Here are some pictures of Carmody Groarke’s exhibition design for Drawing Fashion, which opened at the Design Museum in London earlier this month.

The design comprises a series of interlinked curved partitions, backlit to resemble paper lanterns and provide ambient lighting throughout the space.

The exhibition displays fashion illustrations collected by Joelle Chariau of Galerie Bartsch & Chariau over the past 30 years, and includes work from fashion houses such as Chanel, Dior and Viktor & Rolf.

Design studio A Practice For Everyday Life (APFEL) created the graphics for the space.

Drawing Fashion is show at The Design Museum until 6 March 2011.

Photographs are by Richard Davies.

Here’s some more information about the exhibition:

Drawing Fashion opens at Design Museum

‘Drawing Fashion’, an exhibition charting the work of the most important fashion illustrators from the 1920s to the present day, opens at The Design Museum. Carmody Groarke have collaborated with A Practice For Everyday Life (APFEL) to create a unique exhibition experience, transforming the existing space into a series of interlinked, curved ‘lantern’ forms, on which the series of drawings are presented.

The exhibition design takes its idea from making a strong material reference to paper, which is backlit giving a sensuous ambient lighting effect to the overall space whilst giving subdued definition to the silhouette of the supporting structure and to the elegant exhibition lettering, designed especially for the show. A sequence of spaces has been designed to bring intimate emphasis to clusters of work (categorised by each illustrator), as well as to the particular subtle and beautiful qualities of individual drawings in the collection.
For the graphics, APFEL adapted the font designed for Vogue in the early twentieth century, which had never been digitised. As the entire exhibition was backlit it was the ideal opportunity to use reverse cut vinyl and apply all the lettering to the back of the paper. The letter forms are ‘white on white’ (white vinyl on white paper walls) but legibility is achieved from the careful lighting and shadowing of the type. The result is a very seamless, tonal use of typography which compliments the delicate works on paper.

Click for larger image

From The Design Museum:
“Drawing Fashion celebrates a unique collection of some of the most remarkable fashion illustrations from the 20th and 21st Century. These original illustrations reflect not only the spirit and style of the decades, but also evoke a sense of elegance and glamour long associated with the world of couture and high fashion. Drawings from the collections of Chanel, Dior, Comme des Garcons, Poiret, Lacroix, McQueen and Viktor & Rolf amongst others, will feature in the exhibition, which charts the changing perception of fashion drawings from its origins as an advertising tool used prior to the advancements of photography, through to its establishment as a unique representation of collections which has endured through to today’s leading designers.

This exhibition showcases the creativity and skills of a unique artistic approach, celebrating the art and artists of fashion illustration whose exquisite images gave each collection an emotive and stylistic sense of direction. The drawings reflect the spirit of the time, through Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Pop Art and beyond with each era resonating with flare and style. This exhibition, co curated by fashion historian and writer Colin McDowell, celebrates key artists at the height of their careers: Lepape at the beginning of the century, Gruau the 40s and 50s, Antonio throughout the 60s, 70s and 80s, to current artists Aurore de La Morinerie, Mats Gustafson and Francois Berthoud. Film-clips, news reels, music and photography will sit alongside the original illustrations, allowing the visitor to reflect on the wider social and cultural changes of the century. Films of the artists at work will be displayed alongside examples and projections of the couture clothes shown in the illustrations.
This collection, regarded as one of the most exceptional collections of fashion illustration in the world, has been put together over 30 years by Joelle Chariau, one of the very few experts on fashion drawings. This is the first time the collection has been displayed.”