Blitz: The London Nightclub That Shaped the 80s

"Blitz: The Club That Shaped the 80s brings together over 250 archive pieces, covering fashion, music, film, art and design. The Design Museum's curatorial team worked closely with the original Blitz kids, speaking with around 100 people embedded in the scene. For curator Danielle Thom, this moment in London history marked a "sweet spot" - a pre-digital era that is also "not ancient history"."

"The 70s punk scene, which many of the Blitz kids had been part of, was evolving into something more commercialised by the end of that decade. Many Blitz regulars retained punk's DIY ethos and disregard for conventional taste while imbuing their looks with more opulence and glamour. The media quickly jumped onto the burgeoning scene as an epicentre of New Romanticism, though the Blitz kids would not necessarily have all defined themselves in that way."

""They created so much out of so little," says Thom, noting that many looks were put together from items sourced in charity shops and jumble sales, or handmade by resourceful students. "The majority of Blitz kids came from working class or what you might call lower middle-class backgrounds. A lot of them lived in squats. When they joined the scene, they didn't have existing professional networks."

Covent Garden's Blitz club ran for 18 months from 1979 and was launched by musicians Steve Strange and Rusty Egan. The weekly night helped cement careers of figures such as Boy George, Spandau Ballet, Stephen Jones and Michele Clapton. The Design Museum's exhibition Blitz: The Club That Shaped the 80s assembles over 250 archive pieces across fashion, music, film, art and design, informed by interviews with around 100 original participants. Curator Danielle Thom characterises the moment as a pre-digital "sweet spot" that feels recent rather than ancient. The scene evolved from 70s punk into a glamorised, DIY-inflected New Romanticism, with many looks sourced from charity shops, jumble sales or handmade by students. Most participants came from working-class or lower middle-class backgrounds and many lived in squats without existing professional networks.

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