Inspiration from Scott's Last Expedition - Natural History Museum

The Scott exhibition at the Natural History Museum has been on for some time (and runs until 2nd September 2012) and I've only just managed to get to it. Readers with good memories will recall I've talked about Robert Falcon Scott two or three times before - in particular, at the time of the centenary of his death returning from the South Pole in March 1912.

The exhibition emphasised for me that Scott's expedition, unlike that of Amundsen, who won the race to the Pole, was only partly about reaching the South Pole. A staggering amount of scientific research was carried out, which laid the basis for much modern work on glaciers, wildlife and polar weather and which filled several volumes with published research papers. This legacy, and the stunning photographs, show how rich and productive Scott's expedition was in comparison with that of Amundsen. For me, Scott did not lose the race to the Pole, he led an expedition which blazed a trail for subsequent polar explorers to follow.

The work to gather this scientific data was carried out in harsh conditions - and the clothes the men wore were, by our standards, basic. However, I was struck by the photographs of the clothing, often tweed and knitted wool, which seems to have served the men well - they looked comfortable. There is much there to provide inspiration for today's clothes designers - and indeed we have seen Wolsey and Nigel Cabourn, among others, use the example of these robust and workmanlike garments.

I appreciate that the height of the European summer is not time to be thinking about such warm clothes, but winter is not far off and you can think how your wardrobe might be influenced by the clothes worn by these hardy and heroic men a hundred years ago.