Moses, Mods and Mr Fish: The Menswear Revolution Exhibition at The Jewish Museum

Sarah Gilfillan reports on an important menswear exhibition, just opened at The Jewish Museum, North London: 

Well worth a visit is the newly opened menswear exhibition Moses, Mods and Mr Fish: The Menswear Revolution running from 31st March to 19th June 2016 at The Jewish Museum. The exhibition charts the 150 year journey of menswear from the start of the ready to wear industry in the 1850s through to the swinging '60s when menswear had completely changed and young men no longer wished to be dressed like their fathers. 

Montague Burton advertisement

When I visited recently, I was fascinated to learn that it was the Jewish tailors who pioneered the ready to wear industry in the UK, making new clothing and dressing well more accessible to a greater number of men and thus changing the menswear scene dramatically.

Brands you might know as high street giants like Burton founded by Montague Burton, Moss Bros started by Moses Moss and Cecil Gee were instrumental during the war - firstly providing uniforms to the British military and then kitting them out after the war with demob suits. You may also be interested to learn where some people believe the term "the full monty" came from. 

Early Burtons store

See how continued clothes rationing affected the design of clothing, and how after the war the way men dressed became more relaxed, and they took their inspiration from abroad and their musical heroes instead of their fathers. Styles inspired by the very fitted suits being worn by the Italians, ushered in the Mod look and the emergence of the many menswear boutiques springing up in Carnaby Street and Kings Road like Mr Fish, Ben Sherman and I Was Lord Kitchener's Valet meant that clothing styles worn by the likes of David Bowie, The Beatles and Mick Jagger were readily available to everyone.

Nehru-style jacket from Lord John - late sixties

See the other events being run alongside the exhibition here and tickets for the exhibition available here.

GF: My thanks to Sarah Gilfillan for this report. Sarah modestly doesn't mention that she is participating as a speaker in a Fashion Insiders Panel Discussion as part of the exhibition on 7th June at 19.00 to 20.30.

To tap into Sarah's wide experience as a personal stylist, visit her website at SartoriaLab.

BRIDGE - an exhibition celebrating London's bridges at The Museum of London Docklands

Today the Museum of London Docklands opens BRIDGE, an exhibition celebrating the history and importance of London's bridges. Without the River Thames and its bridges, there would be no London and without London the world would have been a much poorer place; literally and metaphorically.

This original Fox Talbot 1845 image of Old Hungerford Bridge will be on limited display - its first ever public showing

I was invited to the press launch on a Thames Clippers river bus, with art historian, Dan Cruickshank, giving a typically scholarly, gripping and totally off-the-cuff commentary on the bridges as we passed them. I was reminded that London's first bridge was built by the Romans over 2000 years ago near the modern London Bridge, that there was an earlier bridge in the Bronze Age, before London was thought of and that the engineering and design of bridges are a source of endless fascination. 

Many artists have become involved in the celebration, from young photographer, Lucinda Grange, who has recorded their hidden interiors, to Scanner, who is producing a sonic art installation. The exhibition and its satellite events are as diverse and fascinating as the history of the bridges themselves. And London's fascination with bridges is set to continue, hopefully, with the exciting proposal to build a Garden Bridge across the River near Waterloo to Temple (see here).

To find out more see the Museum of London Docklands website here. The exhibition is free and runs until 2nd November 2014.

I'm a great fan of the Museum of London and recommend visits to each of their centres to relish the richness of London's history, its present and future. See THE MUSEUM OF LONDON.

Blackfriars Bridge 1789/90 - ink and watercolour

Inside London Bridge - Lucinda Grange 2014

A windy evening on London Bridge - Henry Turner 1937

London Bridge - Barry Lewis (1970s?)