If you’re reading this, there’s a pretty high chance you were born in or after the 90s. Among other things, like not being able to buy a house, you probably weren’t able to attend the massive (pun intended) garage and jungle club nights that took over the UK’s underground music scene.
If that is the case (or isn’t but you want to reminisce), you can get your chance to immerse yourself in it at a newly announced exhibition. Jointly conceived by Chase & Status’s Saul Milton and curator Tory Turk, the exhibition – entitled Super Sharp – explores the appropriation of luxury Italian houses by those who were attended jungle and garage club nights at the time. Think Moschino, Gucci, Iceberg and Versace.
The scene itself was a backlash to the minimal aesthetic championed at the time by brands like Prada and GAP. Those attending would do whatever it took to have new designer looks, for weeks on end. “Personally, I’d rather starve than not look my best,” one girl told us in an interview with What We Wore’s Nina Manandhar.
“It’s a collection of nostalgia, of times when we appropriated other cultures and twisted and turned them into our own style, our own look,” said Milton of the look of the time. Collecting and wearing Moschino since the late 90s, he contributed his large archive to be featured in the exhibition. As well as the collection or looks, there will also be editorials from Dazed and The Face as well as unpublished images from underground rave magazine Eternity. Elsewhere, there will be talks and workshops about the music scene that will accompany the exhibition.
Read more about the fashion of the garage scene here. Super Sharp is open from February 1 - April 21 at the Fashion Space Gallery, 20 John Prince’s Street, W1G 0BJ.
