On Wednesday, an exhibition opens at the V&A titled Club To Catwalk: London Fashion In the 1980s.

It’s taking the space previously occupied by the Ballgowns show, in the centre of the fashion room, split over two levels.

Lower level is catwalk.

Upper level is club.

Both levels are amazing.

The exhibition is crucial for many reasons. Not only is its subject matter right for reappraisal and celebration, it’s also the first fashion show at the V&A for some while to deal with subversion and subcultures.

Ballgowns was aristocracy, and a very unreal idea of dressing. Bowie is all about celebrity, image and performance.

eThis show is about something much more personal.

It’s curated by Claire Wilcox, senior fashion curator at the V&A. The show’s almost installed, and yesterday she walked me round. There were still much to do – cabinets to arrange, lighting to sort out, wigs to put on – amazing to see a show during its installation.

I’ve tried to annotate the following the best I can, to make it clear what we’re talking about. Originally I wasn’t meant to take any photos, but the day before Gary Kemp had been in and tweeted a couple of pics, so they let me take a few. Like this one of a John Galliano outfit, other outfits in its reflection (the squiggly waistcoat is by Workers For Freedom).

We start at the beginning, with an inflatable jacket by Michiko Koshino.

CLAIRE WILCOX: This is where people go in and go out again, and we just wanted to hit them with Michiko [Koshino]. She was, well is, is such an amazing designers, and her shops were styled like clubs, with turntables and DJs. and it’s styled with Westwood shorts and trainers, that notion of playfulness and fun and sportswear. and amazingly we found a skateboard with a borrowed image from the cover of i-D

ME: Amazing! Who was the skateboard by?

Oh, it was just in somebody’s garage. it’s a genuine thing that’s been lurking. It’s a friend of Wendy Dagworthy’s son.

Right.

We’ve got a lot of things in that way. it’s been a lot of word of mouth. has anybody got, you know, Hard Times jeans. We’ve had a lot of real interest. a lot of people coming up with things. I mean, Will Brown [then known as Willie Brown – we talk about him in a few mins], he picked up a dress of his in the market, and sent it straight to us.

Things like Michiko, that’s not in your archive already.

She lent the inflatable jacket. I think it needs a bit of air… We’ve got somebody who’s only job is to blow up the jacket. We’ve borrowed things throughout the exhibition. The i-D magazines were in our departmental archive. The shorts and trainers were in our permanent collection. We’ve sort of put things together to show the eclecticism of the decade, and also to make each look and each case have various messages, in this case about sportswear, about these new kind of shops that were opening in Covent Garden, the relationship between club and catwalk, that creative dynamic mix.

[We move onto the next display, featuring the work of a designer new to me – Chrissie Walsh]

We wanted to introduce some designers who were less well known. Because the thing about the decades is there were loads of really successful designers who went on to do other things. So in the case of Chrissie Walsh, she started making constructivist garments, slightly similar to Willie Brown’s aesthetic but then she went on to create a swimwear company called Wet, and was enormously successful in the later 80s with lycra and elasticated fabrics, that new notion of stretch. You can see she was already constructing and piecing clothes together. It was a very natural move into that.

[I point to one outfit that looks like it’s for a man]

That’s a men’s garment right?

It’s all women’s. But actually that brings me onto androgyny. It seems to me that the 80s was the decade that was exhilaratingly free in terms of who wears what. We’ve got several dresses worn by men here, that whole notion of men being allowed to dress up, which was really driven by the club scene. But on the other hand you’ve got the feminisation of menswera through the work of Ray Petri [the stylist behind the Buffalo look], and then that idea of men wearing jewellery. It’s quite exciting actually

It’s interesting because I’ve just come from the menswear shows and our idea of men’s and women’s today is very separatist

Yes absolutely. It seems as if there was a great moment of freedom in the 80s. That’s what’s so exciting about it. And also the designers here are unique. Every look is quite different.

[We walk to the next display cabinet, which is full of very “power” fashion – big shouldered suits, statement silhouettes, but worn and decorated with some flamboyancy]

We’ve really enjoyed putting a Sue Timney scarf with a kilt pin which was a big look in then 80s with a Paul Smith suit with plimsolls, which actually he gave us to go with the suit. And next to it is a John Richmond jacket with crucifixes and a skull shirt. And then Wendy Dagworthy, a catwalk designer [now Professor Wendy Dagworthy, Dean of School of the fashion courses at the Royal College] but her jumpers were worn by Boy George. Not that particular one, but that style. [The mannequin has in its hand a rolled up copy of The Face] In terms of The Face, i-D and Blitz magazines, we’re trying to treat it with quite a light touch. We’re having them with The Face in the hand, rather than have a case full of magazines. That’s not what the show is about. The show’s about putting things together, creating looks.

