Club to Catwalk~

Hello my lovelies,

Two posts in two days! Aren't you lucky! I suppose it's to make up for the fact that I"m going to be in Turkey for two weeks so won't be posting anything. Try not to miss me too much. Today's post is slightly different than normal - it's about an exhibition.

Currently on at the V&A in London is a wonderful exhibition called Club to Catwalk, and today I boarded a train with one of my best friends and went to check it out. The exhibition is a showcase of London fashion in the 1980's, a time when the fashion scene in Britain was changing rapidly and the 'rules of fashion' were being broken. In the 1980s London began to develop a huge club culture (less drunken grinding and more subgroups meeting and dancing and expressing themselves freely in places such as Taboo and Hell and other far more creative names than Revolution). The exhibition highlighted how the explosion of club culture inspired huge changes in fashion, bringing with it Punk, Goth, Fetish and a whole other array of fashion.

The space is divided into sections such as Fetish fashion including some surprisingly wearable looking gold corsets, and some slightly less wearable looking gold leg straps; an array of denim jackets by various designers, including Vivienne Westwood who features heavily in this exhibition, commissioned by the magazine BLITZ; and amid the madness of shoulderpads and bold patterns, some extremely beautiful an elegant evening wear. The exhibition, which is spread across two floors, really captures the vast array of London fashion int he '80s.

As you wander the exhibition, the signs and boards describe how the London fashion students of the day were influenced by the vibrant and diverse nightlife growing in London. Clubbing in the 1980s wasn't about getting smashed and getting with the nearest member of your chosen sex, it was about creative minds (musicians, writers, fashion designers and the like) joining together and being truly free. Forget the crowded clubs we frequent now - clubbing in the 1980s was intimate.

Interspersed among the designs are projections of the catwalk shows from the decade in which the models not only look human, but also look like they're having fun - a far cry from today's catwalk shows. Iconic music from the decade played as you wandered the exhibition, and upstairs is a covered alcove with 20 or so small screens showing true clubbing culture in the 1980s.

My favourite pieces in the exhibition include Vivienne Westwood's elegantly draped togas, a fantastic 1986green hooped dress by Georgina Godley, and the aforementioned denim jackets commissioned by BLITZ - including one that seemed to double as a swiss army knife with forks and wrenches dangling from it.

This blog post cannot do the exhibition justice, so I urge you to go check it our yourself if you can. It's on at the V&A in South Kensington until the 16th February 2014 and tickets only cost £5. It's a thoroughly good way to spend an hour or two if you're at all into fashion, clubbing, and/or the 1980s.

Thanks for reading!