REBEL: 30 Years of London Fashion

16 Sep 2023-11 Feb 2024

Overview

Opening to coincide with London Fashion Week, this landmark exhibition will be one of the most wide-ranging surveys of contemporary fashion culture ever staged in the UK. It will offer an unprecedented look at how careers in fashion are forged, and the multitude of opportunities London’s fashion scene offers young creatives.

The exhibition is a landmark collaboration with the British Fashion Council (BFC) and will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the BFC’s NEWGEN programme, an initiative that supports the best emerging fashion design talent and aims to build global, high-end brands of the future.

Guest-curated by BFC Ambassador for Emerging Talent Sarah Mower MBE and co-curated by Design Museum Senior Curator Rebecca Lewin, this exhibition tells the story of hundreds of fearless young designers who have transformed the fashion landscape, and will bring together exuberant, rebellious and radical garments.

The show will feature nearly 100 innovative fashion looks from ground-breaking debut and early collections, many of which have entered pop-culture history — and launched global design careers.

Highlights include the swan dress controversially worn by Björk at the 2001 Oscars, Harry Styles’ Steven Stokey Daley outfit from his video for ‘Golden,’ a unique replica of Sam Smith's inflatable latex suit by HARRI from this year’s BRIT Awards. Collections and work by JW Anderson, Wales Bonner, Erdem, Molly Goddard, Christopher Kane, Simone Rocha, Russell Sage, and many more will also be featured.

These items will be shown alongside films, drawings, memorabilia and never-before-seen archive material from some of the most well-known contemporary UK-based designers.

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