And also there was a displays of The Face and i-D at the V&A’s Postmodernism show a couple of years ago – it’s been done.

That’s right. We’ve got a Filofax – Paul Smith was really important in making them famous then.

[We move on to the next cabinet, which features the work of Willie Brown, someone who’s name I’ve not been able to place. There are three garments on display – one a very 2D dress, one utilitarian, one a dress patterned like the London Underground. The label says he used to sell his work at a shop called Modern Classics]

The fantastic Will Brown. I went to see him in Norfolk a few weeks ago, and he’s still making amazingly constructed and carefully pieced classics really. And they’re absolutely so particular and so universal. And this is the dress [the one that’s a bit like the Underground] that he found at the street market, we’d already chosen the three pieces, and this came in late and we absolutely had to have it. [Claire looks at the dress] It needs a steam actually.

Where did he find it?

He found it in a street market. Recognised it immediately.

Willy Brown’s new to me because I think I always get confused with Willi Smith’s Williwear from NYC. Which is a very separate thing.

There’s a Will Brown outfit in the Bowie exhibition.

Yeah I remember – I was confused by that piece too, thinking, is that Williwear?

When Will Brown had his shop in Rivington Street, then as now there wasn’t a shop window, there was just a chained curtain, you chose something and they made it up for you. Still the same with Will now. You go there and you choose the style the size and the colour, and he makes it up for you. Takes about six weeks.

What, is he Old Town? 

[Old Town are amazing makers of utilitarian clothing based in Norfolk, who also have a few pieces in Labour & Wait – you can see his wares by clicking here]

Yes. He was upstairs in the workshop when I visited and it’s just amazing. You have the same experience that people had in the 80s. I know Modern Classics wasn’t open very long, but it was that whole idea that you found it. It’s kind of beautifully anti-commercial.

The middle garment is kind of utilitarian, like what he’s doing at the moment.

We haven’t accessorised them, we them them plain. I liked them really clean and simple because that’s how it is. He studies carefully. He is a considered designer. And I just want people to know about him and Chrissie and all the others.

[We walk to the next display] Joe Casely-Hayford, a wonderful designer. The trousers flap open to show the lining, and the shirt, you can flip the apron either to the back or the front [On the mannequin, the apron is to the front] 

That bit can go under.

Yeah the bit at the front can go under and hang down.

It’s what I find so interesting about the young designers in London today. So often the dialogue is about, will they be able to make their businesses work, will they be able to have longevity, which obviously is important. But also what they’re doing at the moment is in itself important, and should be archived and cared for, regardless of if they have future success.

Absolutely. And then this case is about the traditional subversion of menswear. We have two womenswear designers who were using the language of menswear, from suiting fabric, that’s Sheila Brown and Margaret Howell. [We shuffle along] Then we have a Workers For Freedom waistcoat paired with Red Or Dead watch shoes. And in a way the watch shoes and the Filofax are our gesture to the yuppie, time-watching, meetings… But at the same time you have this delicate flamboyancy in the waistcoat. When we originally dressed it, we had the jacket on, but we took the jacket off, because it was all about the waistcoat. When it was being worn, it would be glimpsed, but here we wanted people to see it, it’s so great to have appliqué on top of the pinstripe.

This is Iain R Webb [fashion editor and now a consultant to the Fashion Museum in Bath]’s Jasper Conran black leather jacket, which we had to literally rip off his back. It’s styled with  Workers For Freedom trousers, John Moore shoes [John Moore made extraordinary shoes in the 1980s, part of a collective called The House Of Beauty And Culture], the Walkman, a Fashion Cares AIDS T-shirt and a Bernstock Spiers cap. Everything about this outfit speaks about the 80s: snakehip trousers, broad shoulders, the shadow of AIDS. If you think about Westwood and McLaren’s Pirate show of 81, it was the first show to feature Walkmans, all the models had enormous great headphones. That idea of music, music piracy was very prevalent.

And it’s also lovely to see John Moore’s shoes

Oh, we put out a big call. I love these Mary Janes [the Mary Janes have cut-aways on the top, and have that crucial John Moore balance of fanciness and heft]. I just think they’re great.

