Exhibition: Japanese Heritage Brand Nakagawa and Danish company Carl Hansen & Søn Unite for London Exhibition on Craft and Design

A new exhibition in London this May will bring together centuries-old Japanese craftsmanship and Danish modernist design, highlighting a shared philosophy rooted in everyday use and longevity.

Visitors with an interest in Japanese culture have long been drawn to Nara, widely regarded as a birthplace of foundational crafts and a centre for traditional arts such as calligraphy and tea ceremonies. Once Japan’s imperial capital in the 8th century, before Kyoto, the city retains a compact historic character, with many of its landmarks clustered around Nara Park.

Nakagawa tea set.

Now, a heritage brand founded in the city over 300 years ago is expanding its presence in the UK. Nakagawa, established in 1716, is launching a month-long exhibition and cultural programme in collaboration with Danish furniture maker Carl Hansen & Søn. The event follows the success of Nakagawa’s London pop-up store in Shoreditch last September.

The exhibition, titled Crafting the Everyday: 300 Years of Nara meets Danish Modernism, will run from 19 May to 16 June 2026 at Carl Hansen & Søn’s showroom in Clerkenwell. It coincides with both Clerkenwell Design Week and the London Festival of Architecture.

Nakagawa home and lifestyle products.

Nakagawa is known for its mission to revitalise “kogei” — traditional Japanese crafts — by combining historical techniques with contemporary design suited to modern living. The company began as a merchant of Nara-Sarashi, a finely hand-woven ramie cloth once used by samurai for ceremonial dress, and has continued through 13 generations of family leadership.   Signature products include the award-winning traditional Hana-Fukin ramie dishcloths often adorned with functional and decorative Sashiko embroidery, and traditional Kaya-ori Fukin Japanese kitchen cloths made from layered, open-weave cotton or rayon (mosquito netting fabric), alongside a wide range of contemporary home and lifestyle goods. 

Hana-Fukin ramie dishcloths

Today, Nakagawa works with more than 800 artisans across Japan, supporting regional craft traditions through modern applications. Its Danish partner, Carl Hansen & Søn, founded in 1908, has become synonymous with Danish modernism, producing furniture defined by precision, restraint and durability.

 Carl Hansen & Søn

Crafting the Everyday: 300 Years of Nara meets Danish Modernism is designed as a series of lived-in interiors rather than a conventional display. Nakagawa’s handcrafted objects are placed alongside Carl Hansen & Søn furniture to create domestic scenes reflecting everyday rituals.

In the dining area, a simple arrangement of homeware features the brand’s signature ramie Hana-Fukin cloth used as a placemat, accompanied by rice and soup bowls, small dishes and tea sets. The kitchen space is presented as a calm, almost architectural composition of tools and vessels, emphasising order and clarity.

Two contrasting living environments explore different approaches to comfort. One focuses on floor-based living, with cushions and textiles made using traditional sakiori (rag weaving) techniques, reinterpreted for contemporary use. The other highlights Yokoburi embroidery, a craft rooted in kimono-making, with textiles featuring poems from the Man’yōshū, Japan’s oldest anthology of verse.

At the core of the exhibition is Nakagawa’s long-term aim to ensure traditional crafts remain relevant. The company emphasises that preservation alone is insufficient, arguing that craft must be used in daily life to endure. Guided by the philosophy of “preservation through transformation,” Nakagawa is committed to sustaining traditional crafts by adapting them for modern life with a focus on sustainability, longevity, and mindful living.

Carl Hansen & Søn’s philosophy aligns closely, with designs intended to be practical, long-lasting and passed down through generations.  The heritage Danish furniture brand founded in 1908 is rooted in a philosophy that unites exceptional craftsmanship, functional design, and natural materials. The company is renowned for its long-standing collaboration with designer Hans J. Wegner, whose iconic pieces such as the Wishbone Chair and CH25 remain in continuous production. 

A programme of free workshops will accompany the exhibition, including ramie postcard colouring and sessions where visitors can create their own flavoured teas. Each workshop will run on selected days, with three sessions per day, and advance booking will be required.

Crafting the Everyday: 300 Years of Nara meets Danish Modernism will take place from 19 May to 16 June 2026 at the Carl Hansen & Søn showroom, 16A Bowling Green Lane, Clerkenwell, London. Admission is free.

