80S FASHION DESIGNERS

The New Romantic look was produced by fashion designer Helen Robinson for her Covent Garden shop PX. In ways it became the house designer for the New Romantic scene with the band Visage as frequent customers. 

"By the time we opened at Billy's they had a good line in German military gear,  making their own idiosyncratic versions complet with diamante when they couldn't get hold of the originals.  When we started Blitz I wore their frilly velvet suits with a stark white puritan collar,  despite the fact that most of these were sold to woman." - Steve Strange. 

Fashion designers were a huge influence of the New Romantic movement and it's popularity. Some of the most popular designers at the time were: Kahn & Bell, Judy Blame, Dean Bright, Jeffrey Bryant, Melissa Caplan, Sue Clowes, Darla-Jane, Martin Degville, Keanan Duffty, Patricia Field, Flanagam, Judith Frankland, John Galliano, Pam Hogg, Stephen Jones, Annie La Paz, Mark Lawrence, Stephen Linard, Maripol, John Moore, Anthony Moynihaw, Natsha, Mike Nicholls, Tim Perkins, Steven Philip, Antony Price, Helen Robinson, Zandra Rhodes, Stephen Sprouse, Chris Sullivan, Vivienne Westwood and Kansai Yamamoto. 

Kahn & Bell

(Patti Bell and Jane Kahn, by Paul Edmond)

Kahn & Bell was a fashion label and boutique founded by Jane Kahn and Patti Bell in 1976. Located on Hurst Street, Birmingham, England. Their clothing depicted the New Romantic style, it was elaborate and theatrical. They brought together a wide range of influences, including African, Egyptian and Far Eastern art, and combined them with elements of futurism and fantasy. Kahn & Bell designed clothes for some of the most popular bands during the 80's including Duran Duran and Shock. (Read More)

Jean-Paul Gaultier 

(Jean-PaulGaultier, Christopher Ciccone and Madonna, 1990)

Jean-Paul Gaultier is a French haute couture and Pret-a-Porter fashion designer. Gaultier rejected the normal aesthetic and earned himself the name "the bad boy of fashion", he was the first to organise random castings and celebrate upside-down dress. In keeping with his spirit of challenging traditional fashion for both men and women, androgyny began to appear as a recurring theme throughout his collections in the 1980s. In 1986, the first Jean-Paul Gaultier boutique opened in the Vivienne gallery in Paris. (Read More)

Vivienne Westwood

(Vivienne Westwood's SEX Boutique)

Vivienne Westwood is an English fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream. She designed and made clothes for her boutique known as 'SEX' with her partner Malcolm McLaren. The New Romantic movement became more mainstream with the help from Vivienne Westwood's unveiling of her "pirate collection", which was promoted by Bow Wow Wow and Adam and the Ants. She became one of the most famous designers from the UK.

Kansai Yamamoto

(Kansai Yamamoto and David Bowie)

Kansai Yamamoto is one of the leaders in Japanese Contemporary fashion, he was particularly popular during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1971 he stated his own company, Yamamoto Kansai Ltd, in Toyko. His first collection had it's debut in London and in the USA at Hess's Department store in Allentown, Pennsylvania, whish was renowned at the time for many avant-garde collections. He is also known for his avant-guarde kimono designs, his most famous ones being worn by David Bowie on his Ziggy Stardust tour. (Read More)