POWER IN LEGACY
HISTORY AND NARRATIVE
Exhibition
21 September 2023 - 07 January 2024
IMAGE: Jennie Baptiste, pinky, 2001, Stylist Chinyere Eze, Make up Artist Brenda Cuffy
2023 was the year that the founders of BOLD - Andrew Ibi, Harris Elliott and Jason Jules curated and launched the untold story of Black British fashion in a major new exhibition, The Missing Thread at Somerset House. The exhibition charts the shifting landscape of Black British culture and the unique contribution it has made to Britain’s rich design history from the 1970's until the present day.
Within this you see how the cultural, counter-cultural, political and socio - economic backdrop of the 20th and 21st century shaped the identity of Black style and in turn mainstream fashion culture. Threaded through the exhibition you could see four distinct themes - home, tailoring, performance and nightlife shining a light on Black creativity, each referencing the spaces which inspired and allowed the culture of Black British fashion and design to develop on its own terms. Rather than approaching fashion as an artform created in isolation, the Black contribution to British fashion culture is set within a broader socio - political context, placing garments alongside artworks, cultural artefacts, music, memorabilia, videos photography and installations.
The amalgamation of works throughout demonstrate how Black British creativity has had a significant influence on mainstream culture and continues to be referenced to great effect, often without acknowledgement. The Missing Thread successfully redresses this by celebrating the unique visions and impact of a largely unseen generation of Black creatives. The story unfurls to reveal how these creatives were often excluded or misrepresented in the traditional story of British fashion.
IMAGE: Joe Casely - Hayford, March 1992, The technology issue. Photo By Takashi Homma
"Black creativity has had a significant influence on mainstream culture and continues to be referenced to great effect, often without acknowledgement."
There were many unique points to this exhibition starting with the original works commissioned by a new wave of contemporary Black British artists and designers such as Bianca Saunders, Saul Nash and Nicolas Daley to name a few. All informed by the legacies explored in the exhibition. Within the exhibition catalogue there are fantastic additional essays by Dr Avis Charles, Jason Jules and Dean Ricketts. Bianca Saunders also explains how she created a sixteen layer silkscreen AO sized print, which was later made into a garment that she envisaged Althea McNish (legendary Trinidadian textile designer) would create. Harris Elliot also explains further his commission, ‘The Fragile House,’ Harris notes: I wanted to build a space that speaks to promised dreams, striped in ‘coloured’ hues, reminiscent of ‘back home’. It feels fragile, holding lived experience, where nothing is certain and all intentions are held light. The Fragile House, a favourite among many that visited the exhibition, made from tape measures, stood tall and set the scene as you entered.
As we gear towards the end of the exhibition there is an array of visual delight that is the craftmanship of Joe Casely - Hayford, here the exhibition almost concludes but actually is shedding a bright light, paving the way to the next generation of designers.
Joe Casely - Hayford, a designer who, despite being held in quiet esteem within the fashion world, has not been met with the same recognition as his white peers who have become household names.
Over a four - decade long career Casely - Hayford revolutionised menswear, attaining cult status internationally for his subversive Savile Row sensibility and iconic fans including the likes of Lou Reed, The Clash and U2.
Here visitors got the chance to get up close to some of Casely’s iconic archive pieces, never seen in this way in the UK before.
The Missing Threads timely coincided with BFC announcing the launch of the BFC Foundation MA Joe Casely - Hayford Scholarship in Oct 23.
BOLD is a creative, design development agency working to forge structural and institutional change across the fashion industry and beyond.
IMAGE:01 Untitled, Afro Hair & Beauty Show 1998. © Eileen Perrier
IMAGE: Bianca Saunders working on a sample of her commission for The Missing Thread exhibition. Photo by Anne Tetzlaff
"The exhibition examined how the cultural, counter - cultural, political and socio - backdrop of the 20th and 21st century has shaped the identity of Black style and in turn mainstream fashion culture."
IMAGE: Art comes first. Photo by David pattinson
Watch via the Somerset YouTube channel - Stories of Our Style: Andrew Ibi, Oswald Boateng and Bianca Saunders in conversation and last but not least check out the Somerset House Podcast
Listen via Spotify in conversation with Jazzie B, Martine Rose and Andrew Ibi - The Process: The Black British Renaissance.
Read more about it in the The Missing Threads catalogue - ISBN: 978-1-7394951-0-7
Follow Instagram @wearetheboldagency #themissingthread
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