REBEL: 30 Years of London Fashion
The Design Museum, London
From September 16th, 2023 until February 11th, 2024
London has always been a city close to culture, a receptacle of experiences straddling art, music and fashion. The latter has been able to represent in every era the artistic-creative thinking and will of entire generations. A place defined as a source of inspiration and a catalytic space for so many young designers who have approached the fashion system. The exhibition offers a survey of how the city’s fashion scene has uniquely managed to incubate great fashion talents and how they have been able to leverage the capital to launch their success on the global stage. London has nurtured nearly all the designers in the NEWGEN project, making it a place where they can study or exhibit their vision, but also where they can build their network of contacts.
Photo Marcus Tando. Courtesy of Wales Bonner.
wearing swan dress by KTZ NEWGEN designer.
Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images.
LANDMARK MEDIA/Alamy Stock Photo.
Photo Piczo.
Photo Rebecca Maynes.
The NEWGEN initiative was established by the British Fashion Council in 1993 to support the best emerging fashion design talent in the United Kingdom. It still aims to create creative and responsible businesses for the future. REBEL: 30 Years of London Fashion is a collaboration between the Design Museum and the British Fashion Council (BFC), presented to mark the 30th anniversary of the NEWGEN program. All the designers featured in the exhibition were supported in the early stages of their careers through this project, and many of their creations have become part of pop culture history. Nearly 100 looks from the groundbreaking early collections are presented, displayed along with supporting material for the narrative, such as never-before-seen footage, drawings, memorabilia and archival details. The collection represents one of the most extensive surveys of contemporary British fashion culture ever undertaken in the country, chronicling its talent and brilliance through important and innovative pieces never seen in public since their original debut. It is an extraordinary journey inside London’s creative environment, a strong youthful energy, brilliant innovative flair and a healthy rebellious spirit.
