This October, the Museum of London Docklands will open Fashion City: How Jewish Londoners shaped global style (13 October 2023 – 14 April 2024), putting the museum’s extensive Fashion & Textile Collection front and centre for the first time in two decades. The exhibition also marks the first time the major contribution of Jewish designers in making London an iconic fashion city is uncovered.

Featuring fashion and textiles, oral histories, objects, ephemera and photography, Fashion City will use the places and spaces of London to weave together individual stories with a broader social history.

Representing all levels of the fashion industry at key moments throughout the twentieth century, the exhibition will allow visitors to step into the world of a 1960s Carnaby Street shopping boutique and a traditional tailoring workshop from the East End.

“Jewish people were working at all levels of the fashion industry in London throughout the twentieth century but the extent of their contribution has been widely unrecognised,” says Fashion Curator Lucie Whitmore. “Jewish makers established the ready to wear industry, worked their way into the highest levels of London fashion and dominated Carnaby Street in the swinging sixties. Many of these designers were internationally famous – favoured by the rich and famous and highly respected for their creativity, skill, and originality. It’s a contribution that deserves to be recognised.”

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