Behind the Seams: Secrets of the Beautiful People

Discover the hidden secrets and explore the concealed linings and details you can’t see once the garments are on display.

At this online event, join Fashion and Textile Museum Collections Officer Gill Cochrane, as she examines pieces from the exhibition, Beautiful People: The Boutique in 1960s Counterculture, in previously unseen detail. Gill will share the secrets hidden within these garments and explore the concealed linings, and details you can’t see once the garments are on the stand. This is a unique opportunity to learn what happens ‘behind the seams’ of a fashion exhibition and discover some of the construction details and stories behind some of these joyful 60s and 70s pieces.

In the mid-1960s, a handful of Chelsea boutiques sparked a fashion revolution. Their outrageously flamboyant designs were inspired by romantic ideas of the past; Byron-esque frilled shirts were paired with Regency brocades and plush velvet trousers were mixed with influences from Morocco and the Far East. They blurred gender boundaries with increasingly androgynous styles, creating an explosion of colour, pattern and decoration. These radical designs were quickly adopted by an emerging, youthful counterculture: The Beautiful People.

The Beautiful People’s eclectic and dramatic fashions were created by a range of talented and much-celebrated designers – their wardrobes were full of creations by Barbara Hulanicki (Biba), Alice Pollock and Ossie Clarke (Quorum), Michael Fish (Mr Fish) and Bill Gibb. Today works by these same designers feature in the current exhibition and in the Fashion and Textile Museum’s own collection.