New Opening: British Brand ILIV Opens New Showroom at Chelsea Harbour Design Centre, London

UK premium interiors fabric brand ILIV has opened a new showroom in London at the Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, marking a significant step in its expansion within one of the country’s most influential design destinations.

Situated on the fifth floor, the showroom forms part of the recently launched Design Emporium Collective — a curated, multi-brand concept space bringing together a diverse selection of homeware and interiors brands.

The new space will serve as ILIV’s dedicated London hub for its residential collections, positioning the company at the heart of the capital’s design community. The showroom is also expected to strengthen relationships with interior designers and retail partners while supporting the brand’s growing network.

Visitors to the showroom can explore a carefully curated edit of ILIV’s pattern books, full-length fabric displays and a selection of take-away samples. The space showcases the brand’s latest collections, alongside a wide range of plain and textured fabrics, all presented within a design-led environment intended to inspire.

Designers and visitors are invited to explore the new showroom by taking the express lift to the fifth floor of the Design Centre East.

Jason Kenworthy, CEO of ILIV, described the opening as a key milestone for the business. 

“Opening a showroom at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour is an exciting milestone for ILIV. The Design Emporium Collective provides a wonderful opportunity to showcase our collections in a creative environment while strengthening our relationships with the interior design community,” he said.

ILIV specialises in textiles for both residential and commercial spaces, supported by a global team committed to innovation and quality. The brand focuses closely on detail to help interior design professionals create and transform spaces.

ILIV is part of the SMD Group, founded in 1987 in Lancashire, a region renowned for its rich textile heritage. Since its beginnings as a family-owned business, the SMD Group has evolved into a leading force within the interior textiles market.

Known for its eclectic style, ILIV draws inspiration from archive documents through to contemporary geometric designs, reflecting a versatility that complements both modern and traditional interiors.

London Event: Design Centre Chelsea Harbour Stages London Design Week 2026 with a Celebration of Creativity

London Design Week 2026 has officially opened at the Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour, in London transforming the venue into a vibrant showcase of contemporary creativity, craftsmanship and design innovation.

More than 100 free “Access All Areas” events are taking place throughout the week, hosted by the centre’s showrooms and invited House Guests. The programme features panel discussions, presentations of new collections, artisan demonstrations and professional development sessions aimed at designers and enthusiasts alike. 

Ralph Lauren Home unveils the new Spring 2026 collection: Meadow Lane during London Design Week  2026
at the Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour. 

To discover fresh ideas that shape the future of design, click HERE to explore the full programme.

Among the highlights is a talk on 11 March by Inge Moore, founder of Muza Lab. Titled “The Age of Tactility: Mastering Touch in Experience-led Design,” the presentation explores the growing importance of sensory elements in modern interiors. 

Inge Moore, founder at Muza Lab

Moore will examine how tactile materials and subtle design details influence comfort, perception and emotional connection in spaces increasingly shaped by experience-led design.

Luxury lifestyle brand Ralph Lauren Home is also unveiling its Spring 2026 collection, Meadow Lane, during the event. Inspired by coastal living, the collection combines casual elegance with a sense of timeless romance, evoking the atmosphere of a relaxed seaside home.

Craftsman showing how it is done at George Smith

Craftsmanship is another central theme of the week. At the showroom of George Smith, visitors can attend “From Frame to Finish: The Art of Upholstery,” where a master upholsterer will demonstrate the construction process behind one of the company’s best-selling pieces. The live demonstration offers insight into the traditional techniques and precision involved in creating high-quality upholstered furniture.

The art of Setting the Scene with creative floral arrangements.

Floral design also features prominently in the programme. At the new Design Emporium Collective, floral designer Paul Hawkins, founder of Paul Hawkins Flowers, will lead a session on creating immersive tablescapes. The demonstration will cover everything from arranging seasonal flowers to adding finishing touches that elevate the dining experience.

Throughout the week, registered visitors can also join guided “Walk and Talk” tours, offering an insider’s look at the latest collections and the newly introduced Design Emporium Collective.

With its extensive programme of talks, demonstrations and exhibitions, London Design Week 2026 aims to inspire professionals and design enthusiasts while showcasing the ideas shaping the future of interiors.

All images from Design Centre Chelsea Harbour, London Design Week 2026.

