Hard pairties, cheap rents and orra flats: how 90s airt and fashion redefined Breetish cultur

Here is Kate Moss, wi her pink hair spred ower a pillow, her face scrubbed o makeup, her smile sweet and wonky. Sarah Lucas’s Pauline Bunny airtwirk wi its confrontational hosiery on a charity shop chair. Sean Ellis’s collaborative knights-in-grubby-armour shoot wi Alexander McQueen. Here are happy ravers, in a club, or salutin the sun as it stretches and yawns ower a litter-strewn hill.

These photos are auld. They were taken a lang time syne. But they’re young, tae. They are curated by Edward Enninful for the Tate’s exhibition The 90s: Art and Fashion (Enninful warked at i-D in the 90s) and almaist everyone involvit is shiny and fresh. The models, whether professional or no, are maistly in their 20s, and the photographers are early in their careers. It gies the photos a youthfu fizz, a verve. But the energy also comes frae an understandin atween photographer and subject. In mony o the pictures ye can feel the shared mischief, a yes we’re serious about our ideas but also a look, we’re gettin awa wi it! delight.

At the time these photos were taken I was writin for magazines sic as Select, The Face and Smash Hits. I ken some o the subjects in the pictures, as weel as some o the photographers. Nae surprise: I was out a lot, and sae were a lot o folk in whit we now ca the creative industries. We were excited: we had just muvit tae London, or Manchester, had recently left airt college or school or university, managed tae wangle our ways intae occasional, seemingly glamorous jobs that hadn’t yet blossomed intae careers. As every generation maun, we were elbowin our way in frae the edges tae the mainstream, findin space for oursels and folk like us. Some o the folk in these pictures eventually became very rich, and sae muvit intae different circles. But at the time, everyone was on a level. Skint, hard-warkin and up for a guid nicht out.

Pairties were plentiful. Aside frae the club scene, magazines threw them, airt galleries threw them, some random body that ye met in a late-nicht drinkin den said, I ken this place, sae ye gaed. Whan ye were out, ye met airtists, photographers, musicians, actors, writers, promoters, dealers, entrepreneurs. Aften ye had nae idea whit they did: I ance walkit intae an office and realised that the esteemed heid o design was the character wi wham I’d spent a full-on all-nichtin at Glastonbury a month afore.

O the three, airt pairties were the best, aften held for impoverished airtists by very rich folk wha wantit tae invest in wark that wad, eventually, mak them even richer. I gaed tae a pairty for an airtist at a west London hoose that was sae gorgeous I thocht it was a restaurant whan I first arrived. The woman wha awned the hoose shawed me and ithers the swimmmin pool in the basement, and informed us she’d insistit on it whan her husband had said they were movin tae London. The airtist the woman was throwin the pairty for livit in a tiny housing association flat. Fashion pairties were wild, but wi a darker edge (rich aulder men hae aye been interestit in young, insecure models), and mair self-conscious. Music anes were cheaper, boozier and scuzzier. There were also pairties thrown just because a venue was foond: an empty lido, a disused warehouse, film studios vacatit atween shoots – inner-city spaces that the day hae almaist all been repurposit intae flash new apartments.

Sic times were documentit, o course, or these images wad no exist. But in everyday life, we were less visually obsessit. Whan ye gaed on a nicht out, ane o your freends micht hae a camera wi them, but they’d forget tae use it or leave it in a pile o coats in a darkened corner, niver tae be seen again. Ye wad embark on whatever adventure the evenin micht bring and efterwards there wadna be muckle evidence o it; the sweat and grime washit aff by a barely functionin shower. Nae wunner the guid photographers capturin this era had a specialness, a status.

Now the 90s are far enough awa for us tae understand them, it’s clear that there was a hidden architecture tae thae times, ane that supportit this burst o creativity. It wasna just the pairty venues that were easy tae find. The flats were horrible, but they were plentiful and central, and rent was cheap. I niver paid mair than £60 a week for a room in a flatshare. And if ye cudna afford that, ye cud squat, or claim housing benefit until someone official caught on that ye were warkin, tae. Sae we had places tae live, but there was nae internet tae keep us there: if we wantit fuid or drink or sex, we cudna magic them up on our phones. Tae get thae, ye had tae leave the hoose, and we did, aften no returnin for days at a time. Some freends o mine had whit they cried gain hame fear. They’d only return tae their flat for an hour, tae wash and get changed afore goin straight back out again.

