Research on Menswear, Fashion Curation & Material Culture
Westminster Menswear Archive, 2024
Andrew Groves’ research focuses on fashion’s material culture, using it as a primary source for analysis and reinterpretation to generate new insights that inform contemporary design processes. Central to his research and teaching practice is the Westminster Menswear Archive, which he established in 2016 as a critical intersection between academia and the fashion industry.
The archive houses over 2,600 garments, and purposefully rejects a hierarchy of design, instead proposing a parity of clothing-based objects, interspersing workwear, uniforms, and designer garments, and challenging the orthodoxy of fashion collections.
This diversity makes the archive an invaluable resource for both industry professionals and students, fostering new research and design practices while generating fresh knowledge about the history, materiality, and social significance of menswear. Industry researchers utilising the archive include designers from Burberry, Tom Ford, Alexander McQueen, Dunhill, Bottega Veneta, Rapha, Versace, Umbro, and C.P. Company.
When I met Andrew for the first time in 2017, he told me he wanted to set up the archive, and it was the first time I had heard about a fashion school taking that approach to design education, offering their students the chance to work the same as my father did. It’s a game-changing way to form and shape new designers and develop an alternative way of working.
Lorenzo Osti, President, C.P. Company
Recent Research Contributions in Menswear and Fashion Curation
Oasis promotional shirt, Umbro, 1997
2024
Umbro 100: Sportswear x Fashion
Groves, Andrew and Sprecher, Danielle 2024. Umbro 100: Sportswear x Fashion. Ambika P3, University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London, NW1 5LS 12 - 28 Apr 2024
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Admiral and the Aesthetic Merit of Design
Groves, Andrew 2024. Admiral and the Aesthetic Merit of Design. in: MacDonald, R. (ed.) Admiral: 50 Years of the Replica Shirt Glasgow Halcyon Publishing.​
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Umbro 100: Sportswear x Fashion
Groves, Andrew and Sprecher, Danielle 2024. Umbro 100: Sportswear x Fashion. London Westminster Menswear Archive.​
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Inside the Westminster Menswear Archive
Groves, Andrew and Sprecher, Danielle 2024. Inside the Westminster Menswear Archive. London Bloomsbury Visual Arts.​
Umbro 100: Sportswear x Fashion Exhibition, 2024
Linen in Menswear 1800 - present
Groves, Andrew and Sprecher, Danielle 2023. Linen in Menswear 1800 - present. in: Camilleri, A. (ed.) Le Lin, fibre de civilisation(s) Paris, France Actes Sud.
Palliative Prototypes or Therapeutic Functionality? Examining C.P. Company’s Urban Protection Collection
Groves, Andrew 2023. Palliative Prototypes or Therapeutic Functionality? Examining C.P. Company’s Urban Protection Collection. in: Woolley, D., Johnstone, F., Sampson, E. and Chambers, P. (ed.) Wearable Objects and Curative Things: Materialist Approaches to the Intersections of Fashion, Art, Health and Medicine. Palgrave Macmillan.
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Investigating the Value of UK Higher Education Fashion and Textile Collections
Groves, Andrew, Briggs-Goode, Amanda, Britt, Helena and Arnold, Kevin 2023. Investigating the Value of UK Higher Education Fashion and Textile Collections. Archiving Fashion Conference: Mapping Fashion Collections. Fashion Institute of Technology, 300 7th Avenue, New York, NY 10001 11 - 11 Nov 2023
Representing Black British Music in the Westminster Menswear Archive
Groves, Andrew and Sprecher, Danielle 2023. Representing Black British Music in the Westminster Menswear Archive. UoW Annual Black Music Symposium at the British Library. British Library 20 Oct 2023
Invisible Men in Black
Sprecher, Danielle and Groves, Andrew 2023. Invisible Men in Black. ICOM Costume: International Committee for Museums and Collections of Costume, Fashion and Textiles Annual Meeting 2023. National Museums of Scotland, Edinburgh 24 - 27 Sep 2023
Tailored by Umbro: Football, fashion and the construction and reconstruction of Englishness through cut, fit, and style
Sprecher, Danielle and Groves, Andrew 2023. Tailored by Umbro: Football, fashion and the construction and reconstruction of Englishness through cut, fit, and style. 2023 British Society of Sport History Conference. Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester 24 - 25 Aug 2023
Locating Menswear – A Non-Hierarchical Exploration of Place and Community.
Groves, Andrew, Sprecher, Danielle, Jenkinson, Jo and Owen, Paul 2023. Locating Menswear – A Non-Hierarchical Exploration of Place and Community. Dress Devolution conference. Falmouth University 06 - 07 Jul 2023
The Repositioning of the Football Jersey from the Pitch to the Runway.
