Suited and booted: how men's fashion continues to change with the times

A new exhibition unpicks the evolution of menswear, writes Suzanne Harrington

The first room, Undressed, examines the male body and underwear. Photos include Anthony Patrick Manieri, Nude 1, London, England, April 2016 (above)

The suit, announces Tristram Hunt, the besuited director of London’s V&A museum, is not what it used to be. Sales of men’s suits have fallen by 50% in the past two years - after two years of WFH, it seems men are no longer quite so keen on the rigidly anonymous formalwear in vogue since the 19th century. Could the suit, court appearances aside, be about to go the same way as the fax machine? Or is the alternative – dressing like Dominic Cummings – too nightmarish to contemplate?

Fashioning Masculinities, the V&A’s first exhibition to unpick the evolution of menswear far beyond the boring old suit, opens today. Drawing from its collection of 100,000 garments, the show “celebrates the power, artistry and variety of male attire and appearance, and in doing so, attempts to deconstruct norms and forms of masculinity,” says Dr Hunt, adding “As Niccolo Machiavelli, who knew something about the appearance of power, put it ‘Two yards of pink cloth can make a gentleman.’”