THE LONDON LOOK: FASHION FROM STREET TO CATWALK, a major exhibition at the Museum of London from 29 October 2004, is the first to celebrate London’s distinct fashion identity.
THE LONDON LOOK: FASHION FROM STREET TO CATWALK
29 October 2004 – 8 May 2005
Provocative, edgy and inventive - London fashion possesses a wit and style not found anywhere else in the world. THE LONDON LOOK: FASHION FROM STREET TO CATWALK, a major exhibition at the Museum of London from 29 October 2004, is the first to celebrate London’s distinct fashion identity.
"London is renowned for being the innovative fashion capital of the world. It is the very unpredictable and original nature of the way people design and wear clothes in this city that defines the London Look, a combination of free spirit, heritage and adventure." Alexandra Shulman, Editor, British Vogue.
The London Look, bringing together over 200 exhibits by more than 70 designers spanning the past 200 years, draws from both the Museum of London’s costume collection and articles donated and lent by some of today’s top names including Paul Smith, Manolo Blahnik, Stella McCartney, Ozwald Boateng and Alexander McQueen.
The exhibition highlights four defining characteristics of the ‘London Look’: Innovation, Tradition, Alternative and Fusion. It presents London fashion through sound recordings, photographs and archive footage of fashion shows and designers at work. Photographers, models and make-up artists talk about their work alongside a rare film screening of a 1963 Mary Quant fashion show. Fashion photography is represented by work including Terence Donovan, Sarah Moon and Nick Knight.
The exhibition’s introductory section ‘From Quant to McQueen’ tracks the growth of the city’s fashion industry from the late 1940s to the present. The city’s large and diverse pool of skills, vibrant art colleges and thriving street and club cultures created a unique environment which supported the introduction of technical innovations and creative ingenuity. Items on display range from a silk satin couture evening dress painted with roses by Norman Hartnell (1948), a floral printed trouser suit by Biba (1973) and a Vivienne Westwood tailored men’s suit with matching ermine cape and crown (1987), reflecting the extraordinary range and variety of clothes that fashionable Londoners have enjoyed.
Innovation explores London’s distinctive industry resources, including fashion education. In the early part of the twentieth century those seeking a career in the industry relied on apprenticeships and a small number of trade schools. From the mid-twentieth century the Royal College of Art and Saint Martin’s School of Art began to lay the foundation for London’s reputation as a hothouse for creative talent by offering courses in fashion design.
Mary Quant, who received no formal training in fashion design, opened her first boutique, Bazaar, on the King’s Road in 1955 when she was twenty-one. By her own account the young Quant was so ignorant of the protocols of dressmaking that, unaware that she could purchase clothing wholesale, she bought all the materials for her early designs at Harrods and made them up from amended Butterick paper patterns. Such cheerful chaos and uncommercial lack of perspective continues to typify the production methods of many London designers.
Tradition looks at London’s pre-eminence in tailoring and its influences on the London Look. Concentrations of famous tailors in the locality of Savile Row relied on their close proximity to the social haunts and habits of the rich for their success. A double-breasted greatcoat refined to suit city pavements rather than the country lane, is displayed in the exhibition. It was tailored in dark blue face-cloth by John Weston of 34 Old Bond Street in 1803 and conforms well to the conventions expected of attire suitable for ‘rambling’ in the shopping streets of Mayfair and St James. Weston’s reputation as tailor and draper to the Prince of Wales and the Dukes of Cambridge, Sussex and Gloucester positioned him as the master of urban clothing design at the time.
Alternative looks at London’s street styles and bohemian and sub-cultural groups. Successive subcultural groups, from the Teddy boys of South and East London and the Mods of Carnaby Street, to the Punks of the Kings Road have made the street their stage for acts of sartorial delinquency. This section includes a t-shirt, slit over the bust, designed by Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood for their store Sex at 430 Kings Road, printed with pornographic excerpts from Alexander Trocchi’s book of lesbian fantasies, Schools for Wives. Although commercialisation has blunted the shock value of styles like these, London is still considered by editors, stylists and trend-seekers to have an edgy, amateurish grit.
Fusion highlights the diverse ethnic communities that have always been a part of London’s demographic make-up. The fusion of traditional styles of cut, construction and decoration from across the world, that is so characteristic of much clothing designed and worn in London, reflects the city’s openness to other cultures but also its passion for dressing up. This fusion is exemplified by an 1860s Zouave jacket purchased in Oxford Street, a Liberty Japanese-made dressing jacket of the 1890s, Bill Gibb’s 1970’s knitwear and the globally influenced collections of designers such as Blaak, Ashish and Maharishi – all quintessentially ‘of London’ in style and appeal.
The exhibition ends with a vibrant and colourful display of contemporary London clothing and accessory designers in a section titled, Now. A man’s outfit donated by Burberry is displayed alongside dresses by Alexander McQueen, Catherine Walker, Stella McCartney and Roland Mouret as well as PPQ and Giles Deacon.
Editors’ Notes:
THE LONDON LOOK: FASHION FROM STREET TO CATWALK, written by the curators of the exhibition Christopher Breward and Edwina Ehrman and contributor Caroline Evans is published by Yale University Press to accompany the exhibition.
The Museum of London’s dress collection is internationally recognised for its quality and diversity. The collection aims to represent London’s role as a centre for the fashion and clothing industry, and to reflect the diversity of life in London, recording and collecting the clothing of all London’s communities.
There are over 21,000 objects in the collection, dating from the Tudor period to the present day. The core of the collection consists of high quality male and female fashionable dress and accessories. The garments from the 20th century are more diverse and include everyday and sportswear, and clothing from all social backgrounds. The Museum is also keen to collect clothing from London’s subcultures to add to the small group of street clothing in the collection.
The cultural life of London is reflected in a significant group of costume and accessories associated with the performing arts dating from the late 18th century to 1970. It includes material related to the theatre, music hall, opera, ballet, circus, cabaret and television.
The Museum is actively collecting periodicals and advertising material associated with fashion and clothing with the aim of building up a key resource for research. This ambition has been significantly advanced by the recent gift of The Harry Matthews Collection of fashion plates and periodicals. This collection includes approximately 4,000 costumes and fashion plates dating from 1550 to 1829, an important collection of 18th and 19th century illustrated pocket books and a group of fashion periodicals.
The Museum of London Group consists of The Museum of London, London Wall, The Museum in Docklands, West India Quay and Mortimer Wheeler House, Eagle Wharf Road, home to the London Archaeological Archive and Research Centre (LAARC), Museum of London Archaeology Service (MoLAS) and the Museum of London Specialist Services (MoLSS).
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