Leigh Bowery and the taboo-busting subculture that shocked 1980s London

From mind-blowing performances to extraordinary costumes, how performance artist and style icon Leigh Bowery and his fellow “outlaws and fashion rebels” created a bizarre creative movement and led a path of chaos. I’ll show you how I cut it open.

1980s: It was the decade of Thatcherism in Britain and Reaganomics in the United States. Generation X has come of age. MTV introduced hot new talent like Madonna and Prince. Amid street protests and strikes, consumerism found an anthem in the film Wall Street’s unforgettable mantra, “Greed is Good.” And Joan Collins’ shoulder pads in Dynasty kept getting bigger and bigger.

Meanwhile, in London, a few flashy young hedonists are stirring up a cultural melting pot. Their creativity and lifestyle were bold and experimental, and they later came to be hailed as fashion pioneers and creative visionaries. But for a few years in the 1980s, they were just having a good time.

holly johnson, singer Frankie goes to HollywoodHe recalls it in the book. outlawthe style he wants for a night clubbing: “Marc Bolan’s androgyny and David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust work were big influences. It’s a very theatrical look, and I think it’s a teen That’s what we wanted as teenagers. We didn’t want to look like everyone else. We wanted to look great. ”

This book is linked to a new exhibition, Outlaw: Leigh Bowery’s 1980s London Fashion Rebelat the Fashion and Textile Museum, London. And Johnson is just one person who brings to mind the styles, sounds and anecdotes of that era. The show chronicles the life and work of performance artist, style icon and fashion designer Leigh Bowery, who arrived in London from Australia in 1980 and became an instant celebrity with her innovative costumes and protean make-up. It became the center of attention in any room. . The exhibition also explores the subculture in which the Bowery grew up, and is filled with “fashion rebels,” including designers. John GallianoPam Hogg, Wayne Hemingway, Stephen Rinard, Body Map, Rachel Auburn.

It’s the scene that late baby boomers (born 1946 to 1964) and some early Generation Information was being collected from reading physical information rather than from social media. magazines etc. faceiD and Blitz (all from the 1980s) and the BBC’s weekly music show Top of the Pops.

The group was known as the Blitz Kids (after the club run by Steve Strange and Rusty Egan at Covent Garden’s Blitz Wine Bar) or the New Romantics (bands such as Duran Duran and Spandau Ballet). ) was named. Martin Green, co-curator of the Outlaws, told the BBC that Martin Green, co-curator of the Outlaws, found an outlet for his creativity in the realms of fashion, art and music, and, importantly, in London. He said he discovered the “anarchic energy” of the club scene. “Every time we went out, everyone wore new clothes, either made or bought at Kensington Market.” It was “an incredible creative force, very exciting, very progressive.” It was a time when the power of “self-centeredness” was pervasive.

“What was really important was the physical experience,” says Green co-curator NJ Stevenson. “When I came to London, I had an instinctive desire to reinvent myself and make my own fortune.”

Hemingway – who recently co-founded a vintage business. Charity Super.Mkt – believes that the 1980s were “hugely influential” because “youth culture was documented in great detail by mainstream media for the first time.” He and his future wife Geraldine sold their own clothes at Camden Market. This venture became the global fashion brand Red or Dead.

Going to clubs and posing were their main pastimes, Hemingway fondly recalls. “Walking into the club was like a fashion parade. We spent a lot of time getting dressed, looking in the mirror, and getting dressed. Much more than my kids did. “I spent a lot of time,” he added. “I can see the charm of those days.” [for today’s youth]. At the time, we were searching for and selling 1940s clothing. So for today’s young people, the 80’s are completely exotic. ”

But the biggest and boldest stars on the scene are Bowery. he”modern art of feet“His friend Boy George said, and his unique personality provided.” rich material – He posed for many people artists and photographersinclude Lucian FreudAnd he once became a living installation in the window of the Anthony d’Ofay Gallery. The dancer’s collaboration with choreographer Michael Clark resulted in some memorable looks, including the bottomless Bowery leotard worn by Clark. On stage at Sadler’s Wellsperformed live by dissonant post-punk band The Fall.