The thing with John Moore is that if you didn’t know about him, you’d just see some beautifully executed shoes

We’ve got someone doing a blog about the House of Beauty and Culture on our website, that’s another way for us to further information about these collectives, which we can’t do in the exhibition because we don’t want to have too much text. House of Beauty and Culture are very important, that idea of craftsmanship. They had a show at the Crafts Council in 87, which is interesting.

And they were based in Dalston when no-one would ever go there.

Absolutely. And then we have a Georgina Von Etzdorf dressing gown with a John Richmond “torso” shirt [the shirt has a lifesize drawn print of a male nude on it]. We styled it like that with her permission. She said she’d have never thought of that, but she loves it. It’s just the idea of this kind of slightly 30s inspired loungewear being worn on the streets. She said that her dressing gowns were bought en masse by bankers as presents for their guys, and they were just wearing them out. The same for Sue Timney [a Sue Timney dressing gown sits alongside it]. Velvet dressing gowns being worn outside.

It’s interesting that there’s an idea of wealth catwalk in the exhibition, not just club stuff.

Within the clubs there were tribes, but also there were tribes within the catwalk scene and the ready-to-wear scene. All we can do here is try to suggest the kaleidoscopic complexity of it, and the excitement and the creativity, and think about the crossovers. For example Stephen Jones was making hats for Princess Diana, as well as his club friends. And Anthony Price was making clothes for Jerry Hall, and was also a great clubber. John Galliano was a great clubber. I love the idea of these designers travelling through London from college to club to boutique the whole time. And the emergence of markets like Hyper Hyper [an indoors market, set up opposite Kensington Market] provided opportunities for penniless designers to open a little stall, and start selling.

If only that were around now. 

[we move on, to the case that houses the Levi’s denim jackets customised by different designers and auctioned off by Blitz magazine at the V&A]

This is a great case. This is our collection, and it was the exhibition in 86 was held here, and the auction we bought one, then Carey Labovitch [one of the two founders of Blitz] donated the rest with the original drawings, photographs and AV footage. And then subsequently we acquired this one from Michael Costiff, this one’s a Zandra Rhodes lone. So the story goes on.

I think Stephen Linnard’s is just amazing [it’s covered with bits of cutlery and metal stuff], and it’s interesting because his father manufactured leather handbags and helped him with this. But it’s a real tinkers jacket, everything you’d need. Before it went on display it had sort of dulled down, but we had our conservation team work on it and it’s, that notion of metal against fabric, and that idea that clothing is so dynamic. [Alongside it is the denim jacket by Leigh Bowery, which is covered in hundreds of hair grips] We got it out of the drawer and all the hair grips were all mad.

(picture from Victoria & Albert Museum, London)

And that’s the actual one, it’s not a recreation.

We’ve got all originals. There’s one recreation in the entire exhibition. And that’s because it’s made of latex.

[Alongside the cabinet, footage is projected onto the wall of the auction gala at the V&A, at which each of the outfits was paraded on a stage. It’s amazing footage, showing the joyously shoddy production values of the 80s – Patsy Kensit stumbling around and laughing, not sure what she’s meant to be doing on stage; Nick Hayward serenading someone for some reason; Leigh Bowery just being amazing]

It’s amazing to see how amateur professional things were then.

It’s hilariously DIY. I really love it. That’s the denim jacket customised by Hermès, which we don’t have, but it’s worn by Scarlett, our poster girl.

[The footage is fascinating to me, because I have clear memories of the V&A in the 80s, which I brought to often as a child. They had a special exhibition room called the Boilerhouse, which staged small but radical shows] 

It’s interesting the link between the V&A and fashion then. I’m a Boilerhouse boy, I came to all the Boilerhouse shows as a kid. There was a Miyake one here, I saw a Blitz show here

The thing about the Boilerhouse was it was the beginning of the V&A flinging open its doors to a much wider audience. I’m really proud, when I started here and went to the wardrobes of the V&A, my predecessors had assiduously collected, which provided us with such great opportunities here. These jackets haven’t been shown since ’86, so it was incredible to get them out and to conserve them and share them with people. It’s what it’s all about.

[We’re talking too much. There’s a radio interviewer waiting, and then that Liz Jones is booked in. We try to hurry up, and move on to the next case, which features the work of Vivienne Westwood and the late John Flett]

This is a very interesting case because it’s futuristic, it’s about some other land. And it’s an aspect of Westwood’s clothing that, we didn’t want to do the obvious with Westwood, we didn’t want to do Harris tweed, I’ve done the big Westwood exhibition here [in 2004]. We wanted to do something slightly more unusual, so are showing these strange toga looks. These are clothes for some inhabitants of the future. And we pared them with 1940s aviator caps, we’ve taken creative liberty here to suggest this was about the 40s, it’s about the cut of the fabric. This is why we put John Flett in here, because he was one of the most creative cutters.