Interiors Fair: Decorative Fair Winter 20–25 January 2026 - Set to Inspire New Interior Design Directions

Interior design trends continue to evolve year by year, shaped by cultural shifts, lifestyle changes and new ways of living. As 2026 begins, a fresh wave of design thinking is emerging—one that places greater emphasis on personal expression, comfort and thoughtful functionality.

Savino Del Prete 

These emerging influences will be on full display when The Decorative Fair Winter Fair returns to Battersea Park, London, from 20–25 January 2026, offering interior designers, collectors and homeowners a timely source of inspiration for the year ahead. 

Christopher Hall Antiques

Organisers say the fair will reflect the desire for interiors that support mood and wellbeing, whether calm, expressive or deeply personal.

Two Poems Gallery

Widely regarded as London’s premier antiques, design and decorative arts event, the Winter Fair will bring together approximately 130 specialist exhibitors, presenting a wide-ranging selection of pieces spanning the 1700s to 1979, alongside works of art from antiquity to the present day.

Gallery Yacou

The fair runs concurrently with The London Antique Rug & Textile Art Fair (LARTA) on the Mezzanine level, further strengthening its appeal for collectors and interior professionals. LARTA features around 18 specialist dealers, showcasing carpets, rugs, textiles and associated works of art from cultures with long and distinguished traditions of woven design.

Dorian Caffot de Fawes

Across the fair as a whole, exhibitors will present decorative and fine furniture, silver, glass, ceramics, folk art and vernacular objects, alongside paintings, maps, prints and sculpture. Luxury items including jewellery, watches, vintage couture, luggage and handbags will also be available. Outdoor spaces are equally well represented, with statuary, garden furniture, planters, urns and larger architectural elements included in the mix.  

V Design

Shapero Rare Books

Organisers have confirmed the return of Shapero Rare Books and Dinan & Chighine, both leading print specialists, to an already extensive roster of established exhibitors. They are also welcoming a new generation of younger dealers making their Winter Fair debut, bringing a diverse range of material—from painted Gustavian furniture and sculptural natural history objects to contemporary still life paintings, traditional antiques and sporting works.

Visitors will be greeted on arrival by the Foyer Display, curated by the fair organisers using items sourced from multiple exhibitors. This year’s installation is set in the early 1920s, a pivotal moment when emerging modernism and early Art Deco began to intersect with the lingering influence of Art Nouveau and fin de siècle aesthetics—just before the landmark 1925 Paris Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes reshaped global design.

Held three times a year at Battersea Park, across the river from Sloane Square and the King’s Road, The Decorative Fair has championed cultivated, collected interiors for more than 40 years. It remains one of the UK’s most influential and inspiring destinations for distinctive antiques, design and art.

For more information, click HERE.

Images from The Decorative Fair 2025 events.

Art Annoucement: London's Barbican Centre to Stage First UK Solo Show by Artist and Director Liam Young in 2026

The Barbican has announced that it will mount the first UK solo exhibition by artist, director and BAFTA-nominated producer Liam Young in May 2026. In the world of fashion retail, lifestyle and design businesses, we often make forecasts about the trends we expect in coming seasons. Now a new exhibition scheduled to take place at the Barbican will extend that practice of looking ahead, exploring speculative futures shaped by climate realities and emerging technologies. In Other Worlds, part of the centre’s Summer season, will invite visitors to consider how alternative futures might be imagined and collectively created.

Film still from After the End (2024) by Liam Young. Image courtesy of the artist.

Young, whose work sits between design, fiction and futurism, is known for constructing imagined worlds that serve as test sites for the social and environmental challenges ahead. 

“The future doesn't rush over us like water… It's an act of creation,” he said, framing the exhibition as an invitation to collectively reimagine what comes next.

Bringing together film, sound, costumes, props, miniature models, comics and tapestries, the show will immerse visitors in a series of possible futures grounded in real technological and climate-based scenarios.

A major highlight will be the world premiere of World Machine (2026), a Barbican commission blending live-action footage and CGI. The film visualises a near-future Earth transformed into a planetary-scale supercomputer, its landscapes enmeshed in networks driving large-scale AI. Young imagines alternative approaches to technology production, speculating on renewable-powered data centres operating in harmony with rewilded environments. The work simultaneously reflects human ambition and the precarious opportunity to rethink our relationship with nature.

