LONDON: Dorothy's blue and white dress and her sparkling ruby slippers have travelled from Oz to London's Victoria and Albert museum, where more than 130 of cinema's iconic costumes star in a new exhibition.

The show, which opens to the public Saturday, examines the role of costume design in a century of cinema storytelling, from Charlie Chaplin to the recent remake of “Anna Karenina”, with a journey through hits from Hollywood's Golden Age.

It includes Judy Garland's gingham dress that saw Dorothy home in “The Wizard of Oz”; the green velvet gown that Vivien Leigh wore in “Gone with the Wind”; and the floor-length black dress for Audrey Hepburn in “Breakfast at Tiffany's”.

But the exhibition is far more than a fashion show: it highlights a distinctive type of design that guest curator Christopher Frayling said people often failed to understand.

“It's got to work at a particular moment, worn by a particular person, under particular lights, in a particular story, directed by a particular person,” he told AFP.

“At that moment it has to be photographed and the costume has to work.” As Meryl Streep said in an interview featured in the exhibition, next to her costumes from films such as “Mamma Mia!” and “The Iron Lady”, “on every film, the clothes are half the battle in creating the character”.

Also on display are costumes worn by characters such as comic book superhero Batman, the sci-fi icon Darth Vader, boy wizard Harry Potter and Cleopatra.

The “Deconstruction” gallery explains a costume designer's research process, “Dialogue” explores the collaboration between filmmakers, actors and designers and the “Finale” presents famous costumes worn by Hollywood favourites.

“Behind every costume, there is always a designer who began with a written word to create a real person,” Assistant Curator Keith Lodwick said.