A beguiling piece of work by Charles LeDray, Mens Suits (no apostrophe, he insists), can be seen until 20 September at 1 Chiltern Street, W1. The building used to be the local fire station. In its present state it fits the atmosphere created by LeDray's displays of miniature garments very well. The large, dim garage that housed the fire engines resembles a run-down warehouse (there are plans to turn it into a hotel). Within it three small areas are defined by light from fittings set in sections of suspended ceiling. Each section is only a couple of metres square and is hung a bit above waist height so that you have to bend over to get a look at the lights and acoustic tiles. The ceilings are mirrored below by rectangles of tiled floor. The doll's house dimensions of the wall-less rooms created by the pools of light that fill these three floor-and-ceiling sandwiches determine the scale of the things set out in them.

LRB 6 August 2009 | PDF Download