Other moving-image works on display will include Planet City (2021), envisioning the world’s population condensed into a single ultra-dense settlement; The Great Endeavour (2023), which depicts the engineering feats required to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; and After the End (2024), a collaboration with Aboriginal actor and activist Natasha Wanganeen. The latter offers a 50,000-year timelapse tracing First Nations histories, colonisation, resource extraction and a speculative future centred on post-fossil-fuel energy systems and land reclamation.

Sections of a graphic novel and audio narratives created with leading contributors from film, television, science fiction and graphic storytelling will accompany visitors through the exhibition, further expanding the featured worlds.

Luke Kemp, Head of Creative Programming for Barbican Immersive, said the moment feels right “to once again look for new stories, imagine different futures and create the worlds that we want to exist”. In Other Worlds, he added, presents hopeful possibilities shaped by bold environments and innovative storytelling.

Devyani Saltzman, the Barbican’s Director for Arts & Participation, described the exhibition as part of the centre’s commitment to exploring urgent contemporary issues. Young’s practice, she said, demonstrates that imagining alternatives is “essential to understanding today’s world with imagination, rigour and hope”.

Presented by Barbican Immersive—its strand dedicated to contemporary culture, emerging technology and digital creativity—the exhibition will tour internationally after its London run.

Young’s work has been shown at major global platforms including Channel 4 in the UK, Tribeca, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Royal Academy, the Venice Biennale, the BBC and The Guardian. His projects have been acquired by museums such as MoMA, the Smithsonian, the Art Institute of Chicago and the V&A. Alongside his creative practice, he is a sought-after futurist, advising clients from NASA and Google to BMW and Microsoft. He also leads the Masters in Fiction and Entertainment at SCI-Arc in Los Angeles.

In Other Worlds - Barbican Centre - 21 May – 6 September 2026

Exhibition Announcement: A Century of Style: Queen Elizabeth II’s Fashion Legacy Celebrated in Historic Buckingham Palace Exhibition

A landmark exhibition celebrating Queen Elizabeth II’s enduring influence on British fashion will open at The King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace in London on 10 April 2026. 

Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style is set to be the most extensive display of the late monarch’s wardrobe ever staged, featuring around 200 items—half of them making their public debut. Tickets go on sale on Tuesday, 4 November via the Royal Collection Trust website.

Queen Elizabeth II on Princess Margaret’s Wedding Day, Cecil Beaton, 1960.
© Cecil Beaton / Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Hat worn for the wedding of Princess Margaret, Claude St Cyr, 1960.© Royal Collection Enterprises Limited 2025 | Royal Collection Trust. Photographer: Paul Bulley

Three leading British designers—Erdem Moralioglu, Richard Quinn and Christopher Kane—will each contribute a piece inspired by the late Queen’s distinctive style. Their works, drawn from previous collections, will be shown alongside related garments from the Queen’s archive. All three designers will also provide reflections for the exhibition’s official publication, Queen Elizabeth II: Fashion and Style, which includes a tribute by Dame Anna Wintour and an essay by Professor Amy de la Haye of the London College of Fashion.

Exhibition curator Caroline de Guitaut said the retrospective would demonstrate the “symbolism, tailoring and British craftsmanship” that defined the Queen’s wardrobe. “We are thrilled to include works by three contemporary designers who have so successfully reinterpreted her style for the present day,” she added.

The exhibition will chart Queen Elizabeth II’s attire across all ten decades of her life, from couture evening gowns to the tailored countrywear that became synonymous with her off-duty style. Many of the garments—now part of the Royal Collection—will be accompanied by original sketches, fabric samples and annotated design drawings, some bearing notes penned by the late Queen herself.

Ensemble worn for the wedding of Princess Margaret, Norman Hartnell, 1960

Highlights include an apple-green Norman Hartnell gown worn at a 1957 state banquet for US President Eisenhower, and the blue crinoline-skirted gown and bolero chosen for Princess Margaret’s wedding in 1960. Items from her private wardrobe will also feature, such as a 1950s Harris tweed jacket and Balmoral tartan skirt, as well as the green coat designed by Angela Kelly and worn in her later years.

