“Club to Catwalk celebrates Eighties London style and its inextricable link to the music scene, everything from the New Romantics’ glammed-up excesses to the smiley-face T-shirts that nudged their way into the Nineties.”

http://www.businessoffashion.com/daily-digest/from-club-to-catwalk-back-to-the-eighties

London’s Victoria & Albert museum launched its latest exhibition Club to Catwalk: London Fashion in the 1980s to press this morning before opening to the public on July 10 2013.

The exhibition highlights the designers and influencers that pushed boundaries and broke the rules to shape 80s fashion and club culture. Looking at the vibrant London club scene from the period and its influence on fashion and young, emerging designers, it charts cult style movements that shaped the era aesthetically, including new romantics, goth, high camp and rave.

More than 90 mannequins dressed in rare designer pieces from the likes of John Galliano, Vivienne Westwood, Wendy Dagworthy and Betty Jackson were on offer, as well as Katherine Hamnett’s rebellious slogan T-shirts, the innovative body-con designs from Body Map, and fetish wear by Pam Hogg.

The infamous London club Blitz was reimagined as part of the exhibition, with multiple television screens showing original videos of 80s club nights offering a window into the decade’s hedonism and ground-breaking exhibitionism. The exhibition is curated by the V&A’s head of fashion, Claire Wilcox, with British designer Wendy Dagworthy serving as the expert consultant.

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Catwalk season is upon us again. Once a beacon of what will be hitting the high streets over the coming months, it seems high fashion is now either incomprehensibly abstract or overly commercial, and – according to some - always the cause of social ills, from racial discrimination to eating disorders. So, in the background of the cacophony of the twenty-first-century fashion industry, it’s refreshing to look back at the 1980s: a bold, outlandish and progressive era, where the lines between fashion, film and music were as fluid as the sexualities of its most iconic figures.Such is the ambition of new exhibition, Club to Catwalk, at London’s V&A. As someone who only existed in the Eighties for about 17 days, my most vivid recollection comes from footage of the era watched years after - all cream suits, big hair and Duran Duran gyrating on yachts. Coming at the exhibition, then, as something of a novice, I was floored by the sheer spectacle of it, but I was left without much context or explanation, no sense of the connection between club and catwalk, as promised by its title.The enigmatic club scene of the decade was fuelled, as it so often is, by its hipsters. Impoverished arts students hired or opened brutally exclusive night clubs like Camden Palace, Blitz or Club for Heroes. Entry criteria seemed to have been based solely on the

effort put in to the construction of these elaborate costumes, displayed on mannequins at the exhibition, alongside footage of them being modelled by icons of the era: Steve Strange, Leigh Bowery, et al.The difficulty is there’s little that explains the connection between the get-ups in the clubs and the trends on the catwalk; the stark division between the former on one floor and the latter on another exacerbates this problem. That having been said, it’s refreshing to be reminded of the glory days of artists like Vivienne Westwood and John Galliano.The multi-media aspects of the exhibition are its greatest assets, with Jeffrey Hinton’s booth of multiple screens showing catwalk footage, music videos and club scenes being especially effective.

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Arts & CultureIt would have been interesting for the exhibition to say more on the political backdrop of the scene. This was being the decade of Katherine Hamnett and the ‘Stay Alive In 85’ campaign. Though it’s given a passing reference, an examination of this era as the dawn of the fashion industry’s social conscience, and the effect this has had, would have been worthwhile.An exploration of where these trends arose from and where they went subsequently is also lacking. Arguably, the energy and dynamism of the era developed out of the rebelliousness of 70s punk, that then ditched the nihilism and developed a passion for fashion and culture. This is left unexplored, as is what happened afterwards: the impact of AIDS on the club scene and homogenisation on the catwalk, for example.In all, Club to Catwalk is a treat for the senses which lacks intellect, context or critical examination. That said, given the bacchic mindlessness of the 80s club scene, it’s possible anything else would have been dishonest.

http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/club_to_catwalk_how_fancy_dress_became_high_fashion/14015#.Us4DR9JdWkM

A new exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum looks at how clubbers' style in the 1980s transferred to the world of fashion. Was it the point at which the underground went mainstream and is there any equivalent today?

