Fancy Pants at The Portico Library
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Fancy Pants
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In 1836, a grand fancy dress ball was held in The Portico Library. The event attracted around 5,000 attendees and was reported in newspapers across the country. In Fancy Pants, books from the library’s collection and new artworks examine how dress and costume’s relationships with gender, class, power and identity have always been complicated. The exhibition features artists Leonce Raphael Agbodjelou, Ruby Kirby, Lindsey Mendick and Camille Smithwick and volumes from the collection.