Tag Archives: Corinne Drewery

At his TFV PV: a colourful Linard with some of his early illustrations inspired by Tom of Finland. (Photo © Shapersofthe80s)

❚ NORMAN ROAD in St Leonard’s on Sea hosted more than its usual share of Eighties art fans this weekend. At Lucy Bell’s a book signing by Bowie’s travelling companion and photographer Geoff MacCormack drew fans seeking a signature on his latest title. Only yards away the newish Rogue Gallery was hosting Total Fashion Victim, an archive exhibition of one-time Blitz Kid Stephen Linard’s earliest fashion illustrations while a student from 1978 onward. As his tutor at St Martin’s Rosetta Brooks declared, he was a leader among the small pack of London fashionistas noted for their poser talents. “Each poser,” she believed, “is a ready-made,” exactly as defined by Marcel Duchamp in New York around 1914 when modernism was being born. (His own most famous ready-mades included Bicycle Wheel, Bottle Rack and the urinal titled Fountain.)

Partying with Linard – Click any pic to launch slideshow:

At the PV: Helen Robinson, designer for the mould-breaking Blitz Kid ready-to-wear shop PX, and Eve Ferret, Blitz Club cabaret star

At the PV: St Martin’s colleague Michele Clapton, sporting one of her designs for TV’s Game of Thrones. (All photos by Shapersofthe80s)

At the PV: Princess Julia with Val Byers and Rose Hibbert, old friends from Southend School of Art

Corinne Drewery flaunting her flapper dress with faded ikat rose print acquired from Linard in 1983

Our host: Ray Gange among the vintage Linards – at far right, 1983’s influencers model his Angels With Dirty Faces

Here we can judge for ourselves from more than 40 pieces of artwork on sale for the next month, and enjoyed by a considerable crowd at the private view. Among them one of Linard’s designer contemporaries at St Martin’s School of Art was Corinne Drewery, later to become a pop singer with Swing Out Sister, here eye-catching in one of his flapper dresses in ikat with faded rose print which she used to wear circa 1983, “and it still fits”!!!

Linard’s previously unseen work – Click any pic to launch slideshow:

TFV archive: glitzy male mannequin before a 1979 Tango Tea Dress and a punky lace Wedding Dress

TFV archive: 1980’s Neon Gothic collection – “a stylish collision of Space 1999 meets liturgical Gothic”. (Gallery photos © Shapersofthe80s)

TFV archive: 1980’s Summer in the City drawings for a futuristic project in linen

TFV archive: memorabilia around 1981’s Reluctant Emigrés with a runway shot in the foreground

TFV archive: Linard’s degree collection Reluctant Emigrés featured classically tailored menswear with eccentric twists

TFV archive: magazine coverage which established Linard’s growing reputation

➢ Total Fashion Victim exhibition hosted by Ray Gange at the Rogue Gallery, 65 Norman Road, St Leonard’s On Sea

➢ Previously at Shapersofthe80s: 2023, My guide to the Linard exhibition which runs until 8 October at the Rogue Gallery

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