Potent, provocative and sometimes shocking, the word vulgar conjures up strong images, ideas and feelings in us all. The Vulgar: Fashion Redefined is the first exhibition to consider this inherently challenging but utterly compelling territory of taste. It both questions notions of vulgarity in fashion while revelling in its excesses, inviting the visitor to think again about exactly what makes something vulgar and why it is such a sensitive and contested term.
Drawn from major public and private collections worldwide, with contributions from leading modern and contemporary designers such as Walter van Beirendonck, Manolo Blahnik, Chloé, André Courrèges, Christian Dior, Erdem, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Rudi Gernreich, Nicolas Ghesquiére, Madame Grès, Pam Hogg, Marc Jacobs, Charles James, Stephen Jones, Christian Lacroix, Karl Lagerfeld, Jeanne Lanvin, Malcolm McLaren, Maison Margiela, Miu Miu, Moschino, Paul Poiret, Miuccia Prada, Zandra Rhodes, Jeremy Scott, Elsa Schiaparelli, Raf Simmons, Jun Takahashi, Philip Treacy, UNDERCOVER, Viktor & Rolf, Louis Vuitton, Vivienne Westwood and Marco Zanini. The Vulgar opens at Barbican Art Gallery on 13 October 2016.
Conceived by exhibition-maker Judith Clark and psychoanalyst Adam Phillips, the exhibition takes fascinating literary definitions of ‘the vulgar’ as a starting point and includes a wealth of over 120 stunning exhibits from the Renaissance through to the 21st century. Weaving together historic dress, couture and ready-to-wear fashion, textile ornamentation, manuscripts, photography and film, this carefully crafted installation illustrates how taste is a mobile concept: what was once associated with vulgarity is reconjured by designers to become the height of fashion. Encompassing a 500 year timeframe, The Vulgar showcases historic works alongside a roll call of contemporary fashion. The exhibition demonstrates how fashion through the ages actively breaks with and revises taste to create new expressions of style, often celebrating, courting or exploiting so-called vulgarity and its possible pleasures.
