Fashion is almost as much a part of the hard dance scene as the music. From the heady days of Sundissential and the Crasher Kids to the unbelievable imagination of the tidy fans today, clubbers have always had their own take on what to wear on the dance floor. Whether you’re head to toe in cyber or you’re dressed up as a Dairy Lea triangle – TW11 anyone? – there’s never been a better place to express your individuality.
One person that’s never had any difficulty expressing her individuality is Lisa Pin-Up. The queen of the hard house scene, she’s as known for her style as she is for her music – and let’s face it, she’s Grade A on both levels.
On Friday April 27th Lisa launches her brand new God Save The Queen tour at tidy & Extreme Euphoria at Heaven in London. Supporting her, and creating a brand new fashion line based around her love of punk, is one of clubland’s most recognised labels, Contagious Clubwear. Tidy caught up with Claire who runs the brand to find out about her involvement with Lisa, CC’s plans for the rest of the year and whether she’s ever witnessed any true disasters walking around in her gear…
You’ve designed a range of clothes for Lisa Pin-Up to go with her God Save The Queen tour – how did that all come about?
We have known Lisa for a number of years now and have always been massive fans, trying to get to see her whenever we can, so when we were given the opportunity of putting on our own soundstage at Global Gathering last year it wasn’t difficult for us to pick who was going to headline for us. Over the last 12 months we have been involved in the production of a lot of the nights Lisa has appeared at up and down the country, and Lisa approached us with some ideas for the tour, such as décor and dancers and it was through these conversations that Lisa mentioned how wicked it would be to get involved with designing her own exclusive range for the tour.
What’s the inspiration behind the range?
Lisa was keen on re-creating some of the street fashion from the Punk Rock era, whilst still retaining a fresh, modern feel, so we looked at the kind of things that were sported by some of the bands of the time as well as by many of the people involved with the scene and tried to give this a bang up to date touch, the result is Pin-up Punk, a fresh new punk style range of outfits that will appeal to every clubber.
I’m sure the actual outfits themselves are very hush hush at this point in time until you launch them at tidy vs Extreme Euphoria at Heaven on Friday April 27th – but can you tell us a little bit about what they’ll look like?
Ha ha! I am getting bombarded with mails from people who want a “sneak peak” at the new range, all I am willing on saying is that the outfits will incorporate a red, white and blue theme, will be very punky with lots of metal accessories and for once there is even something for the boys!!
What will you be doing with Lisa on the night itself?
We will be launching the range with a spectacular catwalk show featuring the Pin-up punk models, and we will be supporting the live acts with the fantastic Contagious Dance Crew, who will also be sporting great new Pin-up Punk dance outfits. As well as this we will have our beautiful promotional girls who will be mingling with the crowd to giveaway lots of special goodies to commemorate the launch of the tour. We are very excited at being involved and I know this night is going to be one night not to be missed.
What prompted you to get into club clothing design?
Being an avid clubber I always felt their was a distinct lack of sexy, upfront outfits on the market that made me stand out from the crowd when I went out at the weekends, so I decided to start making my own designs, and the response I got from these outfits from both female and male clubbers was phenomenal, so I decided to work on an entire range of outfits. I then found myself a manufacturer and a website designer and with lots of support from my friends and financial backing from the Princes Trust, I set up Contagious Clubwear, and from here things have just gone from strength to strength.
You sell your clothes from your website, www.contagiousclubwear.com – are you very busy?
Extremely busy, I am having to take on new staff this year to cope with the demand as well as expanding my manufacturing operation and we are now branching out into many new shops around the world as well as just focusing on the UK market. On top of this we are involved with putting on our own club nights as well as supporting some of the biggest names in clubland, we have Soundstages at Escape Into The Park and Global Gathering this year which we are in the planning stages for, we run a very “in demand” dance and entertainment team, and I have to balance all this around being a Mum to my two lovely kids. As you can imagine my life is pretty full on, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Who is your core consumer group?
Our Clubwear is currently targeted at female clubbers from 18 years upwards, who want to look the very best when they go out to club nights, we try to offer quality and originality in our range and we have very few people who are disappointed by what we provide them.
We are also about to launch a men’s wear range too, starting with the Pin-up punk range after many mails from male clubbers that there was not enough choice for them out there.
Have you ever been out in a club and seen someone wearing one of your outfits and thought, damn it, I’m good!
I have to be honest and say Yes! Nothing gives me greater pleasure than walking around an event and being surrounded by clubbers in my designs!
I have to also admit that I do try and go up to people who are wearing my outfits, introduce myself, and thank them for being a customer.
Conversely, have you ever seen someone in a CC outfit and thought AGH GET IT OFF!!!
No, I cant say I have ever seen anyone who looks terrible in my outfits. I have seen outfits on people that have been put on incorrectly though – I do always want to go and adjust them myself!!
