Skip to content
Re-Fashioning the future

Press release -

Re-Fashioning the future

Northumbria students are helping bring to life visions of the future using the fashion of the past in a unique collaborative exhibition.

Re-Fashion features 60 exquisite objects from the collection at Newcastle’s Discovery Museum, made between 1701 and 1916. These objects have been selected as a starting point to explore the idea of real and imagined histories. The quality and craftsmanship of the collection reveals status, desire and changing notions of beauty across more than 200 years of history.

Full Fan - To Embed

Between now and May, the exhibition is a live studio where designers will draw and illustrate in response to the collection. The designers imagine what Victorians might create with modern materials and technology. What would they design for the Victorian person of the day, or their historic self? The project will enable the designers to create a fresh perspective on the collection thinking beyond the high street to ask what might have happened in an imagined past.

Fashion Students and Lecturers from Northumbria’sSchool of Design have researched the collection to develop the final garment designs, which will be exhibited in May.

Northumbria’s Director of Fashion, Janine Hunt, said: “The first part of the exhibition showcases sixty exquisite items from the museum collections. These examples of craftsmanship have been selected as a starting point to explore the idea of real and imagined histories in the generation of new garment designs, exploring our collective pasts to re-imagine our future.

Shoe Polishing Case - To Embed

“The initial stage displays drawings and observations while the second stage of the exhibition in May will conclude with the garments designed by Northumbria Fashion students and lecturers.

“The project has enabled the designers to step away from contemporary commercial constraints to ask what might have happened in an imagined past, it explores the notion of histories embroidered by individual viewpoints and invites a fresh and unhindered perspective. These garments reveal unseen stories about us aspiration, status, desire through their craftsmanship materials and construction.”

Carolyn Ball, Manager of Discovery Museum said: “The spirit of design, innovation and invention is at the heart of Discovery Museum and so it is wonderful to have a new generation of designers inspired by our collections and working right here in the museum. It is fantastic to be working in partnership with Northumbria University and I’m very excited to see the final exhibition featuring the students’ work.”

Hat _front - To EmbedRefashion is being staged as part of the Fabricating Histories exhibition planned for later in the year. Fabricating Histories was the brainchild of Northumbria’s Dr Claire Nally and will re-imagine the art, fashion and technologies of the Victorian past; presenting fantastic, alternative, and imagined histories and rethinking iconic objects.

The exhibition brings together artists, students, researchers and curators to create an exhibition based on research by Dr Claire Nally into the subcultural phenomenon of steampunk and Neo-Victorianism.

Northumbria offers a range of course in Fashion and last year celebrating 60 years of teaching the subject. The University is also rated Top 10 in the UK for Art and Design research power following the Research Excellence Framework 2014. To find out more about studying Fashion at Northumbria go to: www.northumbria.ac.uk/fashion

Topics

Categories


Northumbria is a research-rich, business-focused, professional university with a global reputation for academic excellence. To find out more about our courses go to www.northumbria.ac.uk

If you have a media enquiry please contact our Media and Communications team at media.communications@northumbria.ac.uk or call 0191 227 4571.

Contacts

Rik Kendall

Rik Kendall

Press contact PR and Media Manager Business and Law / Arts, Design & Social Sciences 07923 382339
Andrea Slowey

Andrea Slowey

Press contact PR and Media Manager Engineering and Environment / Health and Life Sciences 07708 509436
Rachael Barwick

Rachael Barwick

Press contact PR and Media Manager 07377422415
James Fox

James Fox

Press contact Student Communications Manager
Kelly Elliott

Kelly Elliott

Press contact PR and Media Officer
Gemma Brown

Gemma Brown

Press contact PR and Media Officer

Related content

The Future is now

The Future is now

Craftsmanship was at the heart of an exciting panel debate into the past, present and future of design, presented by Northumbria University and Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums.

Northumbria’s fashion students conquer the audience at London Graduate Fashion Week

Northumbria’s fashion students conquer the audience at London Graduate Fashion Week

​Twenty of Northumbria’s innovative students showcased a series of six outfits each at London Graduate Fashion Week – the world’s leading event celebrating the creativity of graduates within fashion. Inspired outfits took the catwalk by storm to rave reviews with Northumbria students winning a number of awards throughout the week.

It’s history, but not as we know it

A steam-punk rhinoceros, secret drawings of a Lambton Worm-powered Turbinia and a corset based on a parasol – all fantastical reimaginings of Victorian history and part of a unique exhibition capturing the imagination of visitors to Newcastle’s Discovery Museum.

EXPERT COMMENT: Steampunk, Neo-Victorianism, and the Fantastic

EXPERT COMMENT: Steampunk, Neo-Victorianism, and the Fantastic

​A new exhibition on Steampunk and Neo-Victorian culture, entitled Fabricating Histories, opens this November. It explores the ways in which we can think about, and challenge, the legacy of history. Northumbria’s Dr Claire Nally, co-curator of the exhibition at the Discovery Museum (Tyne & Wears Archives and Museums) in Newcastle, explains what steampunk is, and why it might be important…

#TakeOnTomorrow

Northumbria University is a research-intensive university that unlocks potential for all, changing lives regionally, nationally and internationally.

Northumbria University, Newcastle

Northumbria University, Newcastle
NE1 8ST Newcastle upon Tyne
United Kingdom