WITV drama Joan is on our screens, bubble skirts are back on the catwalks and the '80s are making a comeback. Exhibition at the Fashion Museum in London, Outlaw: 80s London fashion rebeltakes a different perspective by digging deep into this decade's explosion of creativity on the dance floor.
Although it lasted only a year, it marked a milestone in the careers of the club's founders, including singer Boy George, designers John Galliano and Katharine Hamnett, choreographer Michael Clarke, and performance artist Leigh Bowery. It focuses on Taboo, a London club that became important. In 1985.
The exhibition charts the group's rise from bedsits (the first room is covered in Star Trek wallpaper from Bowery's apartment) to national television. The upstairs section focuses on costumes created to be worn on Top of the Pops by artists such as Culture Club, Dead or Alive, NeNe Cherry, and the Brothers.
Bowery was a performance artist who gained fame for his outlandish costumes worn at Taboo and other clubs. He was painted by Lucian Freud, starred in an episode of The Clothes Show in 1986, and appeared in the window of the Anthony d'Fay Gallery every day for a week in 1988. His presence is large in the exhibition, and he is the center of attention. An exhibition of his work is scheduled for February at Tate Modern, attracting wider cultural interest. Many never-before-seen designs are on display here, including a corset dress that Bowery made for her friend Sue Tilly.
NJ Stevenson, co-curator of the exhibition, insists that his interest in the Bowery was due to his desire for extremes. “In club culture, looks are everything,” she says. “No one pushed the boundaries more than Lee. There were many others who did the same thing, but he was wild and competitive and always wanted to be better than himself. I meant let's do it.”
She emphasizes that the exhibition extends beyond the Bowery to a broader scene. A Peter Doig-owned painting of housemate Trojan, a “dance floor” of mannequins dressed as various characters commonly seen at Taboo, including designer Pam Hogg, and a photo room of clubs such as Taboo, Limelight and Shum. There is.
Stevenson co-curated the exhibition with DJ Martin Green and nightclub personality David Cabaret. She was inspired by her own relationship with nightclubs. “My generation was the one that sat home watching 'Top of the Pops' on Thursday nights,” she says. “At the time, there wasn’t a lot of access for young kids living in rural areas.”
She said the growth of youth television shows such as “The Word'' and “The Closing Show'' influenced what was happening in clubs and made it more mainstream. “Caryn Franklin [The Clothes Show presenter] I used to go to Taboo. She used it as an extension of her job, going there from her office to see what people were wearing…Clubs were really people's social media back then. They met every night to find out what was going on. ”
Even in the age of social media, Stevenson sees similarities between the creator generation of the '80s and today's creators. “This is really a story about art schools in London, where I think they're going through a bit of a renaissance right now with people finding places to exhibit their work and forming little clubs,” she says. . “There's not much money around. If you're not fortunate, you have to find another way, and that's exactly what they did in the '80s.”
