Animator and director Quentin Jones puts her stamp on the V&A’s upcoming exhibition, Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear, with a high-energy dance film honoring the modern man. Opening in London on 19 March 2022, the show celebrates the power, artistry and diversity of masculine attire and appearance.

“Boys don't cry. Boys are tough. Boys lead. Boys dress sharp....” mimics Jones, whose short film dismantles these toxic ideologies about masculinity. “The final room of the Fashioning Masculinities exhibition at the V&A is about turning these tired stereotypes on their head with a film installation that would spark joy in the viewer.”

In this monochromatic gallery piece, Jones has lit a fuse that would ignite fun and elation in any exhibition goer. Her experimental graphic style and finely tuned analog aesthetic has been developed through multiple high-fashion commissions for the likes of Vogue, Jimmy Choo and Chanel.

“Boys Don't Cry is choreography-based, about the future of masculine identity and how a more optimistic and inclusive view of gender is unfolding," says the director. "My film touches on the idealized male body, but also on the fragility of masculinity when it is based on limiting ideas.”

Dance phenoms Ed Munro, Abu Bakar, José Lapaz-Rodríguez and Carl Ponce Cubero star in Jones’s kinetic daydream of the modern masculinity. Their signature dance styles may encompass jazz, ballet, new way and vogue fem, but under the direction of choreographer Maleek Washington, the four come together in a playful marionette dance—but nobody is pulling their strings.

The anticipated V&A exhibition will feature iconic looks by Gucci, Harris Reed, Grace Wales Bonner, Raf Simons and more. Fashioning Masculinities runs the gamut of masculine style, reaching back to connect classical sculptures and Renaissance paintings with performance art and the stars of stage and screen.

“On a personal level, I have been wanting to move into installation filmmaking for a while. This was a dream brief for a museum that I have long admired,” says Jones. “I wanted to work in a visually stripped-back world, having spent the pandemic being quite messy in my film, animation and collage work; to come back to what can work and be beautiful in its barest form."

Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear at the V&A, 19 March – 6 November 2022. In partnership with Gucci, with support from American Express®