Club to Catwalk - London fashion in the 80's

Club to Catwalk exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington opened on the 10th of  July this year and represents an accurate reflection of the 1980’s avant-garde fashions and trends. Whether you are looking for inspiration, you love the old trends and fashions or you just want to have a relaxing day at the museum, this is the place to go. You will be transported through the eras  by  a succession of original and outrageous outfits, some very much ahead of their time.
During the 1980's  London became the centre of the club scene and youth style, with feisty designers creating amusing and challenging lines for a clientelle unhampered by sartorial convention, and new style magazines The Face, Blitz and i-D blurring the boundaries between club culture, street fashion and designer fashion. The exhibition features these magazines of the time that propagated the club and street wear but also the high-end production, like Vogue.

Just as important in the ‘marketing’ of the new trends were the very popular clubs like Heaven or Taboo, where parodying the everyday life was the norm and where people  had the feeling that ‘there is nothing you can’t do'. A small club-like area on the ground floor shows films footage of clubs from the 1980's and stream music compiled by Jeffrey Hinton. I couldn't get myself to leave the  mini club, I spent about half an hour there just listening to the music- the 80's music has always been at the top of my list- and enjoying the mood the videos projected. The clubs were a place to perform and shine and the clothes, worn by men and women, were extreme and made a statement. Watching the short concomitant videos unfold you will be taken back in time to an era of the new and the eccentric, where all barriers were dropped, making room for the experimental.

The exhibition features the most important names on the 80’s fashion scene in Britain : Galliano, Westwood, McQueen, Paul Smith, Stephen Jones, Patrick Cox - to name a few- and it brings to life an entire decade with  all its staples: glitter, biker jackets, huge slogans, nylon, rubber, lycra stretch.

The ground floor gallery focuses on the young fashion designers who found themselves on the world stage for creating bold, exciting looks. The mezzanine gallery- which I much prefer due to the eccentricity and novelty of the clothes- concentrates on club wear, grouping garments in categories, such as Fetish, Goth, Rave, High Camp and New Romantics. This includes clothes of the type worn by Boy George and Adam Ant, as well as more extreme designs worn by Leigh Bowery. You shouldn't be surprised if you find some outfits quite wearable or less extreme. Most of the fashions found here have, since, entered the main stream fashion trends and have been incorporated into our wardrobes with the help of designers that very often choose the 80's as their inspiration for new collections. But I assure you,  in those days they were as edgy as it could get.

Many of the London collections of the time were textiles-led, and print and knitwear were especially strong. Scott Crolla used ornate floral and multipatterned prints in his foppish menswear, while Vivienne Westwood incorporated graphic designs into her ‘Witches’ collection for Autumn/Winter 1983-84. Timney Fowler and Brian Bolger of The Cloth were creating bold, modern prints for Betty Jackson’s relaxed, stylish clothes, and English Eccentrics established reputation for eclectic, extrovert prints. I especially like Body Map for their comfortable, easy to wear clothes. They were catering for the most adventurous youth market, with ruffled, tubular garments that were made both in monochrome and in lurid coloured knits. Found on the upper level of the exhibition, Body Map stands out due to the novelty of the materials that give the body new dimensions. The label was  among the first to exploit London's thriving clubland culture and design specifically for young people.

Edina Ronay and Marion Foale knitted nostalgic retro-designs and Martin Kidman at Joseph Tricot, created influential ranges, including chunky sweaters featuring cherubs and swags. You can find a colourful selection of knitted sweaters on the ground floor , not far from the entrance. 

While many British designers were drawn to fantasy and escapism, others actively confronted contemporary issues. Katherine Hammett brought world peace and environmental issues into the fashion arena with her Autumn/Winter 83-84 ‘Choose life’ collection, which featured T-shirts emblazoned with slogans such as ‘Stay alive in 85’ or ‘58% Don’t Want Pershing’- a design she famously wore to meet Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher in 1984. I personally think that was a very cheeky thing to do but then again that was what the  80's were all about.

Paul Smith’s menswear designs and Galliano’s ‘Fallen angel’ exhibits are a must see.

John Galliano- 'Fallen Angel' suit

Probably my favourite section in the whole exhibition, the customized Levi Strauss denim jackets on the ground floor have been beautifully put together in 1986 for the Blitz magazine and represent a symbol of the 80’s in themselves. The collection provides a unique snap shot of the most fashionable and creative designers working in London that year, like John Galliano, Zandra Rhodes, Paul Smith, Body Map and Leigh Bowery. Embellishments on the jackets reflect the D.I.Y. attitude of the era with details like LED lights, hip flasks, encrusted gold hairpins, chains. Look out for the cutlery embellished jacket- pots and spoons are probably the last thing that one would have in mind when customising a garment. It must have been a really fascinating event at that time, as even in today's terms the collection is truly extraordinary, representing fearless design and  exuberance.

By far the most exciting piece of this collection - for me - is Vivienne Westwood's  denim  jacket which bears the designer's well known signature logo –the orb, inspired by the Crown Jewells ( see back view above and front view below). Also on display at V&A you can find samples from her previous collections like ‘Buffalo’ and ‘Mini Crini’, which went to define her as a strong and talented designer.

Although I find some of Vivienne Westwoods designs very daring and edgy  to suit my taste, I generally admire her work,  perseverance and continuity in the world of fashion. She started small with a shop  that she ran with her partner and she worked her way up to  what she has become now- a great brand known world wide and an invaluable source of inspiration for  aspiring designers.

In 1981 Vivienne Westwood and her partner, Malcolm McLaren renamed their shop ‘World’s End’ and in the same year Westwood showed her first, highly influential collection, ‘’Pirate’’, consisting of asymmetrical T-shirts, pirate shirts, breeches and baggy, flat-heeled boots.

It was shown at Olympia in spring 1981, to a blast of cannon fire and rap music by McLaren. The clothes evoke the golden age of piracy, an age of highwaymen, dandies and buccaneers. The collection immediately entered the mainstream. This attracted fashion buyers as well as sub-cultural fans and fuelled the New Romantic identity of pop stars like Adam Ant, David Bowie and Boy George. 

Westwood’s ‘Buffalo’ collection for Autumn/Winter 1982-83 featured large satin bras worn over sweatshirts- an early example of the trend for underwear as outwear which would have a huge impact on international fashion. In 1982 Westwood and McLaren opened a second shop, ‘Nostalgia of Mud’, whose closure the following year coincided with the end of their collaboration. Buffalo Girls (Autumn–Winter 1982–83) was inspired by Peruvian women in bowler hats and full skirts as seen by her in National geographic magazine. You can actually see in these two collections the incipient forms of the unconventional, body-shape changing garments that are now staples of Vivienne Westwood's designs.

Westwood's other theme titles in the early years included Savage (1982) and Clint Eastwood, (Autumn–Winter 1984–85) under the Worlds Ends label; she stopped producing the line in 1985 to concentrate on her Vivienne Westwood lines. Vivienne Westwood says “Sometimes you need to transport your idea to an empty landscape and then populate it with fantastic looking people.”

And so she did and Mini Crini was born in 1985 with more feminine, curvaceous lines. The mini crinoline was inspired by the “Petrushka ballet”, a story of a traditional Russian puppet called Petrushka. It is a very girly collection  with lots of  trimmings and accessories : lace, ribbons, satin gloves, strings of pearls and compared to Vivienne's previous collections, a much more wearable one.

You can admire invaluable pieces from the above mentioned collections, alongside amazing accessories and footage shots in the exhibition for as little as £5 until February 2014, when Club to Catwalk: London Fashion in the 1980's will be shown in gallery 40, the V&A’s fashion gallery.