Kristen Bailey cut a dash to The London Look: From Street To Catwalk, on at The Museum of London until May 8 2005.
It looks like a tiny section of a flapper’s party gown, made for a rich society lady. It’s a beading sampler, exquisitely hand-worked in beads, sequins and metallic threads by a first-year student at London’s Barrett Street Trade School in the 1920s.
The great thing about this exhibition is that it doesn’t just concentrate on London’s status as an international capital of cutting-edge fashion.
The work of top designers is here – Norman Hartnell, Mary Quant, Ossie Clark, Vivienne Westwood, John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Philip Treacy and Stella McCartney - but you also get to find out about the London-based industries which have supported them – the dyers, weavers, printers, tailors, milliners and shoemakers.
The show looks at the history of the thousands of garments produced in London workrooms and factories, and the garment industry’s training grounds – the schools, colleges and apprentice workshops.
One of the joys of the exhibition is the sheer range of artefacts on display. As well as garments and accessories, it includes fashion and documentary photography, catalogues, catwalk footage, newsreels, advertisements and promotional items.
Dozens of pieces of written and audio reminiscence have been collected from designers, retailers, fashion and style journalists and consumers. Items have been drawn from the museum’s vast permanent collection, as well being lent or donated by designers and consumers.
A display of garments from the 1600s demonstrates how the availability of exotic new fabrics, brought into London by the East India Company, began to influence fashion in the capital and beyond.
More recently it has been people arriving from other countries who have influenced London fashion. There’s a photo of West Indian women having elaborate manicures done in a nail bar, a photo of a Bollywood-style Selfridges window from 2002 and a moving audio account by London-based designer Shirin Guild about her exile from her home country, Iran.
The section on tailoring displays many examples of made-to-measure and ready-made tailoring, including famous brand names such as Hardy Amies, Paul Smith, Aquascutum and Austin Reed.
From the 19th century, Savile Row became the place to go for a bespoke suit, while the ready-made tailoring industry thrived in the east end, run largely by members of the Jewish community.
Alternative fashions are represented by items such as Derek Ridgers’ photos of 1980s skinheads, punks and New Romantics, and taped reminiscence from Marco Perroni, formerly of Adam and the Ants.
Much earlier styles of alternative dress are represented by a group of late 19th and early 20th century outfits worn by artistic and scholarly women from London’s bohemian circles, which were thought ridiculous by more conventional and fashionable women.
Also on show are cravat pins, cufflinks, watch charms and beautifully embroidered waistcoats worn by mid-19th century ‘gents’ and ‘swells’, who took advantage of the newly available and very fashionable ready-made menswear, but were derided at the time for their elaborate dress.
One section of the show, Vintage and Thrift, looks at the wearing of secondhand clothing. Whilst this had previously been a necessity for generations of poorer Londoners, it became trendy in the 1960s.
There are two outfits put together and worn by contemporary thrifter and fashion stylist Bay Garnett, who explains in an audio exhibit: "You have to take it out of context and put it into your own…I love the independence of it".
Edwina Ehrmand, co-curator, hopes the exhibition will attract a wide audience: "I’d like to see loads of fashion students in here with their sketchbooks. I’d like to see men in here. I’d like to see people who are normally a bit intimidated by fashion."
One of my favourite bits of the exhibition is the section of annotated Polaroid photos of contemporary Londoners, who have been stopped in the street and asked about what they’re wearing.
These will go into the museum’s archive and are a great reminder that fashion is not just about what happens on the catwalk, but about what we all wear, every day, year after year.
