In honour of London Fashion Week's 25th Anniversary, the Victoria & Albert Museum brought together the best of British craft and design for its monthly 'Friday Late' interactive exhibition.

The V&As now famous late shows give visitors to the museum the chance to see beyond the finished product and understand the skill behind the making of modern fashion and tailoring. In addition to the V&As Fashion in Motion live runway shows, the curators commissioned a collection of archive films documenting the evolution of London Fashion Week as well as inviting illustrator Tanya Ling to hold life-drawing classes.

But the museum also wanted to acknowledge bespoke tailoring as an integral part of the British fashion industry. When Savile Row Bespoke was invited to participate, Chairman Mark Henderson wanted to emphasise the importance of young talent thriving on the Row. Curators Chris Pollard and Susan Paisley, both students in their early twenties, impressed the SRB board with their 'Below the Row' concept: literally setting-up a tailor's shop above stairs and a workroom below, complete with cutting boards, master tailors and apprentices demonstrating the largely hidden craft of bespoke tailoring. 'We wanted to offer a window on an otherwise closed world,' said Pollard. 'Rather than showing the finished, polished suits, we wanted visitors to experience the more visceral nature of a working tailor's shop.' The venerable houses who agreed to loan their cutters for the evening included Anderson & Sheppard, Dege & Skinner, Gieves & Hawkes, Henry Poole & Co and Huntsman.

The public interest in Savile Row was immediately obvious from the queues forming at 6.30pm for Below the Row. Visitors were initiated into the dark art of measuring-up a bespoke customer, though it was perhaps fortunate for some that the language tailors employ to describe physical imperfections is too opaque to offend. The workshop space was manned by master tailors striking a pattern and cutting a coat. Apprentice coatmakers and trousermakers such as Gieves & Hawkes' Aires Ferreira demonstrated the mandatory hand stitching inside a bespoke garment, hitherto unseen by the uninitiated, while the sight of Henry Poole & Co livery master Keith Levitt finishing Royal Ascot tunics for the Royal Mews showed that there is little couture has to teach bespoke tailoring.

Impressive finished pieces were displayed, including Dege & Skinner's Master of the Horse tunic made by livery tailor Sarah Goodwin and an Anderson & Sheppard black velvet smoking jacket embroidered to echo a 19th century court coatee by Hand & Lock that was commissioned for The London Cut exhibition in Tokyo. Cloth house Fox Brothers & Co generously supported the event as did Dormeuil who exhibited the crowd-pleasing 'world's most expensive suit' woven with 18 carat gold pinstripe and embellished with solid gold buttons. Ian Denyer, the director who filmed a three one-hour BBC2 documentary about Savile Row in 2008, re-cut unseen footage from the programme to compliment the 'unseen Savile Row' concept for Below the Row. A repeat performance at the V&A is already under discussion and Savile Row at the Friday Late has confirmed what the Row has always known: quality and craft will always attract admiration and aspiration.

Savile Row Bespoke would like to congratulate and thank:

Ligaya Salazar, Rachel Francis and the team at the V&A,

Chris Pollard & Susan Paisley, Ian Denyer & all those who make up the unique community on "The Row"