Last chance: Fashion & Freedom at Manchester Art Gallery

Beginning next month at Manchester Art Gallery is a new exhibition which will present fashion pieces by noted female couturists. Fashion & Freedom will include pieces by Vivienne Westwood, Roksanda, Holly Fulton, and Emilia Wickstead. The aim of the exhibition is to explore the impact of WWI on women’s clothing. As men left Britain to fight, over a million women donned work clothes to take over their jobs. New freedoms were also found in casual clothing, with rising hemlines and more daring silhouettes. These changing styles were used as the starting point for the designers’ to create to create new looks. Students from five fashion colleges will also be presenting pieces, with the theme of ‘Restriction & Release’. They will explore the two physical extremes women faced: from the tight-fitting corsets before the war, to the free-flowing gowns that came later. The exhibition will also feature actual historical garments from the Gallery’s own extensive costume collection.

Fri 13 May – Sun 27 Nov, Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street, Manchester M2 3JL, Tel: 0161 235 8888, 10am – 5pm, FREE, manchesterartgallery.org