'You don't get any': The secret sex signals in the Bloomsbury group's clothes

It was recently called England's most fashionable house, but on Tuesdays Charleston is closed to visitors and therefore perfectly empty. In a garden at the height of its bloom on a warm August morning, bees examine the flowers and apple trees, while ducks brush their feathers in the lake. The Bloomsbury Group used this East Sussex farmhouse as their headquarters for around 60 years, and because its members believed art and life should be seamlessly integrated, their idiosyncratic touches are everywhere. There is a picture on an easel of a naked man with a six-pack painted by Duncan Grant; yellow circles on a cabinet decorated by Vanessa Bell; a walled garden designed by fellow artist Roger Fry. Meanwhile, in the kitchen, quirky pottery shades cover the lights; upstairs in the attic, there is a door frame covered with patterns painted by Bell; and beyond, windows offering majestic views of the South Downs.

Fashion journalist Charlie Porter has spent the better part of the past two years here, shooting research on an exhibition and a book. The two are called Bring No Clothes, after Virginia Woolf's instructions to visitors to leave their starched crinolines, whalebone corsets and medals at home, as rejecting formal wear was part of the lifestyle Bloomsbury revolutionary. "I've always wanted to look at what happened as clothing changed from the fitted, military Victorian dress to what we would call modern," says Porter. "If you look at this moment, what can we learn about the roots of clothing today?"

The exhibition, curated by Porter, will open the new cultural center in Charleston nearby. Lewes, and explores how modern fashion designers such as Kim Jones of Dior and Fendi, and former Burberry designer Christopher Bailey, were inspired by the Bloomsbury Group. There will also be historical artifacts like world hostess Lady Ottoline Morrell's flamboyant dresses (as well as the packet of cigarettes found in her extravagant jodhpurs), while portraits show how artists such as Grant used the clothing in their own paintings – often to signal a queer desire. , evidenced by the portrait of his friend Paul Roche dressed as a sailor. Porter is keen that the exhibit takes no prisoners — it opens with five “hardcore” Comme des Garçons looks inspired by Woolf’s gender-swap novel Orlando. "I didn't mean 'It's not in London so it will have to be watered down'," he says. role="showcase" data-spacefinder-type="model.dotcomrendering.pageElements.ImageBlockElement" class="dcr-5h0uf4">