{"id":1604628,"date":"2025-12-09T15:53:05","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T20:53:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/observer.com\/?p=1604628"},"modified":"2025-12-09T15:53:24","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T20:53:24","slug":"art-fashion-exhibition-review-dirty-looks-barbican-art-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/observer.com\/2025\/12\/art-fashion-exhibition-review-dirty-looks-barbican-art-gallery\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cDirty Looks\u201d at the Barbican Art Gallery Is Intentionally Messy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The show examines the signification of dirty as a shorthand for transgressing polished aesthetics, for dismantling impeccable craftsmanship and for grim global consumption habits. \u00a9 David Parry\/ Barbican Art Gallery<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Distressed clothing once carried a jolt to social norms\u2014even in the everyday moment where your mother asked with horror why you were wearing ripped jeans when you could afford denim from whole cloth. \u201cDirty Looks: Desire and Decay in Fashion<\/a>\u201d at the Barbican in London (on view through January 25, 2026) examines the signification of dirty as a shorthand for transgressing polished aesthetics, for dismantling impeccable craftsmanship and for grim global consumption habits by way of 60 designers or design houses.<\/p>\n

\u201cDirty Looks\u201d\u2014a most clever title!\u2014is not the first exhibition at the London venue that has looked at fashion as a form of judgment: \u201cThe Vulgar: Fashion Redefined\u201d was exhibited here in 2017 (Vivienne Westwood and Malcolm McLaren as well as Jean Paul Gaultier crossover in both shows). What overlap there may be between dirty and vulgar is not examined here, however, though the idea of dirtiness (as, say, sluttiness, for example) continues to be part of the way women are assessed and dismissed.<\/p>\n

Dirt is considered with largesse and subdivided thematically, with heritage designers in the upper galleries and emerging designers in the lower galleries. The show opens with a rather on-the-nose display of dirt-flecked Wellingtons belonging to Kate Moss and Queen Elizabeth II, respectively. The mise-en-sc\u00e8ne thereafter is unfortunately quite disappointing\u2014on the bottom two levels, pale draped sheets serve as an unremarkable backdrop, a missed opportunity to create a dramatic dirt-as-mess effect.<\/p>\n

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