Westminster Menswear Archive exhibition wins prestigious ICOM Costume Anniversary Award

The award aims to highlight recent outstanding contributions to all areas of research in fashion and dress history. The recipients are decided on by the International Committee for Museums and Collections of Costume, Fashion, and Textile, which is part of ICOM, a non-governmental organisation dedicated to museums with formal relations to the UNESCO and with consultative status to the United Nations Economic and Social Council. To celebrate the work of the applicants, the Committee has organised an Award Ceremony at the French Cultural Institute in Prague, which took place on 25 August.

ICOM said: “The Evaluation Committee were impressed with the very high standard of the projects submitted and the unique contributions they have made to the field of fashion and dress history research.

“As the largest exhibition of menswear to be staged in the UK, the Westminster Menswear Archive’s ‘Invisible Men’ project in 2019 was uniquely innovative, prefiguring the current concentration on menswear in museum exhibition projects. Their efforts to propose a parity of objects, between workwear, uniforms and designer garments, are especially worthy of recognition for challenging the orthodoxy of dress collections and exhibitions.”

‘Invisible Men’ displays over 180 garments exclusively drawn from the Westminster Menswear Archive. It covers the last 120 years of mostly British menswear organised into twelve thematic sections. It explores the design language of menswear by presenting designer garments alongside military, functional and utilitarian outfits. The exhibition illustrates how designers altered archetypical clothing through minimal, yet significant modifications to produce outcomes that replicate and subvert their source material. The endless reproduction and interpretation meant that the original meaning and function has faded through each alteration. The designs constantly reference the clothing of seafarers, soldiers, athletes, firefighters, road workers, and explorers. These garments have remained largely ‘invisible’ within fashion exhibitions in favour of presenting menswear primarily of the dandy or the peacock style. 

Talking about the award, Professor Andrew Groves said: “It’s fantastic that the international committee selected our exhibition for this award. The exhibition was intended to highlight the newly established menswear archive at the University of Westminster, which was funded by the Quintin Hogg Trust, as well as to critically interrogate ideas of masculinities and dress that had previously been unexplored on this scale. Because of its position within the academy, we were able to push our curatorial statement without being constrained by sponsors or donors.”

Dr Danielle Sprecher said: “We would like to thank the ICOM Costume Committee for this award, recognising the importance of menswear to the history of fashion and dress. We are very honoured to be in such wonderful company alongside the two other recipients and to have been given the opportunity to showcase the ‘Invisible Men’ exhibition and our work with the Westminster Menswear Archive internationally.”

The Westminster Menswear Archive was founded to establish and maintain a collection of garments and related artefacts to encourage and develop the study of menswear design, to support general knowledge of menswear as a design discipline, and to serve as resource for contemporary design. The archive informs, encourages, and inspires a diverse range of students, industry professionals, researchers and other users in order to enhance creativity, learning and research in fashion and related fields.  It also highlights the importance and relevance of the Westminster Menswear Archive within contemporary fashion, fashion education, research, scholarship, and fashion practice, as well as with the general public.

Explore other exhibitions by the Westminster Menswear Archive.