For anyone who recalls '80s fashions, a trip to the V&A in London is currently a deeply evocative experience - even if its galleries are rather more bright and airy than the smoky locations where the clothes were seen first time round.

Well-known British designers featured include Katherine Hamnett, Paul Smith, Workers for Freedom and Betty Jackson.

Club to Catwalk has a specific thesis: that 30 years ago the best of British fashion was intimately linked to what was worn in London clubs as the influence of Punk finally waned.

"In the 1980s two big things were happening in London fashion," says Claire Wilcox, head of fashion at the V&A.

Katherine Hamnett was known for her slogan t-shirts

"In 1984 London Fashion Week started up. For the first time designer creations were being shown under the same roof: it put British fashion on the map in a much more professionalised way. And there was increased government support.

"But parallel to that was the emergence of a really exciting underground club culture. There was a huge new energy and someone like the milliner Stephen Jones could make hats for Princess Diana but also for Boy George.

"You had individuals such as Steve Strange and Rusty Egan organising club nights where fashion was at least as important as the music.

"In those days clubs like the Blitz, Club for Heroes in Baker Street and Heaven provided the unofficial side of London fashion. But the creativity on display was incredibly influential."

Half the V&A exhibition concentrates on big designers while the other half identifies the tribes and trends of the era including Goths, New Romantics and rave culture.

Themes emerge such as the new importance of textile design and the familiar loose-shirted silhouette of the early '80s.

Wilcox thinks what was going on derived in part from social and political tensions in the Britain of that decade. Yet only a few items in the show make direct political comments.

"The best known are probably the Katherine Hamnett T-shirts with their political slogans. But it's true that the '80s seemed to value eccentricity as much as activism. I'm not sure we see as much eccentricity these days.

"There was a sort of anarchic hedonism which led to a great fearlessness in young designers. They would go to art school or to their studio in the day and then go out clubbing in the evening, picking up fresh ideas. But there was a natural synergy because the clubs also loved the energy the fashion world provided.

Goths, New Romantic and rave trends are addressed in the exhibit

"Punk had run its course but it was in a way the anarchic godparent to 1980s fashion. It gave permission for individuals to customise and create their own clothing.

"But you also have Vivienne Westwood launching her Pirate Collection in 1981: it was a colourful and exhilarating catwalk show which rejected the nihilism of Punk.

"And there was a lot of humour around - probably more than today. One of my favourites in the exhibition is a Rachel Auburn shirt which was worn with men's Y-fronts and some stockings and a feather boa. Every time I walk past it I smile. But in fact if you look closely at the shirt it's beautifully crafted."

The new show makes clear the link from '80s clubs to the wider world of fashion. So is there any such connection today?

Wilcox calls the '80s the "last analogue decade".

"Things have changed so much," she says. "Pre-internet we learnt about trends by seeing them with our own eyes in clubs or on the street or occasionally on TV. Now it's hugely more likely to come from reading a fashion blog or seeing an image online.

"If you go out onto the streets you will still see fantastically dressed people. But if you want to comment on what you see these days it will be in social media.

"It's a different world - but the creativity of British fashion is as strong as it was 30 years ago."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23259509

Last weekend, the Stylesight Denim team attended the exciting new Club to Catwalk exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. A large part of the show is dedicated to Blitz magazine’s stunning custom trucker collection from their 1986 project with 22 British designers and Levi’s Strauss & Co. Here we take a look at these rarely seen before pieces.

The V&A’s latest show, Club to Catwalk: London Fashion in the 1980s, has caught the London fashion scene by storm since it opened back in July. The exhibition explores the creative explosion of London fashion in the 1980s, looking at how the capital’s vibrant and eclectic club scene influenced a new generation of designers and reinvented fashion worldwide.“The ’80s saw the explosion of the London club scene. Specialist club ‘nights’ offered opportunities for dressing up in the company of a like-minded crowd. Stevie Stewart of BodyMap explained that ‘each group of people, whether they were fashion designers,

musicians or dancers, filmmakers, living together and going out together had a passion for creating something new that was almost infectious’.Early clubs such as Billy’s, Blitz and the Club for Heroes were small and attracted a selective crowd. As the decade progressed, venues such as the Camden Palace and one-off warehouse parties began to attract much larger audiences. Although less intimate, they perpetuated the creative link between music, club and catwalk. This symbiotic relationship remained the defining characteristic of 1980s style.” - From The V&A Club to Catwalk – About the ExhibitionMore than 85 outfits by the decade’s most experimental designers such as John Galliano, punk queen Vivienne Westwood and Katharine Hamnett are on display, presenting a mesmerising mix of iconic styles such as New Romantic, High Camp, Goth, Glam and reinvented-classics.

