David Bowie — Fashion

JUL 01 1980 · 12:00

David Bowie — Fashion (1980) Director: David Mallet Era: Post-Punk New Wave Dawn (1980) - Transitional apex between Bowie's experimental Berlin Trilogy and his commercial Scary Monsters reinvention; the video crystallises the anxious energy of early-80s club culture and the nascent New Romantic movement. An essential Tier 1 artefact for any archive of early music video history. 'Fashion' (1980) sits at the documented origin of the music video as a serious artistic and critical medium, predating MTV by a year, voted best video of 1980 by Record Mirror readers, and directed by one of the format's founding practitioners. Its sophisticated visual thesis — crowd conformity as both celebration and indictment — gives it enduring analytical relevance across fashion history, subcultural studies, and media archaeology. Context: Released in October 1980 as the second single from Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), 'Fashion' arrived at a precise cultural inflection point: post-Berlin Trilogy Bowie returning to commercial accessibility while embedding sharp satirical critique of the New Romantic subculture then erupting in British clubs. The video, shot inside New York's Hurrah nightclub, positions Bowie and his musicians as 'street thugs' intercut with dancers rehearsing and a parade of New Romantic individuals — visually enacting the song's ambivalent commentary on style conformism and 'goon squad' fashion fascism. Filmed in New York rather than London, it also documents the transatlantic nightclub exchange underpinning early 1980s pop culture. The video predates the launch of MTV by one year, making it a key artefact in the pre-MTV promotional film tradition that directly shaped the channel's founding visual grammar. Director notes: Mallet shot the 'Fashion' promotional video inside Hurrah, a famous Manhattan nightclub owned by his friend Robert Boykin. The opening shot features Bowie and the band on the Hurrah stage draped in khaki canvas. Faceted mirror walls surrounding the dance floor appear in the background of numerous shots; all band performance scenes are set within the club, while other Manhattan locations are intercut throughout. Bowie reprised a signature gesture from Mallet's preceding 'Ashes to Ashes' video — slowly crouching and lowering his arm in a vertical arc — and by the video's end all dancers imitate the move, visualising the song's theme of compelled conformity. The video was voted one of the two best music videos of 1980 by Record Mirror readers, alongside 'Ashes to Ashes'. 'Fashion' was Mallet's second consecutive landmark Bowie promotional film, immediately following 'Ashes to Ashes' (1980).