Dandy Style

About

Manchester Art Gallery is currently planning a long-projected substantial exhibition (Dandy Style) focusing on men’s fashion and image over the last 250 years. It will feature selections from our outstanding menswear and portraiture collections. The show will inaugurate our new dedicated first floor Fashion Gallery whilst also incorporating another major gallery area on the second floor.

Dandy Style will highlight a wide range of examples from Manchester’s collections, and, unusually, will present fashion and fine art as equal participants. The show will comprise two main sections: Tailored Dandy and Decorated Dandy in which concepts such as elegance, uniformity and spectacle will be explored from the 18th century to the present day. Those represented include the artists Thomas Gainsborough, Thomas Lawrence, David Hockney and Peter James Field, the photographers David Bailey, Olivia Rose and Jason Evans, and the fashion designers Tommy Nutter, Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen and Ozwald Boateng. Whilst most of the works will be from gallery's own collections, representing a unique opportunity to show noteworthy pieces which have not before been on public display, gallery will also include loans of significant items from other art institutions and private lenders. Drawing contrasts and comparisons between fashion, art and photography, and melding the historic with the contemporary, the provocative with the respectable, our exhibition will consider key themes in the development of male style, image and identity.

The show will exhibit approximately 75 outfits and a similar number of portraits and photographs. It should form a Manchester highlight for the winter cultural scene in the North West.