THE late Alexander McQueen was the most innovative fashion designer of his era, celebrated throughout the world for his creativity and obscure imagination.

His visionary pieces cannot be merely dismissed as ‘clothes’. These are the creations — works of art even — spawned from the mind of a genius.

To visit the V&A’s much-lauded McQueen exhibition, Savage Beauty, is to walk inside the brain of the man himself; brilliant, glittering, often disturbing, bizarre... row upon row of fantastical designs to stimulate thought and debate.

So why did I find my other half crouched behind a crystal-studded ball gown, surreptitiously checking the football scores?

“Breathtaking, isn’t it?” I remarked, when I finally tracked down his hiding place.

“I think I’d be more interested if it was football shirts,” was his weary reply.

To be fair, the exhibition — the first and largest European retrospective of the designer’s body of work — is both huge and hugely popular, especially on a Saturday afternoon. Shuffling along in a vast crowd of fashionistas is not my partner’s idea of fun, but even he was captured (briefly) by the exhibition’s Cabinet of Curiosities, a blistering collection of pieces and accessories focusing on the fetishistic paraphernalia McQueen was famous for. The room is filled floor to ceiling with show pieces, one-off creations made for the catwalk but not intended for production, each more outrageous and elaborate than the next.

“I find beauty in the grotesque, like most artists,” McQueen is quoted as saying. “I have to force people to look at things.” And he does precisely that.

As romantic weekends in the capital go, this one was definitely geared to the female half of the partnership.

After a relaxing hour on the train we pitched headlong into the bustle of the capital and made for our hotel, The Kensington, in... well, South Kensington, of course — slap bang in the middle of Made In Chelsea territory.

A name like that demands a certain amount of prestige and The Kensington didn’t disappoint.

Owned by The Doyle Collection, a family-owned Irish group, the 150-room hotel is most definitely at the top end of the market, and the level of service was accordingly attentive. Hot towels on arrival and a porter to carry our luggage made us feel pampered from the outset, and the first look at our room confirmed we were in for a taste of how the other half lives.

Our luxury studio suite was dominated by a huge four poster bed beneath the biggest chandelier I’ve seen in my life. The room overlooked the leafy Queen’s Gate and we were able to watch the comings and goings of the grand Regency houses from the comfort of our roll top bath... when we weren’t watching the TV set into the bathroom wall, that is, or luxuriating under our powerful rain shower.

With the Victoria and Albert Museum just around the corner, The Kensington has come up with a special ‘fashion forward’ afternoon tea to tie in with the McQueen exhibition.

Inspired by the designer’s renowned juxtaposition of contrasting elements such as fragility and strength, tradition and modernity, fluidity and severity, the hotel’s chefs came up with some delicacies to reflect similar themes. So alongside the more traditional finger sandwiches are a crab and artichoke cocktail and golden quails eggs sprinkled with celery salt. And while the more usual buttermilk scones and clotted cream still make an appearance, there is also an avant garde red velvet and rose water butterfly cake inspired by Philip Treacy’s work for McQueen and a sweet little cherry Genoese inspired by McQueen’s iconic skull clutch bag.

Washed down by plenty of Champagne, it was the perfect way to salute the designer’s enduring legacy... and far better than an exhibition for drowning the sorrows of Portsmouth FC’s 2-0 defeat at home.