This fall, the Tate Britain will mount the first major exhibition to explore the transformative impact that fashion, art, and photography had on Britain in the 1990s. Curated by former British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful, the show, entitled “The 90s: Art and Fashion,” will bring together over 100 photographs, paintings, films, sculptures, objects, and garments from nearly 70 artists. It will run from August 8th through February 14th, 2027.
The exhibition chronicles the explosion of new talent that emerged as Britain came through a recession in the early 90s and birthed a new dawn of optimism and creative rebellion. Artists from the Young British Artists to fashion designer Alexander McQueen experimented by mixing high art and pop culture, blurring the boundaries between art, design, fashion, and photography to reshape Britain’s cultural identity.
“London at the time wasn’t the polished global capital it is today; it was raw, unstable, and full of possibility,” shared Enninful at a press conference on Monday. “There was a sense that something was shifting, even if we didn’t have the language for it… What defined that period for me was not a single movement, but an energy—a refusal of hierarchy and a belief that new voices could and should be heard across art, fashion, music, and image making.”
The show traces numerous threads of the decade, from Helen Chadwick and Jake & Dinos Chapman’s revulsive conceptualism and Cerith Wyn Evans and Gary Hume’s pared-back forms, to the unflinching figuration of painters Barbara Walker and Jenny Saville, and the anarchic work of Sarah Lucas and Tracey Emin. Photographers Corinne Day and Juergen Teller’s work for DIY grunge publications like i-D and Dazed and Confused will be included, as will the stark photos by Nick Knight, David Sims, and Wolfgang Tillmans. Other highlights include Steve McQueen’s first major film, Bear (1993), alongside Chris Ofili’s 1998 painting No Woman, No Cry, which won the Turner Prize. On the fashion side, garments from Vivienne Westwood, John Galliano, Stella McCartney, and Alexander McQueen will be among those presented.
The exhibition will be complemented by a publication of the same name, edited by Enninful and Dominique Heyse-Moore, senior curator of contemporary British art at Tate Britain. It will include contributions from artists, including Sonia Boyce, Yinka Shonibare, Sarah Burton, and others.
While Enninful is primarily known as a stylist and an editor, he has embarked on more curatorial work in recent years. He curated his first exhibition in March 2024, presenting a show of works by the photographer Robert Mapplethorpe at Thaddaeus Ropac in Paris.
