SHOWstudio: Fashion Revolution at Somerset House

SHOWstudio: Fashion Revolution at Somerset House

18 September – 22 December 2009

Nick Knight, Alexander McQueen, John Galliano, Naomi Campbell, Gareth Pugh, Comme des Garçons, Kate Moss, Björk

Somerset House to present ‘Fashion Revolution’, a major new exhibition by SHOWstudio, the award-winning fashion website led by Nick Knight, one of the world’s most influential fashion image-makers.

Collaborating with high-profile photographers, artists, writers, designers, stylists and cultural figures, SHOWstudio has forged a revolution in the way fashion is communicated. Over the past nine years SHOWstudio has championed Fashion Film as a wholly new form of experiencing fashion in the digital age. Showcasing a retrospective of SHOWstudio’s groundbreaking projects around the three central themes of ‘Process’, ‘Performance’ and ‘Participation’, the exhibition will continue in this same tradition of innovation and invention.

The exhibition will bring SHOWstudio to Somerset House with a programme of live events, transforming the Embankment Galleries and allowing visitors to get inside the world of fashion. Highlights will include:

· SHOWstudio’s most significant collaborations with creatives including Alexander McQueen, Peter Saville, Liberty Ross, Heston Blumenthal, Gareth Pugh, Simon Foxton, and Julie Verhoeven.

· A live photographic studio located within the exhibition space, hosting regular fashion shoots with Nick Knight and other leading photographers, laying bare the process of fashion image-making.

· Nick Knight will shoot 100 portraits of London’s ‘beau monde’, models, actors, musicians and artists.

· A programme of new Fashion Films, specially commissioned by SHOWstudio.

SHOWstudio: Fashion Revolution is a collaboration between Somerset House Exhibitions Curator Claire Catterall, Nick Knight’s SHOWstudio, Professor Penny Martin, Rootstein Hopkins Chair of Fashion Imagery at the London College of Fashion and Alistair O’Neill, Senior Research Fellow at Central St Martins College of Art and Design. The exhibition is designed by Ab Rogers. The exhibition will open during London Fashion Week which will be held for the first time in its new home at Somerset House.

Speaking about the Somerset House show, SHOWstudio Director Nick Knight said: “We are in the midst of a revolution in fashion imagery. Moving away from illustration and stills photography, we are now entering the restless world of interactive, self-created, digital-imaging: accessible, downloadable, constantly changing. This is what interests me. Working with the very top fashion creators, this show will open up the whole process of fashion to literally everyone, instead of just an informed few.”

Gwyn Miles, Director of Somerset House said: “SHOWstudio: Fashion Revolution will bring fashion to life in a completely new way. I hope this exhibition will broaden debate about fashion as an art form and its impact on contemporary visual culture. Our ambition is that Somerset House should reflect current developments in the creative industries and particularly in the field of fashion and design. I am delighted that Nick Knight and SHOWstudio have accepted our invitation to work with us on such a groundbreaking exhibition.”

SHOWstudio: FASHION REVOLUTION
18 September – 22 December 2009
Embankment Galleries, Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA

www.somersethouse.org.uk