Groovers

with Amy Lamé

Wednesday 3 February 2027

Doors 6pm, Action 7pm, Carriages 9.30pm

Wheatsheaf Hall, South Lambeth Road, Vauxhall, London, SW8 2UP

(Opposite Holiday Inn Express, 6 mins walk from Vauxhall tube)

What did the gays used to wear? Away from the catwalk, the fash-mags and the rarefied world of the Blitz kids, how did ordinary south London gay men and lesbians werk a lewk in the 1970’s, ‘80s and ‘90s? For the boys, it was the closet before the clone and the skinhead before the bear. Hyper-vigilant on the streets, gay men reached for the uniformity of masculinity. Marlon Brando in the streets, Zså Zså Gåbor in the sheets.

And the lesbians? Whether you ‘Showed your Face at the Ace’ in your double demin with the KENRIC gay ladies, doned your rebel dykes leathers for Chain Reaction, or just got back from Greenham in your boiler suit, late 20th century lesbians crafted a sartorial language for protection, agitation and gritted teeth celebration.

A vintage fashion parade is staged, as Amy Lamé compares notes with Ellie Medhurst, author of Unsuitable, a History of Lesbian Fashion, James Gardiner, gay historian and author of ‘Who’s a Pretty Boy Then? One Hundred and Fifty Years of Gay Life in Pictures’, and scene legend Yvonne Taylor