Transparent rain coat, worn over a patterned silk day dress and coat, both by Hardy Amies, 1970s.© Royal Collection Enterprises Limited 2025 | Royal Collection Trust. Photographer: Jon Stokes

One of the more unexpected pieces on display is a clear plastic raincoat created by Hardy Amies in the 1960s, considered a precursor to the Queen’s later transparent umbrellas edged in colour to match her outfits. Amies would go on to produce futuristic designs for Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Evening gown by Norman Hartnell, 1957. Worn for a state banquet given for President Eisenhower at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. Here displayed in the Green Drawing Room at Windsor Castle. Credit: © Royal Collection Enterprises Limited 2025 | Royal Collection Trust. Photographer: Paul Bulley

A previously unseen Hartnell sketch for a silver lamé dress designed for a 1972 State Visit to France will also be shown, bearing the Queen’s handwritten note indicating that it was later re-worn for the opening of parliament in Canberra—evidence of her long-standing practice of repeating outfits.

The silver lamé beaded shift dress is shown in photo below.

Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style is at The King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, from 10 April to 18 October 2026.

Royal Collection Trust will offer £1 tickets to visitors receiving Universal Credit and other named benefits, alongside concessions for young people aged 18 to 24, as part of its commitment to widening access to the Collection.

Queen Elizabeth II: Her Life in Style is at The King’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, from 10 April to 18 October 2026.

Art and Textiles: Scabal Unveils Dalí-Inspired Fabric Collection

Scabal, one of the United Kingdom’s most renowned producers of luxury fabrics, is set to unveil a new collection of twelve exclusive fabrics, each inspired by a different painting by Salvador Dalí. 

The collection is presented in collaboration with LAPADA, the Art and Antiques Fair which returns to Berkeley Square, London from 28 October to 2 November 2025.

LAPADA fair in London's Berkeley Square brings together dealers showcasing expertise across the full spectrum of art and antiques — from fine furniture, paintings, and carpets to tapestries, antiquities, clocks, ceramics, silver, decorative objects, and jewellery.

The launch marks the introduction of Scabal’s Limited Edition by Dalí collection—a line of bespoke suits crafted from the brand’s signature Vision fabric.

Reflecting the vivid hues of both butterfly and figure in Dalí’s The Mimetic Character, this fabric translates the artwork’s surreal anatomy into woven form. A satin weave line evokes the elongated limbs of the insect-like silhouette, while a graceful curved stitch traces the rounded edge that frames its body. The interplay of these elements creates two distinct stripe depths, lending the fabric a quiet dynamism and a sense of movement that echoes Dalí’s original vision.

The collaboration revisits a remarkable moment in fashion history. In 1971, Salvador Dalí envisioned the future of menswear through a series of twelve visionary paintings, created exclusively for Scabal. More than five decades later, the British brand has drawn inspiration from those original works to produce a collection that blends art and tailoring in a uniquely modern way.

Each fabric in the collection captures the spirit of a specific Dalí painting, reinterpreting his surreal colours, forms, and motifs through a contemporary lens. Every suit will be custom-made and finished with one of five exclusive linings, reflecting both the artist’s boundless imagination and Scabal’s exceptional craftsmanship.

Taking its cue from Dalí’s 4 Cravates, this design centres on the striking black-and-white stitching that defines the multiple collars worn by the painting’s refined School Kid. Against a softly mottled grey ground, an irregular white stitch is woven into one of two stripes, introducing a tactile, graphic rhythm. The second stripe features a structured green weave that mirrors the distinctive form of the four cravats themselves, uniting texture, tone, and artistry in a single, elegant composition.

“Dalí’s work was ahead of its time, and this collection allows us to explore how his creativity can continue to inspire modern tailoring,” said a spokesperson for Scabal’s design team. “We’ve revisited the colours, shapes, and intricate details of his paintings to create fabrics that bridge art and fashion.”

Drawing on Dalí’s The Stylish Footman, Scabal’s designers have transformed the ink illustration of a lion’s head—poised on the figure’s shoulder—into a contemporary textile masterpiece. A micro-weave fabric, featuring a repeating motif shaped from the elegant curls of the lion’s mane, lends intricate texture and a refined lustre to a deep, dark blue ground. Subtle red tones, woven through a delicate check pattern, recall the painting’s original palette, creating a sophisticated dialogue between art and cloth.

Founded in 1938, Scabal has long been associated with sartorial excellence, supplying fabrics to leading tailors and fashion houses worldwide. Alongside its textiles, the company produces its own range of made-to-measure and prêt-à-porter suits, jackets, and shirts, available through Scabal boutiques across Europe and Asia.

