Exhibitions
The Westminster Menswear Archive curates exhibitions and supports external projects through object loans and research collaboration. These activities advance the knowledge and significance of menswear as an area of design, display, study and interpretation.
WMA Curated Exhibitions
Cut from a Different Cloth
La Pelota, Milan, 20–21 June 2025
This exhibition examined how tailoring knowledge moves across places, generations and design practices. Developed in collaboration with the Alexander McQueen menswear team, it traced the working relationship between British and Italian tailoring during Lee Alexander McQueen’s early period with Romeo Gigli and his later menswear practice in London. Garments from the Westminster Menswear Archive provided historical and technical context through construction, proportion and method. The exhibition also presented work by Westminster’s Menswear MA students created through a live tailoring project with Alexander McQueen, showing how new designers respond to tailoring heritage through research, cut and contemporary reinterpretation.
Umbro 100: Sportswear x Fashion
Ambika P3, University of Westminster, London, 12–28 April 2024
Over the past century, sportswear has moved from functional athletic kit to everyday dress. Founded in 1924, Umbro has played a central role in that shift. In 2002 its collaboration with Paul Smith became the first full-range collection created between a sportswear brand and a fashion designer, establishing a model that has since shaped the industry. Umbro 100 explored this history through more than 120 garments from the Westminster Menswear Archive, charting the development and impact of Umbro’s collaborations with over sixty designers and brands, including Kim Jones, Aitor Throup, Aries, Palace, Paul Smith, Vetements, Supreme, Patta, Off-White, John Smedley and N.HOOLYWOOD.
Undercover: From Necessity to Luxury
Online exhibition, 2021
This exhibition traced the rapid evolution of face coverings during COVID-19, focusing on how a simple cloth mask became a charged object within menswear. Across the year, masks shifted from scarce functional PPE to a new product category taken up across the fashion industry. The Westminster Menswear Archive collected fifty-two examples produced during this period, documenting changes in design, materials and marketing as brands responded to the crisis. Shown chronologically, these masks reveal how ideas of protection, armour and masculinity shaped their development, and how the menswear industry adapted to unprecedented conditions while turning a utilitarian necessity into a commercial and cultural commodity.
Invisible Men: An Anthology from the Westminster Menswear Archive
Ambika P3, University of Westminster, London, 2019
Drawing exclusively from the Westminster Menswear Archive, Invisible Men presented over 170 garments spanning 120 years of predominantly British menswear. Shown across twelve sections, the exhibition placed designer pieces alongside military, industrial and utilitarian garments to examine how menswear has been built on the continual reworking of functional archetypes. It highlighted how designers have adapted and subverted these source garments through minimal but deliberate modifications, while the original meanings of the archetypes have gradually faded through repetition and reinterpretation. The exhibition challenged the long-standing absence of everyday menswear from fashion displays and brought attention to the men whose clothing has shaped the language of modern menswear yet remained largely unseen.
Archive Loans
Blitz: The Club that Shaped the 80s
Design Museum, London, Sept 2025 – March 2026
Expedition Club London
Ambika P3, University of Westminster, October 2025
The archive hosted and contributed to this exhibition by Beams, focusing on outdoor culture, technical design and global material exchange.
Garments from the archive supported the exhibition’s exploration of club culture, identity and the visual language of 1980s London.
Pioneers of the Material World
Towneley Hall, Burnley, October – December 2025
100% Unofficial: The Fabric of Fandom
Turton Tower, Chapeltown, 2 October - 2 November 2025
Loans from the archive contributed to 100% Unofficial's investigation of football identity, unofficial dress codes and the visual language of fandom. The garments provided evidence of how supporters adapt, personalise and rework clothing to communicate belonging across local and national contexts. The exhibition was part of British Textile Biennial 2025 in East Lancashire.
Garments from the archive supported Pioneers' study of high-performance materials and the history of textile innovation in the North of England. The loans provided examples of technical construction, durability and functional design that illustrated how working-class ingenuity has shaped British material culture. The exhibition was part of British Textile Biennial 2025 in East Lancashire.
Dirty Looks: Desire and Decay in Fashion
Barbican Art Gallery, London, Sept 2025 – Jan 2026
Splash! A Century of Swimming and Style
Design Museum, London, 28 March – 17 August 2025
Selected archive garments supported the exhibition’s focus on wear, ageing and the aesthetics of material change. The loans demonstrated how use, friction and time alter garments, revealing the physical and cultural traces left through everyday activity and repeated handling.
Loans from the archive illustrated the development of British swimwear and performance clothing. The garments provided examples of construction, material shifts and design changes that mapped the evolution of swimming attire from early recreational dress to contemporary technical equipment.
Fashion City
Museum of London Docklands, October – July 2024
Tartan
V&A Dundee, 1 April 2023 – 14 January 2024
Archive contributions supported this exhibition’s examination of tailoring, manufacturing and retail culture across London’s Jewish communities. The loans helped illustrate the relationships between craft, entrepreneurship and the global influence of London-based garment production.
Garments from the archive were used to demonstrate the cultural, political and design significance of tartan. The loans provided examples of contemporary and historical applications of the pattern, showing how tartan operates across identity, fashion and heritage.
Workwear: How to Wear Utopia
Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, March – Sept 2023
Dandy Style
Manchester Art Gallery, October 2022 – May 2023
Archive garments were used to illustrate historical and contemporary approaches to men’s dress and self-presentation. The loans helped map the shifting aesthetics of the dandy across tailoring, silhouette and personal style, linking past examples to modern interpretations.
Loans from the archive supported the exhibition’s study of workwear as a site of ideology, utility and design. The garments offered examples of construction and adaptation, illustrating how work clothing shapes and reflects ideas of labour, community and aspiration.
C.P. Company CINQUANTA
British Textile Biennial, Lancashire, 1–10 October 2021
Style in Revolt
T-10/SKP-S, Beijing, December 2021 – March 2022
Garments from the archive supported the exhibition’s exploration of youth culture, identity and graphic language. The loans provided examples of clothing used in everyday, subcultural and streetwear contexts, demonstrating how dress communicates affiliation and attitude across global scenes.
Archive garments contributed to the Biennial’s presentation of C.P. Company’s design history. The loans highlighted Osti’s approach to research-led development, showing how materials, dye processes and construction systems have shaped the brand’s identity.
