Dirty Looks at the Barbican
An exhibition on fashion and dirt
From September 25 to January 25, 2026, the Barbican Art Gallery will present Dirty Looks, an exhibition exploring the themes of dirt, decay, and sustainability in fashion. The show will feature works by more than 60 designers, including Vivienne Westwood, John Galliano, Hussein Chalayan, Rick Owens, Comme des Garçons, Helmut Lang, and Marine Serre.
The exhibition explores how designers turn to unconventional materials – from decomposed textiles and natural dyes to wood and soil – as a way to express ideas of regeneration, a return to nature, and a critique of glossy perfection. Among the highlights are dresses buried in the ground, garments crafted from fashion waste, and looks inspired by nostalgia for the earth itself.
Curator Karen Van Godtsenhoven emphasizes that the exhibition places fashion within the wider context of sustainability and artistic experimentation.
