Exhibition: Noël Coward: Art & Style

The visual impact of Noël Coward’s life and work is celebrated in this major exhibition.

The exhibition takes a fresh look at how ‘The Master’ and his circle influenced fashion and culture in ways that reverberate to this day, as well as Coward’s hugely successful career as a playwright, composer, director, actor, and singer.

Original pieces from his productions, his homes and personal wardrobe, original artworks by Coward and his designers, costumes, letters, photos, and video will combine to reveal new dimensions of Coward’s enduring creative legacy.

Highlights include:

original vintage dresses by couturiers Molyneux, Hartnell, and Stiebel in the style of costumes that were created for Coward productions

a reconstruction of the legendary Molyneux white satin dress worn by Gertrude Lawrence in Private Lives

the Douglas Hayward chocolate brown tuxedo worn by Coward in the 1968 film drama, Boom, and two of Coward’s iconic dressing gowns

paintings by Coward; and original set and costume design sketches and other artwork by Oliver Messel, Cecil Beaton, Doris Zinkeisen, Oliver Smith, Gladys Calthrop, Clemence Dane, William Nicholson, and Rex Whistler

the famous ‘Wings of Time’ and other original furnishings that adorned Coward's various homes, and

contemporary fashions influenced by Coward’s world from leading designers, such as Georgina von Etzdorf and Anna Sui.

The show coincides with the 100th anniversary of his West End debut as a 19-year-old playwright. I’ll Leave It To You, which he wrote and appeared in, premiered at the New Theatre (now, renamed the Noël Coward Theatre) in 1920.