Happy #PrideMonth ! We’re sharing some stories from our collections including LGBTQ+ representations in fashion, decorative art and design that celebrate life, love and diversity

⚥ Gender and self-expression have been explored in many ways from craft to performance and fashion. Some of our collections explore gender identity through its various forms

A Japanese handscroll in our Exploring East Asia gallery depicts the theatre district of Edo (today’s Tokyo) around 1700 featuring an onnagata - male actors who specialised in female roles and usually dressed, spoke and lived like women off-stage, too http://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/world-cultures/discovering-japan/discovering-japan/theatre-district-handscroll/

Spill the tea – the 1882 Royal Worcester Aesthetic Teapot satirises the Aesthetes whom the mainstream press viewed as ‘effete poseurs’. The teapot’s ‘male’ and ‘female’ figures reference fears that the blurring of gender roles could disrupt social order https://blog.nms.ac.uk/2016/03/23/living-up-to-ones-teapot-oscar-wilde-aestheticism-and-victorian-satire/