The exhibition ‘The Vulgar. Fashion Redifined’ is on show at the Barbican Art Gallery, London, from the 13th October 2016 to the 5th February 2017.

The first to explore the challenging and compelling territory of taste in fashion, the exhibition ‘The Vulgar. Fashion Redifined’ displays more than 120 fashion objects, ranging from historical costumes to couture and ready-to-wear looks, drawing the visual vocabulary of vulgarity from the renaissance to today. Including contributions from leading contemporary designers such as Walter van Beirendonck, Chloé, Christian Dior, Pam Hogg, Charles James, Christian Lacroix, Lanvin, Moschino, Miuccia Prada, Elsa Schiaparelli, Philip Treacy, UNDERCOVER, Viktor & Rolf, Louis Vuitton and Vivienne Westwood, the exhibition examines the constantly evolving notion of vulgarity in fashion, to reflect on what makes something vulgar and why it is such a sensitive and contested term.

For more information, please visit the event page on the Barbican website.

Image: Walter van Beirendonck, Fall/Winter 2010/2011. Hat: Stephen Jones © Ronald Stoops.