Still a family-owned business, Scabal continues to operate its heritage mill in England, which has been weaving since 1899. With full European production and direct sourcing of premium raw materials, the brand prides itself on maintaining complete quality control—from “sheep to shop, field to fold, and camel to coat.”

The Limited Edition by Dalí collection reaffirms Scabal’s place at the intersection of fine art and fine tailoring, celebrating a shared legacy of creativity, craftsmanship, and timeless style.

To view the Vision collection, click HERE.  

Exhibition Review: Grayson Perry’s Delusions of Grandeur: Craft, Play and Provocation - Final Weeks at the Wallace Collection

The Wallace Collection in London, long celebrated for its Rococo treasures and Old Masters, opened its doors earlier this year to a bold new chapter with Grayson Perry: Delusions of Grandeur.  Now still running until 26 October 2025, there are a few weeks left to visit this exhibition which has been billed as the museum’s largest contemporary show to date, and it more than lives up to the claim.

Bringing together more than 40 newly created works, the exhibition demonstrates Perry’s enduring fascination with craft, narrative and social commentary. Visitors will encounter an eclectic mix of ceramics, textiles, tapestries and works on paper, 

Bringing together over 40 newly created works, the exhibition demonstrates Perry’s enduring fascination with craft, narrative and social commentary. Visitors encounter an eclectic mix of ceramics, textiles, tapestries and works on paper, as well as a wallpaper (in collaboration with Liberty) - many of which are threaded through with the artist’s mischievous alter ego, Shirley Smith. These playful yet incisive pieces are displayed in dialogue with the museum’s permanent collection, offering fresh interpretations of the Rococo opulence that has long defined the Wallace.

“It’s about walking into a palace of grandeur and then asking—what is really grand?” Perry explains with a grin. “I love Rococo because it’s decorative, it’s excessive, and people dismiss it as frivolous. That makes it the perfect playground for me.”

These playful yet incisive pieces are displayed in dialogue with the museum’s permanent collection, offering fresh interpretations of the Rococo opulence that has long defined the Wallace.  One notable example is François Boucher’s celebrated Madame de Pompadour (1759), an oil on canvas from the Wallace Collection, to which Perry has responded with his own work, Hospital Queen, created in embroidery and mixed media.  

Dr. Helen Jacobsen, Senior Curator at the Wallace Collection, the collaboration has brought a fresh perspective to the museum’s permanent holdings. “Grayson has a rare ability to tease out the spirit of our collection without reverence,” she says. “He has allowed Boucher, Fragonard and Watteau to sit in conversation with his own work—and in doing so, he makes the Wallace feel alive in new ways.”

At its heart, Delusions of Grandeur interrogates ideas of making and authenticity. Meticulously crafted objects, often requiring hundreds if not thousands of hours to produce, are positioned alongside works created with the click of a mouse. 

The juxtapositions invite questions about value, time and the role of the artist in an age where technology increasingly blurs the line between tradition and innovation. Perry does not offer neat answers, but rather provokes reflection on our collective drive for perfection and the nature of artistic labour.

The show also ventures into the realm of ‘outsider art’. Works by Aloïse Corbaz and Madge Gill—visionary figures who pursued their creative practices outside conventional art circles—find resonance within Perry’s own personal and artistic journey. The inclusion of Gill is particularly poignant: she exhibited at the Wallace Collection in 1942, a discovery that inspired Perry to weave her story into his own exploration of art, childhood and belonging.

Marking his 65th birthday, Perry uses the exhibition to reflect on the wider culture of collecting and the often-overlooked politics of decoration. With characteristic wit and sharpness, he challenges traditional hierarchies, asking viewers to reconsider where value lies—whether in the gilded excess of Rococo or in the irreverent, handcrafted exuberance of his own practice.

For all its intellectual weight, the exhibition is anything but austere. Perry’s signature humour and theatricality animate the galleries, ensuring the experience is as entertaining as it is thought-provoking. Visitors are likely to leave not only with a deeper appreciation of the complexities of craft and authenticity, but also with the sense that they have glimpsed something of Perry’s own playful, restless imagination.

Delusions of Grandeur stands as a landmark exhibition—one that reframes the dialogue between past and present, tradition and experimentation, seriousness and satire. It is, above all, a testament to Sir Grayson Perry’s place as one of Britain’s most intriquing artistic voices.

