Charles Jeffrey co-curates Tay Late at V&A Dundee

Glaswegian fashion designer, illustrator, stylist and radical creative Charles Jeffrey will co-curate V&A Dundee’s next Tay Late on Friday 27 May, an after-hours event celebrating the museum’s current exhibition on the ground-breaking dancer and choreographer Michael Clark.

Tay Late: Because We Must will fill V&A Dundee with music, films, performance, conversations and more from 19.30 to midnight on Friday 27 May. Tickets are on sale now at https://www.vam.ac.uk/dundee/event/387/tay-late-because-we-must

The after-hours, one-night-only event will showcase and celebrate the work of emerging and contemporary designers, musicians and performers who, like Michael Clark, work with a sense of urgency and rebellious energy. The full line-up of performers will be revealed in the coming weeks.

Charles Jeffrey runs an internationally renowned fashion label and a cult club night, both founded in 2014. The LOVERBOY night forms the primary research for Jeffrey’s fashion collections, with his tribe of friends and creative collaborators – artists, performers, musicians, drag queens and poets – contributing to the egalitarian spirit of the brand. Charles will bring that same energy to V&A Dundee.

Tay Late: Because We Must will bring to life the excitement of V&A Dundee’s current exhibition Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer, exploring the next generation of multidisciplinary creators who share Clark’s pioneering and radical approach to bringing together dance, art, design, fashion, music and more.

The exhibition Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer was curated and organised by Barbican, London. The exhibition runs until 4 September 2022 and will also be open throughout the Tay Late evening.

Charles Jeffrey said: “I am so grateful to be given the opportunity to respond to Michael’s work for this event. I feel so connected to his work and all the people that have orbited it. It’s so exciting to be able to do this in Scotland, our shared home country.”

Nichol Keene, Creative Programmer at V&A Dundee, said: “There is no one better than Charles Jeffrey to co-curate Tay Late: Because We Must and to celebrate Michael Clark.

"Jeffrey is a radical creative who thrives in the colourful tension between control and chaos. His LOVERBOY cult club night and fashion label are rooted in collaboration and built on experimentation and playing with performance. The brand champions diversity, self-identity, and relentless support of the LGBTQIA+ community.

“Together, we are assembling a line-up of contemporary designers, DJs, artists, dancers, and diving into the LOVERBOY archive to fill V&A Dundee with the rebellious energy and sense of urgency embodied by ground-breaking Scottish dancer and choreographer Michael Clark.

“Expect music, films, performance, conversations and more at this after-hours, one-night-only event.”

Charles Jeffrey is from Glasgow and studied at Central Saint Martins in London. Jeffrey is the winner of two Scottish Fashion Awards, the first in 2016 as Graduate of the Year and later as Young Designer of the Year in 2017. The LOVERBOY label has since been a finalist in the 2018 edition of the LVMH Prize and was nominated for the BFC/Vogue Fashion Fund in 2019. In 2018, Jeffrey won the British GQ Award for Emerging Designer. In 2017, he received the British Fashion Award for Best Emerging Menswear Designer.

The exhibition Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer runs until 4 September 2022. This unprecedented and immersive exhibition of the Scottish dancer and choreographer’s work establishes Clark’s radical presence in British cultural history and explores his inimitable combination of classical and contemporary influences such as ballet and punk.

The exhibition delves deep into Clark’s legendary creative collaborations with artists, designers, musicians and performers, giving an extraordinary insight into one of Scotland’s most remarkable creative minds.

The Tay Late evening is named after Because We Must (1987), an iconic Michael Clark stage production that was developed into a film with Charles Atlas.