From Club to Catwalk: 80s Fashion
edited by Sonnet Stanfill
V&A Publishing, 112 pages, 2013
There’s nowhere I’d rather be right now than London. Sure, the weather’s been crap (but isn’t it everywhere?), but I wouldn’t care. I’d be roaming the galleries of the Victoria and Albert Museum.
I am not, however, going to be in London any time soon. There will be no Victoria and Albert Museum for me, which means no chance to catch the current exhibition, From Club to Catwalk. So the show’s catalogue is going to have to do.
The full-colour book features the expected (well-lit photographs of some of the clothes in the exhibition, displayed on headless mannequins) as well as and the more unexpected (ephemera like magazines ads and party invitations, a Princess Di snapshot on a page facing a poster for Hyper-Hyper). The eclectic choices reflect the point editor Sonnet Stanfill and her team of essayists try to get across throughout: fashion of the 1980s needn’t be dismissed as all garish and obnoxious shoulder pads. A decade of political conservatism begat creative prowess and fashion flourished — particularly in London, where the worlds of independent magazines, music and nightclubs met those of design.
Visually, the mix works, and the essays give readers insight into the personal experiences of designers Paul Smith and Wendy Dagworthy, whom each wrote first-person designer statements that serve as bookends. In between, Shaun Cole writes on the relationship between fashion and the scene in his piece, New Styles, New Sounds: Clubbing, Music and Fashion in 1980s London; Sonnet Stanfill recalls the state of the fashion business in London Calling: Designer Fashion in 1980s London; and rounding out the bunch is Irony and Mythology: The Fashion Magazine Reconsidered by Abraham Thomas.
Not surprisingly, it’s Thomas’s essay, with its focus on the early days of The Face and i-D magazines of which I’m most fond. He discusses the advent of the stylist and the innovative ways each magazine chose to present fashion. He lauds The Face’s visionary graphic designer Neville Brody, and rightfully so. And perhaps most importantly, he draws a clear picture of the connection between the editors and writers, and the designers, photographers, artists, clubgoers, and musicians. Serendipity was a ruling force and a spirit of experimentation vital. It’s hard not to wish you were there.
But like many collections of essays, there’s a certain unevenness in Club to Catwalk’s flow as a stand-alone book, rather than as an enhancement for those who have been fortunate enough to have seen the exhibition. There’s a name-dropping density in parts that comes off as though the writers were ever-so-careful not to forget anyone that at times it reads like a hurried list with no real context or charm.
But the piece by Wendy Dagworthy documenting her personal experiences in the fray of 1980s London fashion, the aforementioned essay by Abraham Thomas, and the cleverly curated images more than make up for any pacing issues.
Now only if I could find the time to get to London before the show closes.
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From Club to Catwalk runs through February 16, 2014 at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. For more information on the exhibition click here.
