Nine decades of art through a Liverpool Wardrobe - Liverpool Sign LiverpoolONE
I'm Karen Hitchcock, the artist who designed the Liverpool Sign artwork for Fashion Britain 2026 - a fashion-inspired piece for Liverpool ONE, tracing nine decades of the city's fashion history through art.
Liverpool ONE commissioned a fashion-inspired artwork for the iconic Liverpool Sign, as part of BFC Fashion Britain - a nationwide programme touring London, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Newcastle and Edinburgh through September 2026. Liverpool's theme was art.
For the sign, I wanted each letter to carry a different decade of Liverpool's own fashion story, rendered in the art movement that was genuinely happening alongside it (or linked) nine decades for nine letters, from the 1940s to today.
That's a slightly different brief to what you'd expect - not fashion illustrated through art, but art used to tell a fashion story.
First the outfit doodle, very generalised but I think everyone could identify with one or a mix of some.
Next, the plan...
Symbolising how the trade brought fine fabrics and satin into the city through Liverpool's docks, I start with material arriving into the city, ready to become something. It opens in the 1940s, rendered in the atmospheric, romantic spirit of Neo-Romanticism, before moving into the glamour of Lewis's department store in the 1950s, done in the honest, painterly spirit of the Kitchen Sink School - opulence as a bit of escape from a grey decade. The 1960s bring the Liverpool Look and the city's own style icons of the time, in the flat colour and bold outline of Pop Art. The 1970s nod to the embellishment, lace and texture that made Quiggins such a beloved and unique spot, through the Pattern and Decoration movement. The 1980s carry the raw energy of Eric's Club and Liverpool's punk and post-punk scene, in the spirit of Dada. The 1990s move into the optical buzz of the city's dance and rave culture, in Op Art. The 2000s bring the gloss of the flagship designer-store era, in Superflat. The 2010s capture everyday Liverpool style through the clean, screen-native flatness of Post-Internet Art. And the piece closes in the present day with Generative Art - contemporary, digital, forward-looking - bringing the whole timeline right up to now.
Read across the sign, it becomes nine decades of Liverpool told through fashion and art side by side, unbroken from the 1940s to now, not one look or one era standing in for the whole city, but the full, layered story of a place that has always dressed with its own kind of confidence.
The process...
Making all the patterns and brushes from scratch, I learnt as well as had fun keeping it old school!! Making the grungy swatch was my favourite. Once all the patterns were assembled (!!!) they were placed on the template that would go to the printers to be cut. Some of the designs were set to wrap around the letter so that it looks like it's wrapped in fabric and others just had block colours that were used in the pattern. This represents the colour control patches that you find on paper and fabric (colour registration marks).
The result...
Which decade stays with you...?
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