The latest fashion exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London is a voyage through men’s fashion across the ages. Divided in three sections—Undressed, Overdressed and Redressed, ’Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear’ is the work of co-curators Claire Wilcox and Rosalind McKever, along with fashion historian Marta Franceschini.

This in particular is a timely exhibition, following fashion’s gender reckoning. Transgressing across the boundaries set by our assigned sex at birth has become key in both womenswear, as it has been throughout the last century, but also in menswear lately—as evidenced at a recent press junket in Berlin for the upcoming Marvel series Moon Knight, where star Oscar Isaac wore a skit, a marengo grey kilt by NY brand Commission, topped by a leather jacket and light grey t-shirt.

Fashioning Masculinities blends fashion and art, along with photography, the moving image and even poetry. It feels like the perfect journey through everything the extensive V&A collection has to offer, as one can walk through the large rooms housing the exhibition and then wander upstairs through the halls of museum to discover more examples of what we’ve just viewed.

Starting in the Undressed section, there is a reinterpretation of ‘The Three Graces’, the marble statue by Antonio Canova, which features the mythological three Charites, daughters of Zeus—Euphrosyne, Aglaea and Thalia. One can admire the original Neoclassical sculpture in the main hall on the ground floor of the museum, after viewing its fashionista reincarnation—made up of ethereal creations in white silk, chiffon, and even bubble wrap by JW Anderson, Ludovic de Saint Sernin, and the late Virgil Abloh for Off-White.

"This is the first major exhibition that the V&A dedicates to menswear,” explains Marta Franceschini, who holds an MA in History of Design from London’s Royal College of Art, during a short chat preview in the Sainsbury Gallery. “It was very clear pretty soon that we had to go out and look for loans but also that we couldn’t do a historical survey of menswear,” despite a very good selection in the V&A’s archives.

“It was more important and of the moment, to make a statement through a [thematic] exhibition that could look at how masculinities have been refashioned over the centuries and how clothing and attire was used as a tool, not only to shape the visual, but also a changing and evolving definition of masculinity,” Franceschini elaborates.

From the first gallery Undressed, which explores the male body and underwear and reexamines how classical European ideals of masculinity have been both perpetuated and challenged over the centuries. Upon entering the second gallery, Overdressed, one is transported into a sort of fashionista funhouse. There, the elite masculine wardrobe is highlighted, complete with a custom Randi Rahm suit and embroidered cloak featuring a hot pink lining worn by Billy Porter at the 2019 Golden Globes taking up centerstage—or center gallery in this case—along with the imposing image of Diary of a Victorian Dandy: 17.00 hours, one of a series of photographs by contemporary artist Yinka Shonibare, CBE referencing nostalgic period dramas filmed in the 1990’s.

“This exhibition celebrates the power, artistry, and variety of male attire and appearance and in doing so aims to deconstruct norms and forms of masculinity,” Tristram Hunt, the Director of the V&A since 2017 pointed out during a special press visit of Fashioning Masculinities. Hunt, a journalist, historian, and former politician, also quoted Italian diplomat and philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, who in turn had captured the words of Cosimo the Elder in his Istorie from 1526. “Two yards of pink cloth can make a gentleman.” Talk about a man who knew a thing or two about power.

It is in this second gallery where colors explode in pink, red, indigo, green, and orange, showcased in looks that range from Alessandro Michele’s 2019 blue velvet suit for Gucci, worn by Harry Styles, to an Italian and English “doublet” from 1620, in red silk grosgrain with silver thread, the ultimate symbol of power in its choice of color, fabric and style.

The last gallery in the exhibition is Redressed, which pieces together the uniform of the suit, from examples of Anglomania, a fashion for all things British, to Cutting a Dash, an ode to the monochromatic suits, where the tuxedo is perfectly named as “a visual shorthand for patriarchal privilege.” A culmination of everything viewed in the preceding galleries, this is the room which features black leather pants by Tom Ford for Gucci, and Robert Longo’s 1981 drawing from the Men in the Cities series that is featured on the exhibition’s poster.

Robert Longo, Men in the cities, 1981, graphite on paper. Collection Thaddaeus Ropac. © Robert Longo ARS New York, 2021. Photo Ulrich Ghezzi

What then becomes most noticeable while viewing the exhibition, and begins to transform the visitor in the days following, is the power of menswear and how women’s frills and accessories as well as the fabrics used for our garments are really a way to strip us of power.

There was in fact a goosebumps moment for this writer, while visiting ‘Fashioning Masculinities’ and it was in the third section of the exhibition, Redressed. Already in lust with the various black suits, surrounded by men’s clothing, I saw a tinier version of a tuxedo made by Watson & Son and worn by Marlene Dietrich in the 1939 film Morocco, with a pair of small size pumps peeking out from underneath the black trousers. There I realized, faced by the one outfit that instantly reclaims our power as women, that femininity is an intrinsic quality, part of our communal DNA and not something that needs anything, or anyone else to be proven. From Yves Saint Laurent to Hedi Slimane and the recent work of Raf Simons at Prada, the power suit has been proven to be just that for women, a proof of power, an armor to face the big bad world out there. And its recent reinvention on the streets of London, with women wearing oversized boyfriend suits proves it. Even Fashioning Masculinities exhibition research assistant Franceschini wears one during our chat.

I ask Franceschini what her favorite item in the exhibition is, and she points to an easy, sand grey hued linen suit by Giorgio Armani, saying that’s “a personal favorite because it speaks to my personal history. But there are many favorites and they shift every time I go in, and change.” She also admits to loving ‘The Three Graces’ tribute, as well as a Versace coat designed in 1992, and “then in the third gallery, I really couldn’t pick because that is a room so full of heartthrobs—but maybe the suit worn by Timothée Chalamet, because it is a demure look, it’s something that defies, quietly, what masculinity is with sequins.” Having seen that reinvented suit up close, when worn by the actor at the Dune world premiere in Venice back in September of 2021, I have to agree wholeheartedly with Franceschini. That look, designed by Haider Ackermann, is a game changer.

Courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia, foto ASAC by G. Zucchiatti

After visiting the stunning exhibit, I reach out to women’s empowerment icon, and legendary ’60’s and ’70’s cover model Benedetta Barzini, whose 2017 quote about the power of what we wear intrigued me. During a talk at a literature festival in Italy, she wonders out loud why it was that women have a thousand outfits, while men only one suit.

“Because the woman, with her thousand dresses, is not identifiable and thus becomes invisible,” she says back then, adding via email to me, “the fact is that the only garment that conveys authoritativeness and dignity is a man’s jacket and it is also the only item that a woman can wear if she wants respect.”

Sadly, sales of suits for men are down fifty percent since the start of the pandemic, as V&A Director Hunt points out, but maybe this exhibition will change that. Viewing such beauty in such a perfect setting really makes one crave the formidable, healing power of fashion.

‘Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear’ is on display at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London through November 6th, 2022 and is made possible thanks to a partnership with Gucci.