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Outlaws: Fashion Renegades of 80s London

Start Date 04 October 2024
End Date 09 March 2025
Venue Fashion and Textile Museum
Location London, UK
Curator Martin Green, Duovision Arts, and NJ Stevenson
A collection of 80's style costumes, with big shoulder padded blazers and full length dresses. Colours include purple, red, green, and red.
Collection of female outfits, including a union jack dress, white floor length coat, and a red outfit.
A group of male and female mannequins wearing club inspired outfits, in bright hues of blue, red, yellow, green, orange and silver.

Outlaws: Fashion Renegades of 80s London exhibition centres around the legendary nightclub Taboo, opened by designer and performance artist Leigh Bowery in 1985.

Imposing ‘dress as though your life depends on it, or don’t bother’ as the dress code, the Taboo circle, which included fashion designers BodyMap, dancer Michael Clark and pop star Boy George, sparked a scene that used the language of hedonistic excess to create fashion, art and popular culture.

Displaying original garments and accessories from Leigh Bowery and over thirty designers, including custom-made pieces from private collections, plus photography, film and artworks, the exhibition focuses on this vibrant alternative arena where the anarchic energy of the night spilt over into experimental creativity by day.

About the curators
The exhibition is curated by Martin Green, Duovision Arts, and NJ Stevenson. Artistic Director David Cabaret. Creative Consultant James Lawler, Duovision Arts.

Martin Green and James Lawler are together Duovision Arts and have curated over 40 exhibitions including solo shows by Jarvis Cocker, Marc Almond, Holly Johnson, Sheila Rock, Pam Hogg and Andrew Logan. Martin Green was a regular on the 1980s club circuit and went on to run the legendary nightclub Smashing in the early 90s. Green has compiled 30 albums and has a show on Soho Radio. He has co-ordinated fashion show music for Katherine Hamnett, Pringle and Pucci and has DJ’d at events for Pulp, Prada and Paul McCartney.

Images courtesy of Fashion and Textile Museum.