“ It was 27 April 1985 and the opening party for the second floor of the Wag Club – the nightspot I founded and ran in Soho – was in full, unrestrained swing. Fuelled by the unlimited free bar, the place was totally off the hook, the crowd dressed to the nines in their own inimitable fashion – pirates, preachers, punks and picture-postcard peaches – throwing themselves about with Bacchanalian abandon to a soundtrack as arcane and varied as they were.
“ High jinks indeed, yet looking around I realised that we as a group had come of age, were taken seriously and that this moment was ours. George Michael danced next to Siobhan of Bananarama overlooking Sade who nodded to the music in front of Suggs and Martin Kemp. Over the way, John Galliano camped it up alongside Leigh Bowery, Judy Blame, Boy George and one of the scene’s most innovative dressers and designers, Stephen Linard, while behind them stood Steve Strange and Princess Julia chatting to Vivienne Westwood… ” / Continued at High Life
➢ Club to Catwalk: London Fashion in the 1980s runs at the Victoria & Albert Museum, July 10–Feb 16, 2014. Featuring more than 85 outfits, it showcases new looks from the decade’s most experimental designers and some remarkable photography from back in the day
Monica Curtin’s 1985 pic of Scarlett Cannon as “key identity” for the V&A Club to Catwalk show… Outfit by BodyMap’s AW 1984 collection, Cat in the hat takes a rumble with a techno fish. Stylist John Derry-Bunce. Background painting Simon Josebury. Hair and makeup Jalle Bakke
❚ “FASHION???” SCOFFED THE FASHION EDITOR of a leading women’s magazine who shared my flat in 1980, after meeting one of the more ornamental Blitz Kids over our breakfast table. “Those aren’t even clothes!” Yet within five years she was as keen as every other editor to be featuring BodyMap, Galliano, Jones, Auburn, Hogg, Hamnett, Bernstock Speirs et al. Scroll forward 30 years and London’s world-beating decorative arts museum, the V&A, weighs in with a necessary exhibition reappraising the UK’s style revolution of the 80s. What’s coming under scrutiny in its dedicated fashion galleries are the unique silhouettes of that extravagant shape-shifting decade and the clubland forces that moulded them. Only two weeks to go before Club to Catwalk, London Fashion in the 1980s, and there’s one crucial tipping point at its heart: the moment fashion became style.
Let’s hand over to fashion guru Iain R Webb, one of the central figures who defined his generation and whose impressive book As Seen in Blitz was published last month. Here’s a taste of the mighty personal essay he has written for the summer issue of the V&A Magazine…
V&A Magazine summer issue: the 80s deconstructed by Iain R Webb
Webb writes: “ The 1980s were all about being photographed. We dressed as if every day were a photo shoot and every night a party (it usually was). But there was another revolution happening.
The advent of the stylist who approached fashion as an artistic construct was something new. Alongside the contributors to BLITZ, The Face and i-D (Ray Petri, Judy Blame, Caroline Baker, Helen Roberts, Beth Summers, Simon Foxton, Mitzi Lorenz, Maxine Siwan and Caryn Franklin among them) were two thought-provoking arbiters whose importance is often overlooked. Michael Roberts at Tatler and Amanda Grieve at Harper’s and Queen added a subversive edge to their respective glossy titles. Roberts poking fun at old-school mores while Grieve (later Harlech) befriended St Martin’s graduate John Galliano and helped create the romantic whirlwind that shaped fashion for decades to follow.
The images produced by all these stylists merged fashion and art, questioned the accepted ideals of beauty and social status and enjoyed a sense of experimentation. Their vanguard imagery often highlighted specific issues such as the superficiality of fashion and consumerism with humour.
“At that time there was a group of stylists who were as creative as the designers, if not more so,” remembers PR Lynne Franks, who represented BodyMap, Katharine Hamnett and Wendy Dagworthy. “It prompted the question: What came first, the styling or the clothes? It was very spontaneous, like playing dress-up.”
Stefano Tonchi, editor of W magazine, then editor of Westuff, an alternative style periodical published in Florence, says: “Fashion was no longer fashionable. Style was used to describe many areas of the creative arts that came together. It made for a new category. Music dictated a lot of the emerging trends and there was experimentation in both photography and graphic design, but fashion was where these exciting changes were most evident. Think of the BodyMap fashion shows, they weren’t just about the clothes but involved music, graphic design and theatre… ”
Stealth Wear: anti-drone garments by Joanna Bloomfield
➢ Disappear in an anti-drone hoodie – Dazed Digital on how a New York artist’s anti-drone stealth garments hide us from surveillance in style…
“ The battle of fashion vs drones starts here. New York artist Adam Harvey’s Stealth Wear anti-drone garments reclaim privacy for us. Designed with a lightweight, metallised fabric, his camouflage protects against the thermal-imaging surveillance technology used by drones to detect people by their body heat. The collection, a collaboration with fashion designer Joanna Bloomfield, explores “the potential for fashion to challenge authoritarian surveillance”.
“There is a lot of work to be done in reclaiming privacy,” Harvey told us. “In the last ten years we’ve become attuned to the attitude of the Bush administration that if you’re not doing anything wrong, you shouldn’t worry about giving up your privacy. The problem is that it’s already gone! We’re working to undo what was lost in the last decade… ” / More stealth zaniness at Dazed Digital
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Nathaniel Lyles: a prism of enamelled copper wires in crazy colours
➢ On the college blog of Central Saint Martins Derek Cheng reports on this week’s fashion spectacle at the King’s Cross Campus “ We saw a new wave of fashion hopefuls showcasing their graduation collections right at the entrance of Central Saint Martins’ new base. These students have experienced both the historic Charing Cross building and the current contemporary landmark in King’s Cross. From these collections, we saw promises, fresh ideas and of course blood and sweat. It’s clear that these students are still embracing the spirit and tradition of CSM: be rebellious, be different and be yourself!