He died in 1991 when he was 27, and it was a great loss.

And he would have been really young when he made this

[The label says it’s “probably from 1984]

He was still at college.

It’s extraordinary.

It’s very rare, that’s been leant by Steve Phillips of Rellik.

And it’s just T-shirt stitching, but then that draping through the arm.

It’s just very cheap fabric, but it’s beautiful. As is Westwood’s Toga dress. Here’s an image of Steve Strange wearing a Toga dress [it’s a photo on one of the cabinet texts]

He looks like one of the kids at the Downlow at Glastonbury this weekend.

[We move on to a display of the mid-eighties work of John Galliano]

So this is Galliano at his most magnificent. Just clothing that’s literally writhing on the body, and it’s masculine clothing. Of course influenced by historical dress, but is completely reworked for a new world. [On one of the men’s outfits, from the Fallen Angels collections, is some trousers with an elaborate extended and bunched up fly] Just the fly alone deserves an essay, the multibuttoning fly. Who but Galliano would have done that with the fly.

And so those two looks were from Fallen Angels, when he was showing menswear with women’s.

Exactly. And before they went out, John poured water on the models so the dresses clung, and they had his logo stamped on their foreheads, and it ran down their faces. So it’s sort of abandoned.

[We need to get a shift on – we’re only halfway through the show.We walk to a cabinet where the mannequins are half out. “We’re just destroying the knitwear case,” said one of the install team.]

Joseph, Bodymap, Edina Ronay, Artwork

Patricia Roberts. 

Just another strand to the 80s – the hand knit revolution. I couldn’t do it.

[We get to a cabinet dedicated to Wendy Dagworthy]

What is it about Wendy?

Wendy is the expert consultant on the exhibition. This collection went to Saks and was shown in their window. It was a time when Wendy and Betty Jackson and Paul Smith were gaining much international success in Japan and in New York. They were the leaders of the professionalisation of the industry, again another important story which began in the late 70s and early 80s, the establishment of the British Fashion Council, previously the London Designers Collections. Shall we go upstairs?

[We head up, to the club section of the show]

Hard Times [the first area you come to is a display of the Hard Times leather jacket look, on the edge of the upper circle which looks down to the visitors in the fashion gallery below]. So we wanted our group of Hard Times bikers and also our zoot suit worn by Chris Sullivan [an intrinsic character in the London 70s and 80s scene], we wanted these to be looking down, so people can look up and see that aspect of the exhibition. Chronologically it’s after New Romantic, but it’s such a stand alone group. Pam Hogg, Katherine Hamnett, Lloyd Johnson [menswear designer and retailer] and of course Chris Sullivan. In a way the link between the Hard Times look and the Zoot suit was that sort of retro 50s alternative to new romantic. It was a sort of toughening up.

I also think anyway it’s important to show the alternative to New Romantic. It gets quite an easy ride of seeming more

New Romantic was very early. Really it was over and done with by 1980.

It was brief.

It was quite brief but very important. Because it gave permission. It also introduced that element of historicism. [We move over to the New Romantic display] So here we’ve got Westwood’s Pirate look. An absolutely seminal collection, with the print made from a wood block that McLaren got from Castelbajac’s studio in Paris. And then we have an outfit worn by Toyah by Melissa Caplan. We’ve not got much performance wear in this exhibition, it’s not what it was about, but Melissa Caplan was making and wearing this kind of garment on the Spandau Ballet New York trip, it’s that slightly futuristic look.

I think it’s important not to have performance wear in the show, because you’ve got a massive exhibition all about performance down the corridor [the Bowie show, a total sell-out]

Absolutely. [Onto the next outfit] PX. A very important shop, and we’ve been allowed to use the most amazing photography by people like Derek Ridgers and David Johnson. People ahve been so generous.

There’s Princess Julia.

She pops up quite a lot. Do you like the quote? [The label has a quote about Princess Julia, then Julia Fodor, working in the shop, and intimidating people by just watching them] You can imagine it, can’t you.

Maybe you should just install Julia on a chair over there to watch people during the exhibition.

