Public appeal for pieces by famed designers for fashion odyssey exhibition

Curator Lisa Mason examines a yellow jacked designed by Jean Muir | Duncan McGlynn

A nationwide appeal has been issued for the public to check wardrobes and cupboards for garments to feature in a major new fashion exhibition.

National Museums Scotland is launching the call for personal stories and garments by Jean Muir, Bill Gibb and Zandra Rhodes ahead of the A Fashion Odyssey exhibition which will explore the work of the trailblazing British designers in the centenary year of Muir’s birth.

It is hoped the public can help locate treasured pieces by these designers and share memories and photographs from those who wore and loved their clothes. There is particular interest in stories that demonstrate the impact of Muir, Gibb and Rhodes in Scotland.

The designers were brought together in the ‘Odyssey’ room in Fortnum & Mason London in 1970. Between them they shaped a modern concept of fashion that is said to have embraced imagination, identity, innovation and difference. The museum says the designers provided an alternative version of what fashion could be at the dawn of the 1970s, “a moment of pivotal societal change and a time of political activism and liberation”.

A Fashion Odyssey: Jean Muir, Bill Gibb, Zandra Rhodes will bring the trio’s work together again, almost 60 years later. It will reveal how they presented the public with choice, rather than following the fashion of the day, how their individual design statements were enthusiastically embraced by actresses, artists and pop performers, and how they continue to inspire and influence a new generation of designers.

Jean Muir | Getty Images

Georgina Ripley, Principal Curator of Modern & Contemporary Design at National Museums Scotland, said: "Opening just weeks before what would have been Jean Muir's 100th birthday, A Fashion Odyssey will reflect on a pivotal moment in her early career and in the history of British fashion.

“Reuniting Muir with Gibb and Rhodes will illustrate how each crossed over into the others’ design territories, and how they interpreted themes within fashion in their own unorthodox and individual ways.

“We're asking the public to help bring this exhibition to life. We know there are beloved garments by these designers hanging in the back of cupboards in Scottish homes, and wonderful stories to be told."

National Museums Scotland's internationally significant fashion and textiles collection includes the Jean Muir archive. The archive consists of around 18,000 objects which fully document the design, making, and promotion of her collections from 1962 to 1995. The collection includes paper patterns, sketches, fabric samples, jewellery and accessories, as well as around 400 finished garments, including some of her personal clothing.

Members of the public are encouraged to get in touch with the exhibition's curators by emailing [email protected].