A new
window display has launched at Selfridges
Oxford Street, London, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of
Florence's Fashion Biennale, in
association with the Barbican's upcoming exhibition, The
Vulgar: Fashion Redefined.
First
staged in September 1996, the Biennale proposed new ways of looking at fashion.
International designers including Valentino, Manolo Blahnik, Yves Saint Laurent
and Issey Miyake participated in the many curatorial experiments staged around
the city already so famous for its museums.
One of
the criticisms levelled at the Biennale at the time was that the department
store had been brought into the museum. The window installation, created by
London-based exhibition-maker Judith Clark and featuring shoes by Manolo
Blahnik, is intended as a witty reversal of the event, this time inviting the
museum and the gallery into the department store. By doing so it aims to
question what the appropriate context for fashion might be today and whether
the hierarchies still stand.
The Vulgar: Fashion Redefined runs from 13 October – 5
February at the Barbican. The exhibition explores the challenging but
compelling territory of taste in fashion, with contributions from designers
including Alessandro Michele for Gucci, Karl Lagerfeld for Chloé and Chanel and
Riccardo Tisci for Givenchy.
Link: www.selfridges.com