Published on 24 November 2015

The Circle is the name of the exhibition at London’s Live Archives gallery that is going to explore the origins of glamour, illustrated through the works of Maison Martin Margiela, Ann Demeulemeester, Dior Homme, Lanvin, Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen and Rick Owens. This exhibition explores the notion of glamour, inspired by author Elizabeth Wilson’s essay A Note on Glamour. The Circle exhibit will use the work of a host of fashion’s most noted designers as the visual accompaniment to extracts from writings on glamour by Elizabeth Wilson.

“The appearance of glamour resides, though, or is created in combination with dress, hair, scent, and even mise en scene,” says Elizabeth Wilson. “Its end result is the sheen, the mask of perfection, the untouchability and numinous power of the icon.” It is, as she says elsewhere in the text, in “dazzling or blinding the spectator”. 

Live Archives describes the exhibition as “a fantasy, an exhibition fiction exploring the notion of glamour… revisiting the occult associations of glamour’s ancient Celtic roots, The Circle proposes an alternative to the contemporary equation of glamour and celebrity, rejecting the ‘shameless self-exposure’ of tabloid-driven infamy, garish sequins and bared flesh.”

THE CIRCLE will be open to the public November 27–December 5, 2015 at Live Archives, 81 Mare Street, London E8 4RG.
Find out more about The Circle here.