New Romanticism

The New Romantic movement emerged in the late 1970s and early 1980s in the UK as a response to the punk movement and post-industrial culture. The movement was rooted in club culture, especially venues like London’s Blitz Club. The New Romantics turned to theatricality, historical references, and fantasy to create a new identity that challenged the mainstream. Central to this cultural wave was fashion used as performance and resistance.

New Romantic fashion rejected punk’s raw aesthetic in favor of extravagant style inspired by history, fantasy, and androgyny. Influences ranged from 18th-century Romantic poets to glam rockers like David Bowie. The clothing was characterized by rich fabrics, ruffles, frills, military jackets, flamboyant makeup, and a fluid approach to gender presentation (Fury, 2019). Unlike punk, which was rooted in anti-fashion, New Romanticism embraced elegance, ornamentation, and visual drama. The body became a canvas for escapism and identity creation. 

The fashion industry initially resisted New Romanticism. It was too queer, too performative, too eccentric for mainstream menswear and high fashion. But as the movement gained popularity, elements of it began appearing in runway shows. Designers like Jean Paul Gaultier and Westwood adopted its flamboyance and layered historical styles into their collections. Westwood, for example, often pulled directly from 18th-century aristocratic fashion and mixed it with punk elements (V&A, n.d.).

At its heart, New Romanticism was about using clothes to construct identities in a world that offered little room for self-expression. The fashion was often non-functional, prioritizing symbolism and spectacle over practicality. In the early 1980s, with political conservatism rising in the UK, this rejection of conventional gender roles and dress codes became a quiet form of rebellion (Culture Trip, 2019).

References

Culture Trip. (2019, June 5). The New Romantics: Fashion, music and the club scene of the 1980s. 

Fury, A. (2019, September 6). The New Romantics: When fashion went theatrical. The Independent. 

V&A Museum. (n.d.). Vivienne Westwood and historical influence .