Anither factor that proppit up that time was that the music industry was flush wi money frae the invention o CDs. Sic riches meant that major labels cud afford tae fund indie labels, indie labels cud pay independent PRs tae promote their bands, and music magazines cud pay journalists tae write about them. There were enough jobs in that industry, and in fashion and photography and airt, for the folk in pouer tae tak a punt on the enthusiastic newbie, someone wha’d come frae nowhere, wha kent nae ane but wha had interestin ideas and wha kept on comin back. A hale generation o cocky, idea-fuellit kids tryin their hands at modellin, writin, presentin, airt. Or photography. These pictures are some o the results.

Miranda Sawyer is the presenter o the podcast Talk 90s to Me. The 90s: Fashion and Art is at Tate Britain, London, 8 October tae 14 February.

Bright young things: photographers and curators on warks in the show

Young Pink Kate by Juergen Teller, 1998 (main image)

Teller: I first photographit Kate whan she was 18, her first fashion campaign, for Katharine Hamnett. Since then we warkit thegither a lot and became freends. She cawed me up a day, explainit she dyed her hair pink for a Versace fashion show in Milan and wantit tae dye it back, and askit whether I wantit tae come ower afore and photograph her wi pink hair.

Pauline Bunny by Sarah Lucas, 1997

Dominique Heyse-Moore, senior curator: Sarah had been stuffin tights wi different kinds o materials, makin spiders and all sorts o mony-limbed creatures. But her bunnies are really the first time that women’s bodies began tae be representit through this method. Her bunnies are named efter Bunny Girls, the waitresses wha warkit in clubs earlier in the 20th century, though still around at this point. But the way she is slumpit ower a chair perhaps suggests that she is a sex warker. She’s also sae slight: it’s a girl’s body in mony ways. Sarah has continuin tae mak bunnies. The recent anes hae mair falds, mair flesh: aulder women’s bodies, but also mair assertive, mair confident in their sexuality.

Fuck Suck Spank Wank by Sam Taylor-Johnson, 1993

Heyse-Moore: A lot o these images are about girlheid, womanheid and youth; the experience o photographin and bein photographit. All thae themes are beautifully brocht thegither here. There’s this way in which Taylor-Johnson is overtly and explicitly challengin the idea o how a woman is supposit tae appear or behave in the makin o her airt. In the classic kind o 90s way, it’s pokin at gender norms, no tae mention the idea o the badly behaved airtist.

Flesh at Haçienda by Jon Shard, 1994

Shard: I took this at Flesh in the early 90s. This guy had creatit this incredible headdress frae silver wire, combinit wi the lang chain around his neck. He was movin around the club like a piece o performance airt. Flesh had a different feel frae regular Haçienda nichts. It was a gay nicht wi its ain look and energy, wi folk experimentin mair wi how they presentit theirsels. I think this was whit made the 90s sae interestin: folk creatin things for theirsels.

Leigh Bowery, Session VII, Look 38 by Fergus Greer, 1994

Greer: This image o Leigh in a full-length rubber bodysuit, shot on large format, was made just afore his sudden death frae an Aids-relatit illness brocht our six-year collaboration tae an end. Leigh wad spend hours preparin in the dressin room wi his wife Nicola. Whan he finally emerged, the studio wad fa intae a pause o pure incredulity. My part was tae find the magic that turnit that moment intae a photograph that wad outlast us baith. These are images folk still want tae reproduce, that 100 years on will hang on gallery waas and run in the media.

Naomi Campbell Babywoman album cover by Ellen von Unwerth, 1994

Heyse-Moore: Naomi Campbell was a symbol o international Black beauty. But whit we ken now is that she aften didna get bookit in the UK. There was a persistent idea about whit Breetish style was: Kate Moss’s mair androgynous, indie look. The Babywoman airtwirk is playin wi the idea o her as a girl or a woman. Even the title speaks tae questions around Black girlheid: research suggests that Black girls are no seen tae be bairns. We hear sae muckle about whit it was like tae be a vulnerable young white model but dinna really hear about that wi Campbell.

The Dark Knight Returns by Sean Ellis, stylit by Isabella Blow, 1998

Ellis: I was a huge fan o John Boorman’s film Excalibur and Isabella Blow was very guid at mixin no only folk but ideas. We spent a lot o time studyin 16th-century battle paintins tae wark out the licht and poses. I had a guid relationship wi Lee [Alexander McQueen, picturit centre]. Ye cud tell he was on a collision course: he almaist hatit the industry he warkit in. