Harris Reed, a 25-year-old British-American designer who graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2020, is one of the most fascinating names in fashion right now. Architectural suits, pussy-bow blouses, and tiered dresses are among his designs, which have been worn by Harry Styles, Sam Smith, Iman, and Emma Corrin. They've struck a chord with an audience eager to blur fashion's binary by being purWhile Reed's designs push the boundaries of what we consider "masculine" and "feminine," as well as encourage more daring attire, the concept isn't new. The fact that menswear has always experimented with gendered rules is a core focus of a new exhibition at the V&A called Fashioning Masculinities. The Art of Menswear debuts this month, focusing on male apparel from the museum's extensive collection. It opens with a sculptural piece by London-based designer Craig Green and features a new generation of designers like Edward Crutchley and Grace Wales Bonner alongside fashion's biggest disruptors like Tom Ford, Hedi Slimane, Miuccia Prada (including Gary Oldman's AW12 runway outfit) and Alexander "Lee" McQueen. There are further objects dated 1565, such as a breastplate, andposefully non-gendered.a teapot from 1881 by potter James Hadley, pieces by Rodin, Degas, and Joshua Reynolds, and Matthew Bourne's Spitfire, which features his dancers in white underwear.
Please use the sharing tools available through the share button on the top of the page. The curators used the show, which is divided into three sections: Undressed, Overdressed, and Redressed, to make historical and contemporary analogies. One of Reed's designs, a pink lamé puff-sleeved blouse with skintight matching flares and a French lace cravat, is comparable to a painting by Joshua Reynolds dated 1773-74 depicting Charles Coote, 1st Earl of Bellamont, in a white-feathered headdress and floor-length scarlet cape (that over time has faded to pink).
"When it came to selecting our clothing, we wanted to locate historical examples that demonstrated how people have been wearing in fluid ways for as long as people have been dressing," explains co-curator Rosalind McKever. "And how different reasons exist for that." Coote, for example, wore his cape to represent power, rank, and riches - red was a notoriously expensive colour to make at the time. She also mentions a set of vibrant 18th-century men's silk waistcoats from the V&A collection. McKever says, "It feels like a very exciting time to be thinking about menswear at a time when the industry is transitioning away from binary mens- or womenswear." "These are vibrant and fascinating examples that speak to our current concerns about men's fashion." If We're talking about guts here, and these are quite daring."
The flamboyant Beau Brummell and his modern counterpart Harry Styles come to mind when you think of unorthodox interpretations on masculinity. Styles' blue-velvet Gucci outfit from 2019 is also on display in the exhibition. Another pairing, a regal SS22 Edward Crutchley dress juxtaposed with a 19th-century dressing gown (made from recycled women's fabric), is an example of the show's effort to rethink preconceptions about what men have worn historically, and what they might wear today, according to Claire Wilcox, fashion historian and co-curator. "It's been 150 years since men wore lace or ribbons, but wouldn't it be great if they did?"
Dudley, 3rd Baron North is depicted in an all-black attire with a doublet and billowing breeches in another image from James I's court. It's reflected in Gianni Versace's leather womenswear outfit from 1992. (the late designer was a regular visitor to the V&A). McKever describes it as an example of a modern designer reinterpreting vintage menswear for ladies. When you add in footage of Tilda Swinton as Orlando from Sally Potter's 1992 film based on Virginia Woolf's gender-explorative novel, the themes about fashion fluidity become clear.