Step into the creative hotbed of 1980s London with a new exhibition at the Fashion + Textile Museum in Bermondsey. Outlaws: Fashion Renegades of 80s London enters a time capsule, journeying back to 1985 when designer and performance artist Leigh Bowery launched the infamous nightclub Taboo.
Although it lasted less than a year, Taboo created an unrivalled creative explosion, gathering the most heterogeneous fashion designers, artists, writers, performers, and filmmakers in one place. The exhibition recreates that extraordinarily short-lived yet wildly influential era.
Original attire, accessories, custom-made pieces borrowed from private collectors, and photography, film, and artwork capture that dynamic period. The show itself-it opens from 4 October 2024 to 9 March 2025. It features the work of over 30 designers, including Bowery himself. The downstairs galleries will plunge you into the raw world of 1980s London: squat culture, street markets, and that Taboo dance floor. Upstairs, the style media, boutique owners, and pop stars gave these boldface designers an international platform.
It’s the first show to survey the full range of creatives associated with Taboo-many forgotten; many died tragically young bring into view one scene that changed British popular culture. Among other highlights are the graphic jacket worn by Boy George, the shower curtain cape worn by Bowery, and a gold suit designed by Stephen Linard. The showcase displays bold designs from those who are not only pushing boundaries but obliterating them.
The highlight of Bowery’s notorious squat, which he shared with Trojan, another artist, has been re-created, complete with Star Trek wallpaper and mirrored walls; it offers a view into the make-do world where subcultures collided. Re-created are the markets that launched many careers. Fashion designers like Pam Hogg, Red or Dead, Rachel Auburn, and BodyMap had their first outlets here, selling everything but mainstream clothes.
These designers were young and working-class, driven by rebellious energy. Encouraged by the earlier punk movement and the over-the-top extravagance of glam rock, they streamed into London in a rush to take advantage of the available squats, council flats, and student grants that let them create, experiment, and thumb their nose at the establishment. Their goal? To destroy the establishment- one outfit at a time. “These designers enjoyed radical creativity without commercial onus, pushing the bounds on gender, fashion, and artistic expression.”.
The club section of this show reinstates the legendary Taboo dance floor. Conceived by performance artist and club kid David Cabaret, it presents outfits worn by icons of the scene: Leigh Bowery, Dave Cabaret, Nicola Bowery, Trojan, and Sue Tilley. Among standouts is an audacious red-and-green-spotted coat designed for dancer Michael Clark by Leigh Bowery and Cabaret’s futuristic Bumps Outfit, a catsuit stuffed with foam that melds sci-fi with op art.
The influence of Taboo stretched as far as the ocean. In 1983, New York club queen Susanne Bartsch fell in love with the scene and brought the designers to New York, creating a sensation with her Roxy Roller Rink fashion show. The exhibition will include ten outfits from that show, including a bold red pleather coat with a fur collar by Elmaz Huseyin and a hand-painted swimsuit paired with a vintage crepe coat.
Upstairs, the show delves into how Taboo’s vanguard impulse seeped into the mainstream with the help of newer style magazines like The Face and I-D and pop stars who adopted these envelope-pushing designs. Among them are ensembles worn by Boy George, a bra top by Judy Blame for Neneh Cherry, and pieces designed by Leigh Bowery for Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
But Taboo wasn’t only about the clothes; it was about breaking the rules of gender and identity. During an era that saw the introduction of Clause 28 and the early days of the AIDS crisis, Taboo’s flamboyant, nonconformist designs countered the status quo.
The exhibition includes pieces of gender fluidity, from tailored jackets styled with men’s Y-fronts to men in skin-tight leggings offset by bomber jackets and Doc Martens, all evidence that Taboo subverted and redefined the domains of masculinity and femininity.
The Remake and Remodel section looks at designers making fashion from salvaged materials. Squat life bred resourcefulness, and designers turned their finds into a new rebellion. The result was an aesthetic far removed from the glossy materialism of the yuppie-driven 1980s. Look out for work by Christopher Nemeth and Judy Blame, including trousers made from commemorative tea towels. The section also incorporates works from The House of Beauty and Culture, an East London boutique that integrated art and fashion with found objects in 1986. The clients included Derek Jarman, Boy George, and also Cerith Wyn-Evans.
While specific designers experienced instant fame after discovering powerful boutiques such as Browns, others from the Taboo scene never gained a wider audience. A new show provides a platform for the forgotten creatives of the time whose progressive, genderqueer designs have left an inimitable mark. Their echoes can be felt today in modern designers such as Charles Jeffrey, Matty Bovan, and Gareth Pugh. As Boy George said, “It was a revolutionary time. It felt like you could change things with a piece of clothing.”
The Fashion and Textile Museum is London’s first contemporary fashion and textile design museum. British fashion icon Dame Zandra Rhodes founded it to focus on this critical cultural moment. Housed in a striking building designed by Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta at the heart of Bermondsey Village, it offers cutting-edge exhibitions, educational programs, and a dynamic space for fashion and textile innovation.
Top Photo: Leigh Bowery and Boy George Courtesy Fashion & Textile Museum © Brendan Beirne | Shutterstock
Outlaws: Fashion Renegades of 80s London runs from 4 October 2024 to 9 March 2025 Fashion + Textile Museum in Bermondsey