The Absent Shadow: Reflections on the Incidence of Menswear in Recent Fashion Exhibitions

This article examines the incidence of menswear in fashion exhibitions, staged worldwide, over the past 45 years. Drawing on two related sets of data I delineate statistical and thematic tendencies relating to the exhibition of menswear and, through examination of a sample of exhibitions visited, I reflect on the inclusion of menswear in fashion exhibitions in relation to a defined typology of fashion exhibitions. Subsequently, I discuss in detail the presence and presentation of menswear in one particular fashion exhibition type – the designer monograph. The article is completed with review of Reigning Men: Fashion in Menswear 1715–2015 (Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 10 April-21 August 2016) which, through presentation of over 350 items of menswear spanning over 200 years, was one of the largest exhibitions of fashionable menswear of recent years.

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