Bowery’s performances drew both admiration and loathing, and his determination to shock was unwavering. The infamous “birthing” act, which took place in 1990 at nightclubs such as the Kinky Garlinky, involved naked women strapped to their bodies on stage and using fake blood and blood to give birth to their own “babies”. I pretended to do it. Sausage string representing the umbilical cord. He married co-star Nicola Bateman seven months before his death from AIDS in 1994 at the age of 33. This performance later inspired Rick Owens’ work. “Human Backpack” Show In 2016, the designer walked the catwalk with models strapped to other models as they walked in some looks.

Shortly after Bowery’s death, John Richardson wrote about him in the New Yorker. “Disturbing” aspects. “Thanks to his twisted imagination and resourcefulness, he was able to rise above contemporary nonsense and establish himself as a subversive artist. A painstaking and meticulous craftsman. ” and the Bowery’s vivid legacy. felt like fashion Since then, and Rupaul’s Drag Race Queen. A second exhibition dedicated to him will be held at Tate Modern in London In February, it covered his “influence on figures such as Alexander McQueen, Jeffrey Gibson, Anohni and Lady Gaga.” McQueen’s red lace dress and matching full head mask, Worn by Gaga in 2009is the proof.

The Bowery was a central figure tabooa London nightclub that opened in 1985, had an ethos where nothing was taboo and “dress like your life depends on it or you don’t care.” Taboo’s doorman famously held out a mirror to unsuitable clubbers trying to enter and asked witheringly: “Can you let me in?”. It was “unexpected, shameless and unforgettable,” Green says. Taboo, which attracted pop stars and the fashion set, was known for “.Rebellion against sexual conventions“Dylan Jones, Taboo regular and author of “Sweet Dreams: The Story of the New Romantics” writes: “Bowley,” Jones told the BBC, “at one time created a third gender: polysexuality.” You could call him a very strange, transformative, rebellious personality.”

David Holler and Stevie Stewart, the duo behind the 80s label body map“Weekly” went to Taboo. Their sporty clothes, made of Lycra and sweatshirt fabric, were “all about the silhouette and were made to suit every body type,” Stewart told the BBC. Her debut catwalk show in 1984 featured models “big, old, children…diversity was key.”

“People were wearing designer clothes, like Vivienne Westwood, for example, from charity buys or from Topshop. It was homemade and mixed,” says Holler, who now teaches printmaking. But Stewart still makes clothes and works as a stylist. Kylie Minogue etc. During BodyMap’s existence, the brand, like all brands, wanted to push the boundaries of fashion. Sociopolitical background – miners strikeenvironmental issues, protests, 1960s psychedelics: “Everything became part of the work.”

The location and time of this exploration 80s: British photography, It will be held at Tate Britain in London from November. Ingrid Pollard, Franklin Rogers and Wolfgang Tillmans are just three photographers who “used the camera to respond to social and political upheavals” in Britain in the 1980s, including the AIDS pandemic. Article 28 – A 1988 law that banned the so-called “promotion” of homosexuality in British schools and libraries.

Looking back on the 1980s, Green says: “There’s definitely a connection between that queer culture and gender mixing and gender exploration that was happening then and is happening again now.”

Hemingway argues that subcultures no longer have the opportunity to develop as they did in the 1980s. “We were a small set, only a few hundred people going to clubs, so a movement like that could stay underground. Now that we have the internet and social media, trends can quickly become It’s going to be mainstream. There’s nothing wild about it.” Within 48 hours, it’s going to be wild – everywhere. ”The current lack of nightclubs is part of the problem, he added. “What’s the point of dressing up like us when you have nowhere to go?”

“Fashion today is probably not as visually exciting as it was in the 1980s, but it is exciting in terms of social change and values,” he says. I don’t buy new clothes; at the end of the day, fashion is about you, how you feel, and what makes you happy. That hasn’t changed. ”