Dear Shaded Viewers,
As the warmth of summer settles in, indulge in a spirited journey back to the dazzling days of 1980s London—where fashion defied limits and every night out was a vivid celebration of self-expression and creative rebellion.
Hamish Bowles’ presentation “Striking a Pose: Remembering London’s Fashion and Club Scene in the 1980s” at The Museum at FIT’s 15th fashion symposium serves as a deeply personal and vital archival contribution to the world of fashion history. With his characteristic wit and encyclopedic knowledge, Bowles traversed the pulsating heart of 1980s London nightlife, illuminating how the decade’s club scene became a crucible of creativity and self-expression that shaped modern style.
At the symposium, hosted as part of the “Fashion Underground: The World of Susanne Bartsch” exhibition, Bowles—Vogue’s International Editor at Large—evoked an era when London’s nightclubs like the Blitz, Taboo, and the Café de Paris were not just places to dance, but laboratories for aesthetic innovation. These spaces fostered a riot of color, silhouette, and gender ambiguity, with emerging designers like John Galliano and creative icons such as David Bowie crossing paths on the dance floor. Bowles’ recollections, illustrated with rare images and vivid anecdotes, underscored the importance of these multicultural, polysexual spaces in propelling avant-garde fashion into the mainstream.
Bowles’ editorial perspective is uniquely valuable because he was not only a chronicler, but a participant in this feverish milieu. He detailed how club kids, fashion students, and pop musicians alike became living works of art, fusing music, fashion, and performance in what he aptly called “striking a pose.” The 1980s, as he described, were a moment when personal style could be a declaration of political identity, challenging norms and igniting resistance to Thatcherite conservatism. His praise for the way these creative communities upended traditional fashion hierarchies was palpable, asserting that the distinction between designer and wearer, muse and creator, was routinely blurred and remixed.
Importantly, Bowles addressed how the legacies of 1980s London fashion reverberate today: the democratization of style, the embrace of fluid identities, and the ceaseless hunger for self-invention. He argued that clubland’s “anything goes” ethos lives on in everything from fashion runways to pop culture’s mainstream, making the 1980s a perennial touchstone for both nostalgia and ongoing cultural experimentation.
In sum, Bowles’ presentation was more than nostalgic reflection—it was a call to remember the transformative power of subculture, and to value the fearless self-stylists whose creative risk-taking reshaped fashion and identity for generations to come.
Later,
Diane
