Just the two of us: Fashion Together at Fashion Space Gallery
Fashion Space Gallery’s latest exhibition Fashion Together explores some of fashion’s most renowned creative partnerships. Curated by the unstoppable Lou Stoppard, SHOWstudio’s editor-at-large and a freelance writer and curator, Fashion Together delves into intriguing creative alliances, shining a light on what makes each pairings so unique.
Fashion is often seen as the home of the eccentric personality, the beautiful loner, but it's the collaborators rather than the individuals who really push the industry forward, argues Stoppard. Spotlighting the process and output of seven of accomplished partnerships, Fashion Together looks at the symbiosis of each pairing.
Challenge is key; dialogue, discussion, even confrontation are central to originality.
“I’m interested in lasting partnerships - the formative, friendships, the unions that exist behind the scenes or the decades-long working relationships that have shaped each participant’s vision and life,” says Stoppard.
“These relationships are common across the industry, but their complexity has been under-analysed. How is credit shared? How is work divided? Is jealousy or ownership an issue? Is there a recipe for success?”
Featured exhibitors include Rick Owens and Michèle Lamy, Nick Knight and Daphne Guinness, Shaun Leane and Alexander McQueen, Viktor Horsting and Rolf Snoeren, Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin, Gareth Pugh and Ruth Hogben, and Thom Browne and Stephen Jones.
From photographers and filmmakers, to designers and milliners, exhibitors come from a broad range of roles within the fashion industry. Never-before-seen ephemera such as sketches, handwritten notes and fashion editorials lend context and depth to garments, films and photographic prints.
Showcasing some of the duos’ most acclaimed work, from Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin’s portrait of Clint Eastwood for the New York Times Magazine (2005), to
Shaun Leane for Alexander McQueen’s “Star” headpiece from the Salem Collection (Autumn/Winter 2007).
Audio recordings of the duos in conversation with Stoppard give rare and intimate insights into the character and history of each pair’s working process. The exhibition coincides with the release of Stoppard’s book, Fashion Together: Fashion's Most Extraordinary Duos on the Art of Collaboration - on sale from Tuesday 17 October 2017.
An events programme of talks, workshops and masterclasses to accompany the exhibition will be announced in late September 2017.
