Russia is Tsar attraction at V&A

Exhibits include a coronation mantle, a pair of coronation boots and a wool coat

A collection of costumes worn by the tsars and court officials of Imperial Russia has gone on display at the Victoria and Albert museum in London.

Magnificence of the Tsars features more than 40 ceremonial outfits, many of which have never been exhibited before.

Relations between the UK and Russia have been frosty of late, prompting some observers to view the exhibition as a potential olive branch.

The V&A recently sent exhibits to the Kremlin's Armoury Museum in exchange.

Two Centuries of British Fashion - an exhibition of 18th and 19th Century British dress - displayed at the Moscow museum between September and November.

'Gorgeous'

Russian history professor Orlando Figes of the University of London said many of the elaborate outfits at the V&A exhibition were "astonishingly gorgeous".

"Here is a monarchy that goes out with all guns blazing," he told the BBC's David Sillito.

The outfits are being lent to the V&A by Moscow's Kremlin Museums

Highlights include outfits from the wardrobe of the boy emperor Peter II, who reigned for just three years, and the coronation uniforms of the seven emperors who succeeded him.

The last tsar, Nicholas II, was executed with his family by Bolshevik revolutionaries in July 1918.

Mark Jones, director of the V&A, said the exhibition featured "objects of exceptional historic importance from one of the world's greatest museums."

Elena Gagarina, general director of the Moscow Kremlin Museums, said it would "introduce the British public to the art of the finest dressmakers, tailors, embroiderers and jewellers working for the Russian Imperial Court."

The Magnificence of the Tsars exhibition runs until 29 March 2009.