And then Leigh Bowery. This is an incredibly important look that we’ve borrowed. It’s very very special. It’s from the Pakis From Outer Space collection, which Trojan and Leigh worked on together. And really it’s just like nothing else in the exhibition.

[Apologies for the picture quality in this next image – I’m guessing they’ve not yet sorted out the lighting for it – but it’s worth seeing]

And like with the John Flett dress, it’s cheap in terms of its fabric, but it’s extraordinary

And sourced locally. And then styled with his Biba shoes from the 70s. Exactly that idea of putting disparate things together. And next to it is a jacket he made specifically for somebody, and then the undergarment was made by James Montgomery, who was a pattern cutter [it’s some leggings with a long appendage in case the wearer had an enormous, um, appendage]. The guy who gave this to the museum said that he used to wear it to the supermarket.  And then you’ve got Westwood. This is an outfit worn by Gerlinde Costiff [the late wife of Michael Costiff]. And then Juliana Sissons, a dress with an Andrew Logan crown. And then behind one of Scarlett’s dresses with the big Judy Blame beads. She wore them here, and then took them off ceremonially, to put them on the figure. She wears them everyday, and it’s amazing for her to lend them.

[Here’s the poster image for the exhibition, of Scarlett wearing the Judy Blame beads with some Bodymap]

(pic courtesy of Monica Curtin)

That’s really nice, everybody who’s been involved in the scene who we’ve been in contact with has been so generous, have shared their memories and loaned their precious things. Then we have the wonderful Bodymap, who are the true crossover between club and catwalk. And also that androgyny again, of men wearing skirts and not being afraid to wear print and pattern and mix it all up.

They’re the total epitome of idealism aren’t they.

Absolutely. And with a catwalk full of children and grandparents and family. We’ve got footage of the Bodymap catwalk, just that joyousness and freedom.

[We have another time check. It’s OK, apparently, the man from Radio 2 is still wandering about]

I could talk about it forever. I’ve lived and breathed the exhibition since September.

Presumably as well it must be that constant thing of when is the right time to bring this show to the V&A. Every decade has its right time.

Yes, we talked about it for about five years, and then quite suddenly last year I said, now. Now’s the time. And I didn’t know about all these books that are coming out, it just felt the right time.

[We walk around to where the Scarlett outfit is with the beads]

It’s interesting that today, though young designers still give pieces to people like Princess Julia, it’s more likely to be something that’s been part of their production. 

I think things like this that were made in somebody’s kitchen, by hand, have a real resonance that a mass-produced garment can never have. There’s very little in this exhibition that’s mass produced. All of Leigh Bowery’s things were hand made, Rachel Auburn, really it was hand cloth. And also a lot of clubbers were creating different looks for every evening. Downstairs we have a quote from John Galliano saying, on Thursdays and Fridays, Saint Martins was deserted because everybody was making their clothes for the weekend.

Maybe it would do Saint Martins kids good to do that now.

[we move round the back of the Westwood worn by Gerlinde]

Michael [Costiff] has been such a good friend of the museum. [At the moment the mannequin for Gerlinde has no hair] We’ve got her curls coming. The wig person’s coming. On Friday.

[Here’s a photo of Leigh with Gerlinde, who’s wearing the Witches collection by Westwood, with the Keith Haring imagery]

(pic courtesy of Michael Costiff)

[We’re now behind the Bowery piece from Paki’s From Outer Space]

It’s amazing from the back, the Bowery.

In a way he’s overseeing the whole area, his inspiration was extraordinary. When he went on the Tokyo trip [many of the young London designers were taken to Tokyo in the mid 80s ] he got orders to produce various things, but he didn’t want to make them up. He just wanted to move on. He wasn’t really destined to be a fashion designer, but his own body and persona became a stage for performance within clubs and the street. It’s really interesting. Over the other side we’ve got a jumper by Richard Torry, who was designing knitwear but also became a part of the band Minty with Leigh Bowery. We’ve got this incredible crossover.

I’ve talked with Sue Tilley quite a lot about how Leigh in modern terms could be seen as a failure, because nothing he produced was sold or bought, yet his work was so extremely influential, and other people totally made careers stealing everything from it.

You’re absolutely right. Very very interesting.

It was different ways of living. Not even a decision. Naturally, instinctively, that’s what he did.

But very beautiful [as we walk to the next display, we pass a photo of him, his face fully made up]. I love that image. Also I’ve hardly touched on cosmetics for men, you think about Boy George, very beautiful. Very beautiful person.

