 70s. It says a lot about Nutter’s star-attracting style that one of The Beatles turned up at the exhibition’s private view last night. (Ringo! Very exciting.)

Admission also includes entry to a small photography exhibition of work by Justin De Villeneuve featuring Twiggy at the legendary London department store Biba.

Tommy Nutter is on at the Fashion and Textile Museum from 20 May to 22 October 2011. Adult £8, concessions £5. www.ftmlondon.org

Horrockses were known for their bright cotton print summer dresses which were widely available ready made, were easy to wear and effortlessly stylish. To keep the dresses at the cutting edge of fashion, Horrockses worked with lots of young designers and artists, including a young Terrance Conran who sold 20 designs to the firm in 1950.

The exhibition is absolutely stunning, every dress looks as fresh and modern as the day it was made. The dresses pay homage to Dior’s New Look, with full skirts and tiny waists, and the prints are all about having fun – giant roses, lobsters, dancing girls and even a dress featuring radishes and hard boiled eggs!

A Horrockses dress would have cost between £4 and £7, (£80 to £130 in today’s money) so they weren’t cheap, but they were the dresses everyone wanted, saved for or copied. The dresses gained even more prestige after they were worn by the Queen. Princess Margaret wore a Horrockses dress to feed a giraffe in Africa in 1956.

The exhibition includes buyers books with photos, samples and elegant fashion illustrations. (There were two collections each year, with 150-160 styles created from 70-80 prints).

If you have a vintage style summer dress in your wardrobe, I suggest you wear it when you see the exhibition. If you don’t have one, you’ll be desperate for one when you leave! The Fashion and Textile Museum is where the fashionable people will be this summer. Go! Go now!

Horrockses Fashions at the Fashion and Textile Museum. 9 July – 24 October. £6.50 adult, £3.50 concessions. Open Wed – Sun 11:00-18:00. www.ftmlondon.org

Interior design company Sanderson are celebrating 150 years of decorating beautiful homes with a special exhibition at London’s Fashion and Textile Museum.

If you love interiors, fabric, design and beautiful things, you’ll love seeing Sanderson’s luxury wallpapers, textiles and pattern books from the archives. I loved this exhibition and my head is still spinning from all the gorgeous prints. My favourite bits included the wallpaper that looked like embossed leather and the cheerful adverts featuring bold clashing 60’s and 70s floral interiors.

Very Sanderson includes many large, beautiful, colourful samples which embrace every design style since Victorian times. It’s fascinating to see how Sanderson revive and redesign classic prints – the Rose and Peony wallpaper was designed in 1914 and you can still buy it today.

The exhibition really only scratches the surface of Sanderson’s collection; the thick log books and design ledgers hint at thousands of designs which are equally exquisite as the work on display but didn’t make the final show.

One of the ways Sanderson have kept their place as a leading name in decoration is by working with many leading designers over the last 150 years. As well as owning William Morris designs, Sanderson have worked with the Omega Workshops, Lucienne Day, Zandra Rhodes and are currently collaborating with contemporary artist Nina Saunders.

Sanderson’s designs were not exclusive to posh houses, Sanderson is sold on the high street. If you’ve got a pair of vintage floral curtains it might be worth having a gentle probe into the hems to see if there’s a manufacturers name printed on the selvage (I’ve got my mum’s childhood bedroom curtains from Sanderson hanging up in my little craft room).

This exhibition made me desperate to go and play in their archives. Fortunately they’ve anticipated this and there’s a video at the end with footage of the archive, the wallpaper printing machines in the factory and interviews with curator Mary Schoeser and top Sanderson designers.

If you have ambitious redecoration plans for your home after a trip to the Sanderson exhibition, pop along to the Sanderson showroom at the Design Centre Chelsea Harbour (a large shopping centre entirely devoted to glamorous designer furnishing shops) where you’ll find their latest collections and re-issued prints from the last 150 years.

Very Sanderson: 150 Years of English Decoration at the Fashion and Textile Museum 19 March – 13 June. £6.50 (£3.50 concessions). www.ftmlondon.org