For well over half a century Italian fashions have loomed large on the international stage, which is how I happened to be seated one evening in 1974 directly behind Gina Lollobrigida and Audrey Hepburn at Valentino's swanky atelier in Rome. London will honor the halcyon Italian fashion years with the first ever such exhibition to go on view at the Victoria & Albert Museum April 5 through July 2014, called "The Glamour of Italian Fashion 1945-2014."