A new exhibition at the Fashion + Textile Museum in Bermondsey is a must for lovers of fashion and club culture. Outlaws: Fashion Renegades of 80s London centres around legendary nightclub Taboo, masterminded by iconic designer and performance artist Leigh Bowery and launched in 1985. Taboo was frequented by some of the most iconic designers, artists, musicians and tastemakers of the era, at a time that saw the dawn of fashion magazines celebrating street and club culture such as The Face and i-D, the era of Buffalo Stance and the New Romantics, with musicians and bands showcasing unique designs on Top of the Pops. The Fashion+Textile Museum is ahead of the curve with this exhibition, which opens ahead of a major Leigh Bowery retrospective scheduled at Tate Modern in February 2025.
The era predated London Fashion Week or the age of the celebrity stylist, and the ethos was an ad-hoc, DIY approach with artists and designers living in squats and bedsits making their own cutting-edge outfits to parade on the dance floor at Taboo and sell in the nascent Kensington Market, which became a hotbed of fashion talent featuring designs by Pam Hogg, Hyper Hyper, BodyMap and Wayne Hemingway. Examples of this cutting edge design talent include Judy Blame’s designs for Neneh Cherry’s iconic Buffalo Stance music video costume, and outfits worn by some of the most celebrated musicians and bands of the era including Boy George, Mark Moore (of S Express), Dead or Alive, ABC and Bros. Early designs by fashion who went on to become legends of the fashion industry such as John Galliano and Pam Hogg are displayed, along with archive footage from ‘Top of the Pops’ where upcoming singers and bands showcased the new looks, taking them from the dance floor of Taboo to TV screens before infiltrating popular culture. Leigh Bowery’s immediate circle included not only fashion designers but also models, stylists, photographers and dancers, and the groundbreaking choreographer Michael Clark whose dance performances often integrated Bowery’s costumes.
The inner circle of Taboo followed the mantra “dress as though your life depends on it, or don’t bother”, and ultimately these drifters and dreamers turned their hedonism and individuality into a seminal moment of fashion and popular culture.
Designers including BodyMap, Rachel Auburn, John Crancher and Pam Hogg, dancer Michael Clark and pop star Boy George were at the forefront of a scene that translated the language of hedonistic excess into creativity.
Outlaws features garments and accessories from Leigh Bowery and more than thirty designers, including rare custom-made pieces loaned from private collections and early designs by John Galliano, John Flett, Stephen Linard and Dean Bright. Costumes, archive footage, artwork and photography capture the anarchic energy of Taboo which overflowed into popular culture and left an everlasting legacy.
At the heart of the exhibition is a recreation of the market stalls where the designers sold their designs, including Hyper Hyper in Kensington Market and Great Gear Market on the Kings Road. London markets in 1981 were central to subculture and showcased a range of styles from Rockabilly to Goth, Bondage to Skinhead.
Helen David explains in a caption at the exhibition that these markets were created by designers who graduated college to find no job prospects, so they made their own industry: “There was nothing, there were no jobs. There was nothing after college, It was like kind of void. So we just had no choice but to do it ourselves.”
Outlaws is curated by Martin Green, Duovision Arts, and NJ Stevenson. Artistic Director David Cabaret. Creative Consultant James Lawler, Duovision Arts. Martin Green was a regular on the 1980s club circuit and went on to run the legendary nightclub Smashing in the early 90s. Green has compiled 30 albums and has a show on Soho Radio. NJ Stevenson is a fashion curator, author, and lecturer at London College of Fashion.
‘Outlaws: Fashion Renegades of 80s London’ is at the Fashion + Textile Museum from 4th October, 2024 to 9th March, 2025.