One section of the exhibition that we were especially excited to see was a series of customised Levi’s truckers. In 1986, Blitz magazine commissioned a group of 22

British designers to customise denim jackets, provided by Levi Strauss & Co, as a way to raise money for the Prince’s Trust, a youth charity. The collection provides a unique snap shot of the most fashionable and creative designers working in London that year like John Galliano, Zandra Rhodes, Vivienne Westwood, Paul Smith, Bodymap, 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 and cutlery. The collection is truly extraordinary, representing fearless design and the exuberance of the time.A note from The V&A: “The V&A now has nine of these jackets in its collection. The Museum is keen to reunite the complete set of jackets for its new summer 2013 exhibition Club to Catwalk: London fashion in the 1980s and wants to hear from anyone who bought one of the other 13 jackets and has them tucked away in a wardrobe, or who knows of their current whereabouts.”

http://blog.stylesight.com/denim/va-club-to-catwalk-design-denim-jackets-from-the-1980s

When our mate Sarah suggested a night out at the V&A at their retrospective of 80s fashion Club To Catwalk my wife and I jumped at the chance, especially when we all agreed to dress up in a New Romantic/80's style-e. How could we turn down a chance to dress up and reminisce about the era that made us who we are today? Most people now remember the 80's as the time when men with "loadsamoney" roamed, dressed in sharp suits and red braces accompanied by Sloany girls all downing gallons of champagne and cheering the Thatcherite dream, but alongside this side of the period there was an amazingly creative expressive side that set the path for the more accepting inclusive society we now live in. For those of us who were part of this group we die a little every time we see another examination of the 80's that focuses on bankers and Sloan rangers, and I really hoped that the V&A avoided this distorted view of the time of my youth.

We all met up in the foyer of the V&A and we all looked amazing. It was obvious to all of the other people milling around that our gang were not only here for the 80's fashion expo but that we had all been there the first time round, and that we were reliving our youths big time. There's nothing like going to a major national museum to see an exhibition of stuff that happened in your life time to make you feel old. Luckily we might be getting on a but but we all still look great, even if I do say so myself. What has struck me recently is the number of young people who are recreating the look of the 80's. Only the day before our visit to the V&A I spotted loads of teenage boys who were dressed to impress and covered in very well applied make up roaming Camden Market. So the Club To Catwalk show is not just for those of us who were there so we can relive past glories, but also for those who want to put a new twist on the period.

After half an hour chatting and laughing about the old days, we downed our drinks and joined the queue for this special exhibition. Before I go all 80's and get catty about the event I feel I must applaud the museum for preserving so many wonderful items of clothing from this era. It shows real foresight that these items are seen as important when compared to the exhibits from the distant past, especially when many of the 80's items were not really made to the level of quality of a hand stitched one off ball gown made for the wealthy landed gentry to glide around a candle lit ballroom. No these were made during the beginning of the throw away society of today, and the 80's really were the start of the era of throw away fashion. The exhibition is also very representative of the various fashion trends and tribal groups of the fast moving period. But, and it is a big but, almost every one of us couldn't keep from commenting that "it wasn't the 80's I remembered".