Then the goth look, the sort of grandchild of punk and fetish combined together. This outfit, a can of Rubber Shine there ready, this outfit’s been remade simply because this sort of material perishes, you can’t keep it. So Theresa, who used to make Johnny Slut’s outfits, remade it for us. This is by Morticia, who had a stall in one of the markets, and this was from Hyper Hyper, so this set is about the move from club and performance wear almost to the high street. And we’ve teamed it with a hat from our collection that’s got a 1920s bird of paradise on it.

[It turns out Liz Jones has arrived, and we’ve been talking for much too long. We try to hurry up]

Glam Fetish. We’ve got Westwood, we’ve got Pam Hogg, basically what we’ve got here is fetish absorbing glam. And resulting in gold leather. It’s one very particular strand. We’ve got him facing here because it’s Lloyd Johnson, facing the other Lloyd Johnson jacket [famously featured on the cover of The Face, issue n077 – here’s my copy].

It’s a really interesting mix, it’s biker-ish, it’s a bit fetish, it’s also very very glamorous.

It’s interesting too because I was buying The Face at this point, and this is the tail end of everything being made in the kitchen to becoming more commercial, it’s gold and shiny and more international looking, pre-luxury days almost

Absolutely. And it’s styled here with loads of gold costume jewellery. Really very exciting things were happening in styling.

[We move around the corner]

This is one of my favourite groups: customisation. I think he has to be my favourite guy. Basically it’s DMs, it’s anonymous kilt from our collection, it’s a Christopher Nemeth jacket, it’s an Hermès scarf, it’s a D-Mob cap, and it’s a Tom Binns spectacles brooch. The jacket is absolutely beautiful. Christopher Nemeth’s widow is coming from Japan specially for the opening. And round the back you can see it’s made from old post office sacks.

And the idea is if someone had bought that jacket that’s how they would have worn it.

We think so. From our research we believe so. And then BOY, you’ve got bondage trousers which were still being made by BOY, the cap is on its way, it’s that idea of punk meeting sportswear. The Richard Torry jumper’s being washed. [The next outfit is a Westwood look using Keith Haring images from her Witches collection]

I just saw the Keith Haring show in Paris so…

[We look at it for a while, then head back round past the gold leather jacket]

He’s styled like Icarus. The leitmotif of this group is that notion of Icarus, of flying high and just being consumed. I see this as brave dressing in the face of recession, of AIDS, of unemployment.

That’s a whole other conversation about how recession, AIDS, unemployment cut this all off, ended an idea of British subculture and style.

We do mention that, but we’re focusing on the positive. we have to be realistic too. [We’re at the final display] So this is towards the end of the 80s, when body consciousness becomes much more important, and where we’ve got Georgina Godley, who began to make clothing that was distorting the human body. And then Pam Hogg again, an amazing catsuit. and a dress from Swanky Modes, it was actually designed in ‘77, but was worn in Crocodile Dundee in the 80s and had an extraordinary revival, but in 77 it was called a disco dress, not a term you’d use in the 80s.

And Swanky Modes was a shop in Camden where you got stuff made up wasn’t it. 

That’s right. Yup. When I look at it now I think about Versace. Next there’s an outfit from Rifat Ozbek’s white collection, which was in a way looking forward, you’ve got a change in aesthetic, you’ve got rave culture, clubs have become warehouse parties with thousands in the crowd instead of hundreds, we’ve got kind of sportswear, it’s dressed to sweat but highly glamorous. Oh and then another favourite: Simon Foxton’s patched MA1 flying jacket, DMs, a copy of the Face and a pork pie hat.

That’s Simon’s? From the 80s?

Each little patch, Simon had sewn onto his jacket. He came in a few weeks ago and sewed a few more on the back that he’d held onto for decades and never got round to sewing them on.

[Here are some of the patches, close up]

[And some more]

[We’re at the end of the exhibition, where there’s a door into a room out of which is coming the beginning bars of Body Rock by Marie Vidal. It’s a room with different screens showing 80s footage shot by Jeffrey Hinton] I think I should leave you to go in there and go back in time. If I go in there with you I won’t come out. [And so off Claire goes, to talk to a man from Radio 2, and then Liz Jones].

—

Afterwards, I stayed for ages.

First in Jeffrey’s room of videos.

Then looking back around the show.

It’s super super amazing.

Give yourself a good amount of time to go see it.

The show opens on Wednesday, and is on for a good long while – til 16th Feb next year. Click here for more info etcetcetc

The party for it is on Monday.

I’ll update with full updates, obvs.