Groves, Andrew and Sprecher, Danielle 2023. The Repositioning of the Football Jersey from the Pitch to the Runway. International Football History Conference . Hampden Park Stadium, Glasgow 30 Jun - 01 Jul 2023
A Casual Obsession: Inside the Brtish Sock Fetish Council, 2022
2022
Inside the Westminster Menswear Archive: A case study of garment-research as a pedagogical practice
Groves, Andrew 2022. Inside the Westminster Menswear Archive: A case study of garment-research as a pedagogical practice. IFFTI2022. University of Nottingham 05 - 08 Apr 2022 International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institute
A casual obsession: Inside the British Sock Fetish Council
Groves, A. 2022. A casual obsession: Inside the British Sock Fetish Council. Critical Studies in Men's Fashion. 9 (2), pp. 187-206. https://doi.org/10.1386/csmf_00059_1
Groves, Andrew, Jenkinson, Jo and Earnshaw, John 2022. Through a Lens – A comparison of contested masculine identities as reflected in clothing, place, and portraiture. Futurescan 5: Conscious Communities. The University of Leeds 07 - 08 Sep 2022 Association of Fashion and Textiles Courses.​​​​​​​​​​​
Discarded mask #161
Clothing the Pandemic: A Virtual Exhibition of COVID-19 Face Masks from Around the World
Sprecher, Danielle and Groves, Andrew 2021. Clothing the Pandemic: A Virtual Exhibition of COVID-19 Face Masks from Around the World. 23 Dec 2021
C.P. Library
Groves, Andrew and Sprecher, Danielle 2021. C.P. Library. Darwen Library, Lancashire 01 - 30 Oct 2021
Introduction
Groves, Andrew 2021. Introduction. in: C.P. Company 971-021: An Informal History of Italian Sportswear Italy Tristate International SA. pp. 13-15
Undercover – From Necessity to Debris: The Pollution of Face Coverings During COVID-19
Groves, Andrew 2021. Undercover – From Necessity to Debris: The Pollution of Face Coverings During COVID-19. London Gallery West 08 - 28 Jun 2021
Undercover – From Necessity to Debris: The Pollution of Face Coverings During COVID-19
Groves Andrew 2021. Undercover – From Necessity to Debris: The Pollution of Face Coverings During COVID-19. https://opensea.io/collection/undercover-from-necessity-to-debris 11 May - 05 Jun 2021
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Undercover – From Necessity to Luxury: The Evolution of Face Coverings During COVID-19
Groves Andrew and Sprecher, D. 2021. Undercover – From Necessity to Luxury: The Evolution of Face Coverings During COVID-19. Online 11 May - 05 Jun 2021
Palliative Prototypes or Therapeutic Functionality? Examining C.P. Company’s Urban Protection Collection
Groves, Andrew 2021. Palliative Prototypes or Therapeutic Functionality? Examining C.P. Company’s Urban Protection Collection. Curative Things: Medicine/Fashion/Art. Leeds Arts University - Online 12 Feb 2021 Leeds Arts University.
Masking Masculinity – An overview of the mask in menswear before and after COVID-19
Groves, Andrew and Sprecher, D. 2021. Masking Masculinity – An overview of the mask in menswear before and after COVID-19. Face Off: The Provocation and Possibilities of Face Masks and Head Coverings. Manchester Metropolitan University 13 - 14 Jan 2021 Manchester Metropolitan University.
Undercover: The Migration of Face Coverings During COVID-19
Groves, Andrew and Sprecher, Danielle 2021. Undercover: The Migration of Face Coverings During COVID-19. The Many Faces of Migration: An Interdisciplinary Unconference. online 29 - 30 Apr 2021
In and Out of Fashion - Aligning Education with the International Fashion Calendar
Groves, Andrew 2021. In and Out of Fashion - Aligning Education with the International Fashion Calendar. The Digital Multilogue on Fashion Education. American University of Paris 1 - 2 Oct 2021​
Invisible Men: An Anthology from the Westminster Menswear Archive
Sprecher, Danielle and Groves, Andrew 2019. Invisible Men: An Anthology from the Westminster Menswear Archive. Ambika P3, London 24 Oct - 24 Nov 2019
Invisible Men: An Anthology from the Westminster Menswear Archive
Groves Andrew and Sprecher, D. 2019. Invisible Men: An Anthology from the Westminster Menswear Archive., Exhibition Catalogue.
Invisible Men Conference
Groves Andrew and Sprecher, D. 2019. Invisible Men Conference. Ambika P3, London. 29 - 29 Oct 2019
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Symposium: The Vanishing Art of Camouflage
Groves, Andrew 2016. Symposium: The Vanishing Art of Camouflage. University of Westminster, London.
The Overworked Body: An Anthology of 2000s Dress Curated by Matthew Linde
Linde, Matthew and Groves, Andrew 2017. The Overworked Body: An Anthology of 2000s Dress Curated by Matthew Linde. Goethe Institut, 38 Ludlow Street New York. 10 Sep - 15 Oct 2017
The Vanishing Art of Camouflage
Groves, Andrew and Leach, Robert 2016. The Vanishing Art of Camouflage. London Gallery West, University of Westminster. 21 October – November 2016,
Groves, Andrew and Leach, Robert 2015. Archetypes. London Gallery West, University of Westminster. 15 May – 14 June 2015.