Drawing on the Museum's internationally recognised dress collection, the exhibition is the first to look at fashions from the past 200 years next to the work of some of today's top names and at catwalk creations beside street styles and thrift shop bargains. It explores the creative interaction between the designer, retailer and consumer, highlighting the way Londoners have combed department stores, boutiques and markets to create a look of their own, and how designers have used the history and culture of the city as a springboard for their ideas.
Arranged around four main themes - innovation, tradition, alternative dressing and global style - the displays combine men's and women's fashions, oral history and film. Norman Hartnell, Mary Quant, John Galliano, Paul Smith and Alexander McQueen are just some of the 70 designers whose work is on show.
By looking at the fashions from the King's Road to Hoxton; from the Regency Dandy to the Sixties Mod; from Savile Row tailoring and couture to thrift shopping and alternative styles like punk and Asian Underground, the exhibition highlights the ferment of ideas that has made London fashion unique. The exhibition will appeal as much to clothes-lovers contemplating a retail therapy spree and to intrigued observers of the London scene as to professionals, label freaks and fashionistas everywhere.
GSK Variable-Demountable cases in white glass were chosen for a temporay exhibition to commemorate the 200th anniverary of the battle of Trafalgar with a display of a model of HMS Victory. For this exhibition the cases were joined to form a single larger case. For subsequent exhibitions the cases can be reconfigured as individual display cases to give the Museum significant display flexibility.
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