Characters of Fashion runs at the Barbican Art Gallery from 15 April to 29 August 2027.
Designs by Alexander McQueen, Dior, Prada, Simone Rocha and more will go on display.
The exhibition explores the relationship between literature, clothing and character.
Characters of Fashion will showcase designs from Alexander McQueen, Dior, Prada, Simone Rocha and more.
London’s Barbican has revealed its 2027 visual arts programme, and fashion is taking centre stage. Spanning the Barbican Art Gallery, The Curve, Sculpture Court, Barbican Foyer and Lakeside Gallery, the programme brings together photography, sculpture, ceramics and cinema, alongside a major exhibition exploring the relationship between clothing and literature.
Running at the Barbican Art Gallery from 15 April to 29 August 2027, Characters of Fashion will examine the connections between the written word and the clothes we wear. The exhibition explores how writers including Jane Austen, Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, Virginia Woolf, Zadie Smith and Joan Didion have used clothing to shape characters, reveal interior lives and construct their own public identities.
The exhibition will also turn its attention to designers who have found inspiration on the page. Literary figures and stories including Orlando, Frankenstein, Alice in Wonderland, Beloved and Dracula will sit alongside fashion by some of the industry’s biggest names.
Designs from Alexander McQueen, Dior, Prada, Erdem, Dries Van Noten, Duro Olowu, Simone Rocha, Comme des Garçons and Valentino will feature, alongside installations that further explore the dialogue between fashion and storytelling. A dedicated reading room curated by writer and curator Lou Stoppard will round out the exhibition.
Fashion, however, is only one part of the Barbican’s ambitious 2027 programme. The year begins at The Curve with an exhibition dedicated to New Delhi-born photographer Dayanita Singh from 10 March to 23 May. The presentation will include several of Singh’s ‘portable museums’, alongside newer works exploring the influence of Indian classical music on her five-decade practice.
From 6 May to 1 August 2027, Peruvian artist Ximena Garrido-Lecca will take over the Sculpture Court with a major public commission. The installation plays with the dual definition of a plant as both a living organism and an industrial facility, examining colonial legacies, extraction and alternative relationships with the natural world.
Kenyan-born artist Magdalene Odundo will arrive at the Barbican Lakeside Gallery from 2 September 2027 to 9 January 2028. Marking her first solo institutional presentation in London in more than 30 years, the exhibition will highlight her celebrated ceramic vessels and the wide-ranging influences behind them, from ancient Egyptian and Aztec sculpture to Kenyan burial traditions, Japanese pottery and Elizabethan fashion.
Sicilian artist Rosa Barba will follow with a large-scale installation in the Barbican Foyer from 23 September 2027 to 30 January 2028. Suspended cinematic and kinetic sculptures will interact with the building’s architecture, accompanied by a newly commissioned 35mm film.
Finally, the Barbican Art Gallery will present the first institutional survey dedicated to American artist Alice Adams. Running from 7 October 2027 to 6 February 2028, the retrospective will span 70 years of work across sculpture, textiles, photography, drawings, prints and film.
Tickets for Characters of Fashion are set to go on sale in spring 2027, with further booking information for the wider programme to follow.
Where: Barbican Centre, Silk Street, Barbican, London, EC2Y 8DS
Contact: www.barbican.org.uk