So how did you get started in fashion? Was it something that you’d always wanted to do or did you sort of fall into it through clubbing?
I have always been a fashion victim since being a small girl and worked in the retail fashion industry straight after leaving college, after having spent a length of time working as a visual merchandiser for a top high street ladies fashion chain, I realised that I wanted to start setting the trends rather than following them, so being a big clubber this was the perfect place to start as I knew this was somewhere that I could perhaps make an impact straight away.
What’s your clubbing pedigree like? Favourite clubs, DJs, are you still a clubbing bunny, were you ever/are you still a caner?
I started getting involved with dance music at a very early age, going to lots of underground outdoor raves and warehouse parties and my love for the scene has never faltered.
These days you’ll find me at Tidy, Frantic and Godskitchen events so as you can probably gather I like it hard. Favourite DJ’s are the Queen herself Lisa Pin-up, Andy Whitby, Alex Kidd, The Tidy Boys, Amber D and K90.
I have always been and am still a clubbing bunny, bit hard not to be when you run a Clubwear company.
And as for being a caner, I was a bit of a party girl when I was younger, but being a Mum and business woman, these days it gets about as wild as a Red Bull for me I am afraid.
Who’s your favourite designer and why?
My fave fashion designer has to be Vivienne Westwood, her designs are always outrageous and fascinating. She has a great talent and is never afraid to show it off.
If you could design clothes for absolutely anyone (obviously apart from Lisa), who would it be and why?
I would love to design a wardrobe for a big popstar like Gwen Stefani or Pink, it would be an immense buzz to see my outfits on MTV and in big magazines on somebody well known.
My Dancers have appeared in my Clubwear in a couple of dance compilation adverts on TV and this was an incredible feeling.
What’s the most bizarre request for a piece of clothing you’ve ever had?
Well we are also involved with the Modified Car Scene through our festival partner Kicker and Mutant Audio and a few years back ran a fashion show at a local Modified Car event.
I was tasked with making a range of outfits out of car parts and accessories which ranged from speaker bras to seat belt garments, this was a very interesting challenge but with quite spectacular results.
What have Contagious got planned for the future?
Well apart from supporting Lisa on all of her “God Save The Queen Tour” dates, we have an action packed Summer lined up that includes our very own Soundstages at both Escape Into The Park and Global Gathering, where we are hoping to pick up where we left off last year with bigger and better production, more dance and entertainment plus a few surprises, and of course we are extremely lucky once more to have Lisa headlining both events for us, so it promises to be just as explosive and exciting as last year.
On the clothing side we are moving to new premises and will be expanding our sales operation into more retail outlets around the world rather than just focusing on the UK and we will also be introducing more sexy new ranges to our Clubwear catalogue as well as branching out into swimwear, men’s wear and possibly street wear. So watch this space.
Thanks Claire, see you on the dance floor!
All photos are courtesy of Contagious Clubwear and are not to be reproduced in any format without prior permission
Pure Sessions Presents: Tidy & Extreme Euphoria at Heaven
God Save The Queen Tour Official Launch Party
Friday April 27th 11pm – 6am
Heaven, Under The Arches, Villiers Street, London WC2N 6NG
Advance tickets £15, MOTD
Main Arena: God Save The Queen
Lisa Pin-Up (exclusive 2 hour set)
K90 LIVE
Tidy Boys
Mark EG
Cally Gage
Olly Perris
Room Two:
Lee Haslam
Phil Reynolds
Barry Connell
Vinylgroover
Nicki S
April Keenan
Dakota Bar: hosted by Cyberkitten
Steve Gillen
Lucy Fur
Andy Rise
Hypervixen
Matt Pickup
Nasty Neil E
Simon Vegas
Brad Duke
K8-E
Gavin MacFarlane
Kauz + FX
Departure Lounge: hosted by the Dirty Cowboys
Dirty Cowboys
Samani
Filthy FunkFunk
Jamie B
Sinnetti vs Mister Mel
Benski vs Dancin Martin
Web & Credit Card booking:
www.tidy.com/london
www.ticketweb.co.uk / 08700 600 100
www.viewtickets.co.uk – Tickets To Your Mobile
www.heaven-london.com
Info Lines & Tickets:
Tidy HQ – 01709 71 00 22
Extreme Euphoria – 08707 45 49 40
London – Never Enough (Maria) – 07813 684 399
Camden – Cyberdog – 0207 482 2842
Coaches:
Picking up in Cardiff, Newport, Bristol & Swindon – Call Jon on 07900 055 090
Websites:
www.tidy.com/london
www.harderfaster.net
www.dontstayin.com/parties/tidy
www.dontstayin.com/parties/extreme-euphoria
www.myspace.com/tidycom
Heaven, the only club in Westminster with a 6am bar licence!
info@heaven-london.com