Stella McCartney and Rigby & Peller designs set to join David Beckham's briefs in V&A underwear exhibition

The exhibition runs from April 16 next year to March 12, 2017 at the South Kensington museum’s Fashion Gallery
Robert Dex @RobDexES13 November 2015

Bras, bodices, whalebone corsets and Y-fronts are going on display in an exhibition at the V&A.

The show includes designs by Stella McCartney, Rigby & Peller and Paul Smith, and traces the changes in lingerie fashion since the 18th century.

Among the more than 200 exhibits are a pair of cotton drawers worn by Queen Victoria’s mother, a Sixties Mary Quant body stocking and a Victorian corset.

Corset, 1890-1895
V&A Images

David Beckham’s briefs will feature in a section devoted to the advertising of underwear, while X-rays will reveal the impact on the body of a corset designed to shrink the wearer’s waist to less than 19 inches. The exhibition is sponsored by Revlon and lingerie brand Agent Provocateur (main image).

Undressed: A Brief History Of Underwear, runs from April 16 next year to March 12, 2017 at the South Kensington museum’s Fashion Gallery.

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