A yellow all-in-one jumpsuit, conical spikes protruding out of all angles. A black beret adorned with buttons, chains and keys. Gold leather trousers with an adjoining bag rhino-horning upwards from the crotch.
If you were a London club kid in the ’80s, it didn’t matter how impractically you dressed: if something was fabulous, you would wear it. This new exhibition from the Fashion and Textile Museum captures that lust for dressing up via an extensive collection of clothes, jewellery, photographs, magazines and memorabilia which came out of a specific corner of the city at a revolutionary time for fashion. The whole thing revolves around Leigh Bowery, the eccentric performance artist and designer, who arrived in London via Australia at the turn of the decade, and whose squat bedroom – complete with Star Trek wallpaper – we’re welcomed into at first instance. Here, we’re introduced to Bowery’s designs: his bold silhouettes, textural embellishments and playful motifs crop up throughout (be sure to look for the fantastic Kirby grip detailing, using rows and rows of hair clips to create a Chanel-adjacent, DIY tassel effect).
You’ll wonder how our wardrobes all got so homogenised and boring.
‘Taboo had a reputation as the wildest club in town’, a newsreader’s voice reads over a pixelated dance floor clip. Taboo, the short-lived nightclub on a corner of Leicester Square, swiftly became a home for Leigh and other noted creatives – like Boy George, John Galliano and Pam Hogg...
