past exhibition now touring

Women Fashion Power

Women Fashion Power offers an unprecedented look at how princesses, models, CEOs, Dames and designers have used fashion to define and enhance their position in the world.

What's in the exhibition?

Designed by the world-renowned architect, Zaha Hadid, this exhibition brings together exclusive interviews, an immersive multimedia journey and unique historic pieces of clothing to form the most wide-ranging presentation of modern fashion ever to be shown in the UK. Discover how women from Dame Vivienne Westwood to Natalie Massenet and Princess Diana to Anne Hidalgo have used fashion as an important tool of self-expression and empowerment to build reputation, attract attention and assert authority.

Each of the contemporary women featured in the exhibition is contributing an outfit for display as well as sharing their personal style philosophy. In alphabetical order, the women are:

  • Genevieve Bell, Vice President of Intel Labs, Director of User Experience
  • Camila Batmanghelidjh, Founder and Director of Kids Company
  • Joan Burstein, Founder of Browns
  • Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty
  • Wei Sun Christianson, Co-CEO Morgan Stanley, Asia Pacific
  • Livia Firth, Creative Director of Eco Age
  • Lady Gaga, Musician and performer
  • Miriam González Durántez, Partner at Dechert, wife of Deputy Prime Minister of the UK Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP
  • Diane von Furstenberg, Founder and Co-chair of Diane von Furstenberg
  • Thea Green MBE, Founder and Managing Director of Nails Inc.
  • HSH Princess Charlène of Monaco
  • Dame Zaha Hadid, Founder and Director of Zaha Hadid Architects
  • Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris
  • Roksanda Ilincic, Designer
  • Qiong-er Jiang, Artistic Director of Shangxia, China
  • Anna Jones, Chief Executive of Hearst Magazines UK
  • Alfiya Kuanysheva, CEO of BATT, Kazakhstan
  • Pearl Lam, Owner of Pearl Lam Galleries, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore
  • Natalie Massenet MBE, Founder and Executive Chair of NET-A-PORTER, Chair of British Fashion Council
  • Megha Mittal, Chairman and Managing Director of Escada
  • Charlotte Olympia Dellal, Designer
  • Julia Peyton-Jones, Director of the Serpentine Galleries
  • Dame Zandra Rhodes, Designer
  • Skin, Musician and lead vocalist of Skunk Anansie
  • Kirsty Wark, Journalist, broadcaster and writer
  • Dame Vivienne Westwood, Designer
  • Morwenna Wilson, Senior Projects Director at Argent LLP

The exhibition is co-curated by fashion expert and commentator Colin McDowell and Donna Loveday, Head of Curatorial at the Design Museum.

Lady Gaga

Image credit: Taken from O2's 4G advertisement, Nov 2013

Anne Hidalgo

Image courtesy of Dominique Maître

Zandra Rhodes

Photograph by Gene Nocon

Joan Burstein

Photography by Billie Sheepers

Skin

Jacket by Keko Hainswheeler, photography by Danny Payne

Kirsty Wark

Image courtesy of BBC

Pearl Lam

Courtesy of Pearl Lam Galleries, photography by William Louey.

The language of clothes and power

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