Growing up in the East Midlands in the 1980s and 1990s felt like living in a fashion desert. I have vivid memories of poring over the latest issue of i-D sitting on the 127 bus during my regular visits to the original Wellgosh store in Leicester’s Silver Arcade. Otherwise, I seemed destined to leave the region to pursue my love of fashion and photography. Nottingham Subcultural Fashion in the 1980s, a new exhibition at Bonington Gallery, Nottingham, co-curated by Tom Godfrey and Dr. Katherine Townsend, is set to challenge my teenage ignorance about a much-overlooked region of the UK.
“I have always been interested in things that are happening in regional cities, but historically, Nottingham has not been very good at celebrating itself,” explains Godfrey. “This exhibition has developed from my initial research into G FORCE, a fashion brand based in Nottingham, founded by Robin Kerr in 1980. I was excited by the strong, almost singular vision of G FORCE, but then I started to learn more about other brands that were developing in the city at that time.”
Known for its signature oversized, shapeless silhouette and bold graphics, G FORCE has a cult following in Japan, had a store in Paris for a time, and appeared on the front page of national newspapers when footballer Eric Cantona wore the brand to face the paparazzi the morning after his infamous ‘flying kick’ in 1995. Heavy Duty, an editorial from the March 1991 issue of i-D, proclaimed G FORCE as a leading maker of workwear-informed fashion.
Kerr started G FORCE in his second year of studying fashion at Nottingham Trent University, selling part of his graduate collection to Paul Smith—arguably the most well-known fashion brand to hail from the region. “Paul Smith was certainly the forerunner to this scene. In the 1970s, he began with a small concession in the now-defunct Nottingham boutique, Birdcage, before developing into a global brand,” says Godfrey.
The wealth of archive material on display in the exhibition proves that this was a fully-fledged cultural community, consisting of brands such as Olto, Vaughan & Franks, Katsu, Cocky’s Shed, and style magazines like Déspatch, Relay, and Débris. “Apart from high-quality graphic design and photography in these magazines, there was also an ambitious positioning of the Nottingham scene in an international context. The magazines would run features on local brands alongside Comme des Garcon and Yohji Yamamoto, and interviews with subcultural figures like Malcolm McLaren and Afrika Bambaataa,” says Godfrey.
It was important for Godfrey and Townsend to acknowledge the people that actually wore these clothes in the city. “One of the vitrines features about 200 photographs of people hanging out at The Garage, the club at the time (now an office complex), all wearing designers featured in this exhibition,” says Godfrey. “The brands were embraced by the local community. It was natural for people in Nottingham to want to wear Nottingham based brands.”
Bonington Gallery is part of Nottingham Trent University, so inevitably our conversation turns to the current generation of fashion students. Could this scene happen now? Godfrey reflects, “For me, it’s a case of example setting, and I definitely think this sort of scene could happen again. I do worry that, since COVID, the ambition in regional cities has slightly gone, but I hope that this exhibition demonstrates that you can make things happen.”
Nottingham Subcultural Fashion in the 1980s is co-curated by Tom Godfrey and Dr. Katherine Townsend. A series of specially commissioned essays by Ian Trowell accompany the exhibition.
22 March – 10 May 2025, Bonington Gallery, Nottingham