Women fashion power

Slightly disappointing exhibition at the Design Museum looking at how women’s social standing has changed over the last 150 year and how clothing has both reflected that and enable it.

I liked the fact it looked at how materials had changed to meet new needs but also how changes in style and materials eg corsets and enabled some of the change. There was a nice focus on designers who had had big changes such as Chanel, Mary Quant and Schiaparelli. It was a good overview of women's fashion in this period.

What woman could not be moved by seeming a genuine Suffragettes hat and look forward to a film on the movement due out next year with Meryl Streep as Emmeline Pankhurst! Some of the costumes were in the exhibition.

However the best section was at the back showing clothes lent by women in power today in politics, business, fashion and culture. I think I had been hoping for more of this. It was good to read the real stories about why they dressed in a certain way and sometimes why they had bought particular items. I felt the title of the show and advertising had implied this is what it was about.

I did have the interesting experience of watching a group of long skirted, veiled Muslim girls going round the show. The teacher wasn’t really guiding them through the show so I did wonder what on earth they made of it.

 

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