“ 40 carefully selected fashion design students from five different pathways — womenswear, menswear, knitwear, fashion design with marketing and print — provide us with a wide range of exciting and, for many, shocking concepts. As highlights from the show, we present 13 outstanding collections… ” / Full commentary and many more pix on the CSM blog
CLICK ANY PIC TO LAUNCH CAROUSEL:
Yuki Hagino: exquisite origami sculptures, with 3-dimensional details
Xue Li: an expressive representation of ethnic inspirations
Shinya Kozuka: a quiet, contemplative side of menswear
Krystyna Kozhoma: feminine dresses and bodysuits that are cyber-looking and powerful
Charles Jeffrey: dramatic menswear based on the Scottish Independence referendum
Nicholas Daley: old-school punk and reggae
Beth Postle: 2D garments inspired by 1920s Soviet costumes
Xu Yuan Xin: oversized silhouettes, inspired by industrial workwear and sportswear
Samuel Yang: a white-out of “the aura that exists among people”
Cassandra Verity Green: under-water creatures like seaweed and coral reef-embroidery
Roni Ilan: fashion sculptures with fabric and metal
Alve Lagercrantz: puffy and spacious garments with a parachute finale
+++ ➢ Grazia Daily – “Two things we learnt … 1, Clubbing is coming back. Like, proper clubbing … 2, Womenswear and menswear are increasingly interchangeable”
“ The BA (Hons) Fashion Design course at the University of Westminster, London is famous for producing both highly individual and creative designers capable of working within all levels of the fashion industry. Fashion designers who have studied at the University of Westminster in London include Claire Barrow, Ashley Williams, Christopher Bailey of Burberry, Michael Herz of Bally, Stuart Vevers of Loewe and Carrie Mundane of Cassette Playa. ”
➢ Graduate Fashion Week 2013: In a class of their own – Update June 9 by Rebecca Gonsalves in The Independent: “Compared with, say, Milan fashion week, dominated by huge household names with little or no young talent emerging in the past 20 years, there is a much more egalitarian spirit in the English capital, reinforced by the excellent reputation of its design schools.”
➢ Choose “View full site” – then in the blue bar atop your mobile page, click the three horizontal lines linking to many blue themed pages with background article
MORE INTERESTING THAN MOST PEOPLE’S FANTASIES — THE SWINGING EIGHTIES 1978-1984
They didn’t call themselves New Romantics, or the Blitz Kids – but other people did.
“I’d find people at the Blitz who were possible only in my imagination. But they were real” — Stephen Jones, hatmaker, 1983. (Illustration courtesy Iain R Webb, 1983)
“The truth about those Blitz club people was more interesting than most people’s fantasies” — Steve Dagger, pop group manager, 1983
PRAISE INDEED!
“See David Johnson’s fabulously detailed website Shapers of the 80s to which I am hugely indebted” – Political historian Dominic Sandbrook, in his book Who Dares Wins, 2019
“The (velvet) goldmine that is Shapers of the 80s” – Verdict of Chris O’Leary, respected author and blogger who analyses Bowie song by song at Pushing Ahead of the Dame
“The rather brilliant Shapers of the 80s website” – Dylan Jones in his Sweet Dreams paperback, 2021
A UNIQUE HISTORY
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❏ Header artwork by Kat Starchild shows Blitz Kids Darla Jane Gilroy, Elise Brazier, Judi Frankland and Steve Strange, with David Bowie at centre in his 1980 video for Ashes to Ashes
VINCENT ON AIR 2026
✱ Deejay legend Robbie Vincent has returned to JazzFM on Sundays 1-3pm… Catch up on Robbie’s JazzFM August Bank Holiday 2020 session thanks to AhhhhhSoul with four hours of “nothing but essential rhythms of soul, jazz and funk”.
TOLD FOR THE FIRST TIME
◆ Who was who in Spandau’s break-out year of 1980? The Invisible Hand of Shapersofthe80s draws a selective timeline for The unprecedented rise and rise of Spandau Ballet –– Turn to our inside page
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UNTOLD BLITZ STORIES
✱ If you thought there was no more to know about the birth of Blitz culture in 1980 then get your hands on a sensational book by an obsessive music fan called David Barrat. It is gripping, original and epic – a spooky tale of coincidence and parallel lives as mind-tingling as a Sherlock Holmes yarn. Titled both New Romantics Who Never Were and The Untold Story of Spandau Ballet! Sample this initial taster here at Shapers of the 80s
CHEWING THE FAT
✱ Jawing at Soho Radio on the 80s clubland revolution (from 32 mins) and on art (@55 mins) is probably the most influential shaper of the 80s, former Wag-club director Chris Sullivan (pictured) with editor of this website David Johnson
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“ High jinks indeed, yet looking around I realised that we as a group had come of age, were taken seriously and that this moment was ours. George Michael danced next to Siobhan of Bananarama overlooking Sade who nodded to the music in front of Suggs and Martin Kemp. Over the way, John Galliano camped it up alongside Leigh Bowery, Judy Blame, Boy George and one of the scene’s most innovative dressers and designers, Stephen Linard, while behind them stood Steve Strange and Princess Julia chatting to Vivienne Westwood… ” / Continued at High Life 
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