You see for most young people in the 80's designer fashion was totally out of our reach financially and was considered to be totally uncool anyway. For

most of the 80's all of my friends who really pushed the boundaries of style were out of work, as let's face it in an era of high unemployment any one with weird hair and strange clothes had no chance of getting past the interview process no matter how well qualified, and those who did actually have jobs weren't exactly raking it in. So very few could afford designer gear. Some might have had a key expensive item or two, like a Vivienne Westwood Squiggle shirt, a Body Map top or if we were really lucky a Pam Hogg bike jacket. But most of us made our clothes, or adapted cheaper stuff. I actually studied fashion at college, with the sole aim of being able to make outfits to wear to clubs. My wife gained a City and Guilds in Dressmaking for exactly the same reason. It was this that struck me as missing from a show called Club To Catwalk, where was the club stuff? It was all catwalk designer without any exploration of where the designers "stole" their ideas from... us lot creating an outfit that we knew would only last a night or two.

Another niggle was the gaps in the exhibits. An omission that struck me was no inclusion of anything by Kahn & Bell. These two super star designers of the alternative scene during early part of the period were at the cutting edge of the New Romantic fashion scene, and even designed all the clothes for Duran Duran, before they went all casual in Paul Smith suits. I loved Kahn & Bell, as did many of my mates, and all of my expensive items back then came from their shop in the Great Gear Market on the Kings Road. I suppose it might be because no one has given the V&A any of their designs, but I might change that as I have a suitcase full of their gear that I will NEVER get into again, thanks to the spread of increasing years.

The biggest error however is the Goth section. Whoever put it together has no idea of the scene at all. It looked more like the comedy stuff you would hire at a fancy dress shop than a representation of the dress code of a Goth. In fact anyone who was part of this scene, as I was, will know that it didn't become the Goth scene until the very end of the 80's, and even then the name Goth was considered an insult by those of us who were proud to be called "alternative". The movement came out of a group who loved the dressing up of New Romantic style, the dark imagery of horror and had an ironic sense of humour that we wanted to bring into our clothing and music. Please V&A, this section of this expo needs serious work, although who knows where you'll find it as Goth gear was mostly homemade and wouldn't have lasted this long.

Afterwards as we all enjoyed the atmosphere of the external atrium in the heart of the V&A, which was open as part of the Friday Lates season - something I highly recommend by the way - our reactions were mixed. It divided into those who lived in London and who could afford designer gear and those of us who didn't or couldn't. Some of us felt it mirrored our experience of those heady days and others were less impressed. But we all agreed that it was well worth seeing and it allowed some of us to over dress in a style that we hadn't really done for a while. I know that as my wife and I walked down Exhibition Road in our finery the looks we received from the everyone else took me back to my youth. Luckily the terror of being beaten to a pulp by armies of judging casuals terrified by how boys wearing makeup made them question their sexuality is now a thing of the past, for us oldies at least but there were still plenty of muffled laughter and beaming smiles, especially from the children.

All in all it was a great night out. The exhibition does manage to capture the style and creativity of the era. If you lived through it you'll enjoy wandering down memory lane, even if you do spend most of your time decrying the accuracy of the show rather loudly, and if you are new to the style and fashion of the 80's take what you see with a pinch of salt. The truth is actually much better and so much more creative than Club To Catwalk can capture. For those fashion students who will go to find ideas and seek influences to adapt I would ask you to do some more research. We who were there would hate to see a spate of 80's influenced designs hitting our high streets taken only from the items on display. What I hope it will do is rekindle the joy of being different and original that was at the root of everything those of us who dreaded the idea of being a casual stood for back then. I do hope they don't get the impression that we were all as obsessed with labels and designers as society is today, as this could not be further from the truth. It was actually a time of unbound creativity fueled both by a lack of money and a deep desire to be different, not only from the crowd but from each other, that made the idea of dressing in designer outfits abhorrent to most of us. We pushed our creativity to such crazy levels that many of the designs on show at Club To Catwalk had their roots in our home made stuff knocked up in a crazed hurry with the hope of being finished well enough to be workable for that night and no longer. While most of the designers took those ideas and worked them into items that made their careers, the proof of our creativity ended up in a dustbin the night after they first saw the lights of a night club.

For my wife and I the thing we both took from our visit to the V&A was a rekindled desire to get creative ourselves. The needle work boxes have been dug out, the sewing machine oiled and serviced and time found in our busy schedule to start making our own personal style statements just like we did all those years ago. If everyone who sees this exhibition comes away feeling the same then the future is going to look very different from today, very different and just so AMAZING DARLING!

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