Photos by Lucia Carpio

Exhibition Launch: Barbican London Unveils Landmark Fashion Exhibition ‘Dirty Looks’ on 25 September

The Barbican in London is to unveil Dirty Looks: Desire and Decay in Fashion, a major new exhibition exploring fashion’s fascination with dirt, decay and imperfection.  Opening on 25 September 2025, the show brings together more than 60 designers, from global icons to emerging names, in an ambitious survey of how contemporary fashion has turned wear and tear into a source of rebellion, play and reinvention.

Dirty Looks, Installation view, Barbican Art Gallery, 25 Sep 2025 -  25 Jan 2026
Image: © David Parry /  Barbican Art Gallery

Long seen as the antithesis of luxury’s ideals of beauty and glamour, the aesthetics of damage and imperfection have increasingly shaped avant-garde design over the past half-century. Designers have used fraying, staining and decomposition not only as acts of provocation but also as a way to reimagine ornament, materials and sustainability. For some, these practices carry deeper spiritual and cultural significance, drawing on indigenous traditions and alternative understandings of beauty.

Designer Hussein Chalayan, Map Reading (detail) 2001
Photograph by Ellen Sampson

Highlights of Dirty Looks include garments that elevate stains into intricate handcraft, dresses designed to celebrate their own ruination, and pieces created by submerging clothing in peat bogs or transforming fast-fashion waste. Works by Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood and Maison Margiela will sit alongside bespoke installations by Hussein Chalayan, Ma Ke, Yuima Nakazato and Bubu Ogisi of IAMISIGO.   In 1993, Hussein Chalayan’s groundbreaking graduate collection The Tangent Flows featured garments buried with iron filings in a friend’s London backyard. The resulting rusted dresses challenged conventional ideas of clothing, presenting garments as living, organic entities—tied to the earth and subject to cycles of decay and renewal. 

Dirty Looks, Installation view, Barbican Art Gallery, Thu 25 Sep 2025 - Sun 25 Jan 2026
Image: © David Parry /  Barbican Art Gallery

While distressed clothing no longer shocks in the same way, a new generation of designers continues to explore dirt and decay for their symbolic resonance, using them to imagine renewal, resistance, and alternative futures for fashion.  A spotlight is shone on the new wave of designers pushing fashion’s boundaries. London-based talents such as Paolo Carzana, Alice Potts, Michaela Stark, Solitude Studios and Yaz XL are presenting newly commissioned works, joined by international voices including New York’s Elena Velez.

Designer Martin Margiela, Menswear SS2005
Photograph by Ellen Sampson

The Barbican Art Gallery’s spaces will be radically reimagined by Studio Dennis Vanderbroeck, known for its theatrical approach to fashion and stage design. Drawing from fashion’s obsession with the illusion of wear and decay, the design will create a tension between the smooth, white spaces of the gallery and intentionally ‘destroyed’ surface treatments.

A catalogue published by MACK will accompany the exhibition, featuring essays from leading thinkers including Caroline Evans, Fabio Cleto and Sunny Dolat, with original object photography by Ellen Sampson.

Shanay Jhaveri, Head of Visual Arts, Barbican, said: “Dirty Looks signals the Barbican’s bold return to fashion as a vital strand of our visual arts programming – one that recognises fashion not only as a form of artistic expression, but also as a lens through which to examine cultural, environmental and political urgencies. This exhibition brings together a remarkable breadth of global designers who are radically reshaping what fashion can mean and do today. With its focus on decay, renewal and the aesthetics of imperfection, Dirty Looks invites us to reconsider beauty, value and the regenerative power of making in a world in flux.”

A programme of events will run alongside the exhibition, including a “Dirty Weekend” festival across the Barbican and a poetic performance, with further details to follow.

Next time when someone tells you that you look scruffy, point them to Dirty Looks.  It would certainly open their eyes.

Designers featured in Dirty Looks include ACNE Studios, Comme des Garçons, Rick Owens, Zandra Rhodes, Issey Miyake, Moschino, Paco Rabanne, Viktor & Rolf and Junya Watanabe, among many others.

Dirty Looks at the Barbican from 25 September 2025 to 25 January 2026.

Photos courtesy of Barbican Art Gallery