An exciting new fashion exhibition, sponsored by high street clothes chain H&M, will open at Ealing Council's PM Gallery & House on 3 February and run until 11 March.

 

The free 'Cut on the Bias' exhibition is a collaboration between the fashion department of Central St Martins College of Art & Design in London and the Beckmans College of Design in Stockholm.

 

For three weeks at the end of 2005, 30 fashion students from the colleges came together to develop a collection of clothes inspired by national identity and multiculturalism, from a fashion perspective. The themes of nationalism and preconceived ideas about �other people' emerged as a focus for the project.

 

The ideas developed during the early part of the project were given shape using fashion as the art form: silhouettes, proportions, colours, shapes, fabrics and detail. The students worked in pairs to bring differing national perspectives to one piece of work.

 

'Cut on the Bias' deals with national identity and multiculturalism, but it also explores identity through status, gender, class and the body - issues that are frequently explored by artists working in visual arts. Whilst diverse and entertaining 'Cut on the Bias' also aims to take a serious look at how we judge and perceive others through dress and outward display.

 

The exhibition was initiated by the Swedish Embassy in London and is sponsored by them and H&M. After opening in Stockholm at the end of last year, an expanded exhibition, with new works by another 25 students from Central St Martins, will now be displayed in the impressive surroundings of PM Gallery and within the Georgian interiors of Pitzhanger Manor-House.

 

'Cut on the Bias' is the first exhibition hosted by the gallery as part of its 10th anniversary 'Breaking the Boundaries' series. To celebrate, the gallery will feature exhibitions throughout the year which explore the boundaries between fine art and other disciplines, taking in architecture, fashion, gardening and sound.