Night and Day: 1930s Fashion and Photographs


Glamourous exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum looking at the fashion of the 1930s.

This is one of my favourite periods in fashion history so I wanted a lot from this show and found it a bit thin. The main themes were covered well with good tableau but I’d have liked to see a bit more on who had designed the clothes. There was good booklet with all the information in to save on labels messing up the displays. It described the clothes and added snippets and quotes about the period however it was a bit large to use as you went round the show.

There was some fascinating information in the show such as the fact that this period saw improved sizing which made the selling of clothes in department stores easier. It also looked at the growth of women’s magazines. I’d have liked to see more use of photographs given they are billed in the title but there was a nice room of Cecil Beaton pictures.

My favourite tableau was the one shown here representing the Coronation. I loved the fact it had original bunting and flags. There was also an elegant display on dancing and one to represent the development of printed fabrics.

Closes on 20 January 2019


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