C.P. Library Exhibition: 50 Years of C.P. Company

​Curated by Professor Andrew Groves and Dr Danielle Sprecher
1 – 30 October 2021, British Textile Biennial, Darwen​

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In association with C.P. Company, the Westminster Menswear Archive presents an archive selection celebrating the brand’s 50th anniversary with a display in Darwen Library.

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A series of cabinets present a range of artefacts from across the decades from C.P. Company. These include early examples of the brands' knitwear and outerwear with accompanying press books. Another cabinet explores the various technical accessories that were integral to the garments from the Urban Protection range from the late 1990s. Finally, there is a display of 12 issues of the iconic C.P. Company magazine that was first published in 1985 and pioneered a new approach to fashion marketing as it exclusively contained the brand’s seasonal promotion material presented as a men’s fashion magazine.

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The exhibition also featured a series of paintings by Adil Amin depicting young Asian men from Blackburn wearing C.P. Company and a series of photographs by photographer Neil Bedford as part of the Portrait Youth project led by staff from the Manchester Metropolitan University's Manchester Fashion Institute.