Fittingly located in the brutalist Barbican complex, this provocative new exhibit curated by Karen Van Godtsenhoven subverts luxury fashion and clean-girl aesthetics to explore the significance of tactile, sustainable, dirty couture. Timely and perhaps politically charged, Dirty Looks reflects a shift in youth culture towards collectivism and maximalism in response to the commodification of personal style: J-fashion styles like decora, post-apocalyptic fashion, punk DIY, and now so-called dirty high-fashion all exemplify an alternative to glamour as ideal.
Dirty Looks’ featured garments include Hussein Chalayan’s The Tangent Flows: a vest that was buried and unearthed before being exhibited, and Robert Wun’s Yellow Rose: a garment whose wilting yellow layers resemble unfolding petals. Elena Velez’s subversive use of metalwork deconstructs ideas of high-fashion femininity. Crucially, though, each featured piece opens dialogue on fashion’s blooming interest in the interaction between luxury and impermanence.
Running from 25th September 2025 to 25th January 2026, the exhibit features work from over 60 designers, including Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood. Renowned for shaping the aesthetics associated with punk subculture, the work of these designers is tactile, exemplifying the artistic value of wear and tear. DIY punk fashion techniques encompass mixing second-hand fabrics, stitching on patches, and representing political values provocatively with fashion. Mainstream societal pressures encourage constant consumption of new, pristine clothing. By pushing back, accepting signs of wear and reworking stained fabric into high-fashion garments like the so-called handcrafted ornaments featured in Dirty Looks, these capitalist attitudes are subverted.
Alongside iconic names, Dirty Looks platforms emerging and established designers, many of whom delve into themes of identity and spirituality, transforming atypical materials. Ma Ke, for example, takes discarded items such as spoiled sheets, and alters them into textural garments. Michaela Stark’s corsetry critiques how consumer fashion is often designed with a one-size fits all approach in mind, she instead works with the body’s variance. The creation of unique, individualised pieces again represents a movement away from mass-produced couture in the exhibit’s installations.
Beyond garments, the regenerative new exhibition features a collection of essays published by MACK, and object photography, pushing an interdisciplinary artistic approach to fashion. There is also a multidisciplinary programme for viewers to get involved with, including a poetic performance in the space, encouraging us all to engage with dirt, decay, and design.
Robert Wun, The Yellow Rose, Time, Haute Couture Autumn/Winter 2024. Photograph by Ellen Sampson.
Comme des Garçons, Autumn/Winter 2005, Broken Bride © Catwalkpictures.
Paolo Carzana, Autumn/Winter 2025, Dragons Unwinged at the Butchers Block. Headwear and creative consulting by Nasir Mazhar. Styling and creative consulting by Patricia Villirillo. Photograph by Joseph Rigby. Courtesy of Paolo Carzana.
Paolo Carzana, Spring/Summer 2025, How to Attract Mosquitoes. Headwear and creative consulting by Nasir Mazhar. Styling and creative consulting by Patricia Villirillo. Photograph by Joseph Rigby. Courtesy of Paolo Carzana.
Hussein Chalayan, Cartesia, Autumn/Winter 1994. Photograph by Ellen Sampson.
Hussein Chalayan, The Tangent Flows, 1993. Photograph by Ellen Sampson.
Piero D’Angelo, Physarum Lab. Photograph by Ellen Sampson.
Piero D’Angelo, Physarum Lab, 2019. Photograph by Ladislav Kyllar.
Maison Margiela, Artisanal Spring/Summer 2024. © Catwalkpictures.
Yuima Nakazato, Couture Spring Summer 2023 INHERIT. Photograph by Luca Tombolini, courtesy Yuima Nakazato
IAMISIGO, handwoven raffia-cotton blend look dyed with coffee and mud, Shadows, Spring/Summer 2024. Photograph by Fred Odede. Courtesy of IAMISIGO.
Miguel Adrover wears a look from Out Of My Mind, his Autumn/Winter 2012 collection.
Models mud wrestling at Elena Velez’s Spring/Summer 2024 presentation, The Longhouse. Photo by Jonas Gustavsson for The Washington Post via Getty Images.