Lanah P and the coat designed by Bowery

TO the Fashion and Textile Museum for an intriguing exhibition exploring a legendary “no rules” nightclub run by the artist-performer and costume designer Leigh Bowery.

Outlaws: Fashion Renegades of the 1980s tells the story of the Taboo venue where clubbers were encouraged to “dress as though your life depended on it”.

Bowery’s costumes influenced fashion designers Alexander McQueen, Vivienne Westwood and John Galliano who along with George Michael were regulars back in the day.

As was the 1980s transsexual trailblazer Lanah P whose blue corduroy coat, designed by Bowery, is among the exhibits curated by Martin Green and James Lawler.

Lanah told me: “This is not just a celebration of Bowery, it’s a celebration of a period of great creativity and British expressionism and genuine rebellion through fashion and against the prism of Thatcher’s right-wing England.

“I might have been swanning around old London town looking like a deranged hybrid of Shirley Bassey, Tina Turner, Eartha Kitt and Chaka Khan, but I still supported the miners and the homeless.

“The glamour never got in the way of that.”