The Westminster Menswear Archive was founded to encourage and develop the study of menswear design from a technical and functional point of view and consists of over 1500 garments covering military, workwear, industrial, social and designer clothing. It is also intended to advance the general knowledge of menswear as a design discipline and is used by members of the menswear design industry as a primary research tool to inform contemporary menswear design.
Supported by the Quintin Hogg Trust, Professor Groves launched the Westminster Menswear Archive in 2015. It is the world’s only publicly accessible menswear archive, which has over 1500 examples of menswear from British designers and brands including Craig Green, Liam Hodges, Kim Jones, Aitor Throup, Vivienne Westwood, Mr Fish, Belstaff, Barbour, Burberry, Vexed Generation, and Aquascutum.
The Westminster Menswear Archive has examples of some of the most critical and inspiring menswear garments covering the last 100 years. The archive includes garments from Alexander McQueen, Craig Green, Stone Island, Meadham Kirchhoff, Ralph Lauren, Liam Hodges, Carol Christian Poell, C.P. Company, Jean-Paul Gaultier, John Flett, Kim Jones, Aitor Throup, Vivienne Westwood, Mr Fish, Calvin Klein, adidas, Nanamica, Belstaff, Barbour, Burberry, Maison Margiela, Jeremy Scott, Vexed Generation, Aquascutum, Levis, Jeremy Scott, Berghaus, Penfield, Griffin, and Comme Des Garcons.
The archive is an essential destination for researchers, designers and students, including from the Royal College of Art, Central Saint Martins, Kingston University, London College of Fashion. The archive attracts industry based design research, including; Liam Hodges, Rapha, Versace, Hunter, Matthew Miller, Perry Ellis, Jigsaw, Alexander McQueen, H&M, British Fashion Council, The Financial Times, Esquire and Vogue.
In 2022, Westminster Menswear Archive launched, Locating Menswear, an international research network to investigate the cultural and industrial connections between London, Liverpool, Manchester, and Milan, Italy, and how they have influenced the production, display and consumption of British menswear. The international network is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), and will host a series of workshops and events in the United Kingdom and Italy. The network’s activities will be documented on Instagram at @locating_menswear.
The archive is run in conjunction with Westminster’s archive collections, and is available to search here.
The public website of the Menswear Archive is accessible here.