Timothy Long is the elegant Curator of Fashion and Decorative Arts at the Museum Of London. His work involves looking after the museum’s library of garments that goes from 5000 year old shoes to Zara trench coats via Beau Brummel era jackets. As well as the odd hundred cod pieces.
With a style that pays close attention to detail (such as the George V pin he was wearing on his lapel when we met) and a careful manner typified by his soft, lilting Illinois accent, if anyone was ever born to be a fashion archivist, it was clearly Timothy.
Now with the great rise of public interest in menswear (it has been forecast that if sales continue as they are, more men’s items will be sold than women’s by 2016) which London, is very much at the heart of with LC:M, it’s numerous trade shows and boutiques as well as designers, Timothy sees a unique opportunity to create something innovative and energising with the museum’s collection and establish London as the menswear capital of the world.
“We need to better understand what London’s role is in the formation of modern menswear. There are a lot of opportunities for us to use our archive in a way to connect with people. London has already contributed significantly to what we wear today.”
Revealing what also brought him here, Timothy acknowledges the city’s clear embrace of fashion: “London’s streets are a theatre compared to how other cities embrace fashion. With women it is clearer, but it’s a pleasant surprise with menswear to see that it’s not only something that men care about but also take great pride in.”
Not only is fashion alive in terms of what England and London contribute but so too are the traditions that we know of menswear. “The way your lapel is made is the same way it has been made for the last 500 years. It’s a true tradition that we hold on to. It’s also not something you would just get however, so all of that I want to put into a really robust project that is something appropriate for the audience that is the fashion industry.”
By presenting ideas in a fresh and exciting way, Timothy aims to create something that the general public will see, respond to and be surprised by.
Ahead of the large scale project, soon to open at the museum is the Sherlock Holmes exhibition, which will shed a new light on just how iconic and internationally recognised the character is.
“In terms of menswear he is an icon in regards to what this city has produced. A lot of people don’t take him very seriously but there are few other things that have been produced from menswear that are as recognisable as Sherlock’s style,” he passionately explains.
The exhibition looks at all aspects of Sherlock Holmes. From the genesis of his story with Arthur Conan Doyle to the mid to late 19th century. The exhibition will feature some original manuscripts that highlight the development of Sherlock’s character, alongside Timothy’s own dissection of his character. “I looked at the idea of the modern English gentleman and realising exactly what he is. From the late 19th century to today, what are the things that would have been appropriate for Sherlock to wear? By learning the collection much better and doing some really sexy photography, this has been a great experiment to see what we can apply to future projects related to menswear at the museum.”
The museum’s vast clothing collection has been sourced predominately through public donations. With about 22,000 items in its archive, the museum of London was formerly two different institutions - the Guild Hall and the London Museum which was in Kensington Palace. This is where the Royal Collection comes from whereas a lot of the material that connects to the city comes from the Guild Hall. Numerous items have since then have been donated to the museum, as Timothy explains; “People call up almost daily and will say ‘I found my grandfather’s suit in the attic’, or ‘I was at this event in the 40s’ and propose things to us. We do buy some things, obviously there’s some financial challenges connected to that and we also buy things at auction.”
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| Eye Serum | Tan Wash Bag | Matt Mudd | Shirt Stays | Beard Moisturiser |
As a bearded man, it wouldn’t be very Murdock of us if we didn’t enquire about Timothy’s own views on grooming – especially as a History of Fashion expert. He was able to provide us with his thoughts on why beards have become so popular over the last 3-5 years;
“It’s cyclical. We haven’t had them for a while and it was just time.” He states. “Thankfully men no longer need to wear a three piece suit to be taken seriously, so that’s given us the opportunity to play a little bit with styles we wouldn’t have considered appropriate during the working week before. I think the loosening of those rules has allowed for more men to feel it acceptable.”
It would seem that from looking at the Museum’s vast collection and then considering our technology-led culture that cycles with clothing are moving at a drastically faster rate than they used to.
“It has sped up,” agrees Timothy. “It is very post-modern in the fact that we can wear anything, anytime, anywhere. With that said, I do feel a bit remorseful that we don’t have such theatrical fashions as we’ve had in the past. Today I could wear trousers that look a bit 60s, a jacket that looks a bit 80s and tomorrow I could wear a Teddy Boy outfit. This is wonderful and I embrace and love that, but when I look back what I find so incredible is the sort of zeitgeist of an overall trend that we don’t have anymore. It doesn’t exist.
Quizzing Timothy on what we would tell our children the trends were today, he told us that this is actually an assignment he gives his students, to write a chapter on fashion today to be published in 15 years. “You have to describe it, its influences. One of the hardest challenges students have is trying to think ‘why am I wearing this?’ Everything we wear is of course based on something, no matter where you are in the world it’s based on reason, trying to find that reason is the huge challenge.” Considering his own answer, he explains “I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to such theatrical styles as we had in say the 60s with the hippy movement and space age. That’s the kind of excess that you rejoice in Fashion History, but that notion has now gone. They say the pendulum swings but it swings so quickly now that we really don’t have an overarching style.”
Ending our time on a final thought in regards to the future of menswear, Timothy ponders: “When I think about being a designer one day, I have to ask what I could do that would spark the next trend. A new style, a new cut? I think although we live in London the greater populous probably wouldn’t adhere to any of those major changes. Who knows what the future of fashion will be but I definitely do feel a bit jealous of certain decades of the past.
So what is his favourite style decade of the past then? “I would say 1830 – 18840. Men wore absolutely spectacular clothing. It was the height of tailoring in my opinion. It’s when the rules related to tailoring really were pushed and the actual craft of tailoring I think was at is zenith. It gives real rejoice of technique to make the garments fit the way they did. It was definitely ground zero for London craftsmanship then.”