Review: The 90s Art and Fashion, Tate Britain.
How do you show an entire decade’s worth of art and fashion in one exhibition? Er, you don’t.
★☆☆☆☆
A landmark Tracy Emin exhibition recently at Tate Modern. Alexander McQueen dominating the schedule at London Fashion Week. Oasis selling out a huge world tour. In the public’s consciousness the 90s isn’t that long ago because in the culture in 2026 we’re still enjoying work produced by artists who came to prominence then.
So who on earth thought it would be a good idea to try and curate a decade of art and fashion whose output we are still experiencing and consuming? Oh, that’s who…
It explains why The 90s: Art and Fashion at Tate Britain is such a mess.
So go on, how bad?
One of the biggest installs in the exhibition is a parody of Fragonard’s The Swing, created by Yinka Shonibare. Hmm. I think I must have missed seeing that in my dog-eared old copies of The Face magazine from back then? Oh no I didn’t… the piece was made in 2001.
The decade of Britpop, Cool Brittania, New Labour, lad culture, the death of Diana, even Versayce* for god’s sake… none of it gets a mention but somehow French rococo does.
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And by Versayce, I don’t mean ‘death of’ (1997) I mean that black safety pin dress worn at that film premiere (1994).
*= it’s a TikTok meme to pronounce it Versayce not Ver-sa-chee and it comes from the cult film Showgirls. From 1995. This exhibition also suggests ‘art’ does not include film.
Speaking of Versayce, the decade that gave us the supermodels is summed up by an anti-supermodel photo of Kristen McMenamy by Jurgen Teller with Versace written across her chest. And on we plod.
Fashion-wise, Hussain Chalayan’s Airmail dress gets a showing but no-one thought to include the cover of Bjork’s seminal 90s album Post alongside, showing the singer in context in said clothing.
So OK, Bjork is ‘music’. Diana is ‘royals’. New Labour is ‘politics’ and the title of the show says art and fashion but there’s a room dedicated to rave photography. So is the definition of art here related to music or photography?
Wolfgang Tillmans’ photographic series Concorde Grid (1997) gets a wall but again, did nobody remember his blockbuster Pompidou Centre show last year (Nothing could have prepared us — Everything could have prepared us, 2025) where Tillmans showed beautiful 35mm prints of so many fresh-faced young artists he encountered in the 90s?
Enough.
What this exhibition is, is one ex-fashion editor’s view of what he thinks the 90s was about. A splash of YBAs over here, sprinkle some rave stuff over there and how about a little Vivienne Westwood tartan as an edgy flourish. It’s giving florals for spring. Groundbreaking.
The 90s: Art and Fashion is at Tate Britain, London, from 8 October 2026 until 14 February 2027.
