Suit, c1972
Sir Edwin Hardy Amies for Hepworth's
Worsted, velvet
Teddy Boy styles infiltrated high street retailers and even Savile Row tailors. The designer Hardy Amies, better known for his couture womenswear, interpreted this style with exaggerated contours in this suit created for Hepworth's, the chain of men's tailoring shops specialising in ready-made suits. Amies may have been influenced by the presence of Bunny Roger, who rented a workspace in his atelier to design womenswear and was a renowned exponent of the Neo-Edwardian style.
[V&A]
Taken in the Exhibition
Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear
(March 2022 to November 2022)
At a moment of unprecedented creativity in men's fashion and reflection on gender, this exhibition explored how designers, tailors and artists – and their clients and sitters – have constructed and performed masculinity, and unpicked it at the seams.
...The exhibition showcases the variety of possible masculinities across the centuries from the Renaissance to the global contemporary: from looks by Gucci, Harris Reed, Grace Wales Bonner and Raf Simons, to paintings by Sofonisba Anguissola and Joshua Reynolds, contemporary artworks by David Hockney and Omar Victor Diop, to an extract from an all-male dance performance by Matthew Bourne's New Adventures.
The exhibition presents around 100 looks alongside 100 artworks, displayed thematically across three galleries, Undressed, Overdressed, and Redressed.
The third gallery, Redressed, opens with a reflection on English country tailoring and the origins of the suit – with historic garments from the V&A collection shown alongside contemporary reimaginings, including a kilt by Nicholas Daley – before exploring how military attire influenced civilian dress.
Redressed will also include paintings as well as extensive photography showing changing styles and attitudes, from Oscar Wilde, Claude Cahun and Cecil Beaton to The Beatles and Sam Smith. Robert Longo's 1981 drawing from the series Men in the Cities will introduce the final part of the section about the dissolving of the suit, and how a new wave of fashion designers from Rick Owens to JW Anderson to Comme des Garçons to Lesiba Mabitsela are slashing away at conventions, both for menswear, and masculinity.
[V&A]
Suit, c1972
Sir Edwin Hardy Amies for Hepworth's
Worsted, velvet
Teddy Boy styles infiltrated high street retailers and even Savile Row tailors. The designer Hardy Amies, better known for his couture womenswear, interpreted this style with exaggerated contours in this suit created for Hepworth's, the chain of men's tailoring shops specialising in ready-made suits. Amies may have been influenced by the presence of Bunny Roger, who rented a workspace in his atelier to design womenswear and was a renowned exponent of the Neo-Edwardian style.
[V&A]
Taken in the Exhibition
Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear
(March 2022 to November 2022)
At a moment of unprecedented creativity in men's fashion and reflection on gender, this exhibition explored how designers, tailors and artists – and their clients and sitters – have constructed and performed masculinity, and unpicked it at the seams.
...The exhibition showcases the variety of possible masculinities across the centuries from the Renaissance to the global contemporary: from looks by Gucci, Harris Reed, Grace Wales Bonner and Raf Simons, to paintings by Sofonisba Anguissola and Joshua Reynolds, contemporary artworks by David Hockney and Omar Victor Diop, to an extract from an all-male dance performance by Matthew Bourne's New Adventures.
The exhibition presents around 100 looks alongside 100 artworks, displayed thematically across three galleries, Undressed, Overdressed, and Redressed.
The third gallery, Redressed, opens with a reflection on English country tailoring and the origins of the suit – with historic garments from the V&A collection shown alongside contemporary reimaginings, including a kilt by Nicholas Daley – before exploring how military attire influenced civilian dress.
Redressed will also include paintings as well as extensive photography showing changing styles and attitudes, from Oscar Wilde, Claude Cahun and Cecil Beaton to The Beatles and Sam Smith. Robert Longo's 1981 drawing from the series Men in the Cities will introduce the final part of the section about the dissolving of the suit, and how a new wave of fashion designers from Rick Owens to JW Anderson to Comme des Garçons to Lesiba Mabitsela are slashing away at conventions, both for menswear, and masculinity.
[V&A]