Culture – club to catwalk

This weekend The Gentleman rather fancied a culture hit. And so he took himself off to the V&A to check out their new exhibition: Club to Catwalk. This show examines the fashion trends of the 1980s and their cultural repercussions – from the performance artist Leigh Bowery and pop stars like Adam Ant and Boy George to more wide-ranging movements like goth, punk and new romantic.

There is a wide-range of clothes on show here, all of which demonstrate the creative energy of the 1980s. Much of this energy, it seems, came from the club scene. These were the days when young men risked being bullied, beaten up and worse to make pilgrimages to their temples of pleasure, clad in rubber fetish gear and safety pins. Vivienne Westwood had a shop called Sex and the young John Galliano was seeing people populating the club scene that he thought could only exist in his imagination.

The clothes here are outifts as a statement – be it political, social or sexual. Katherine Hamnett’s slogan t-shirts promoted anti-war and Green politics. Jasper Conran’s black dresses looked as wonderful on Diana, Princess of Wales, as they did on experimental supermodels. Pam Hogg’s leather and buckles brought s&m fashion into the mainstrain.

And they knew that they were breaking boundaries. The footage of the catwalks is among the most exciting of the exhibition: it shows models literally dancing with joy as they parade down the catwalk in wildly improbable, utterly bonkers, completely wonderful ensembles.

This is a lively and informative show, throwing a spotlight on a decade which is often ridiculed, and showing that, actually, important statements were being made and important changes in society were being implemented. It made us feel nostalgic for the days when going to a club was a political statement rather than just an excuse to get drunk and dance. And, most of all, it cheered us up. And that is what fashion is all about.

Club to Catwalk is on at the V&A until 16th February 2014. For more information visit vam.ac.uk

A suit from John Galliano’s ‘Fallen Angel’ collection, S/S 1986

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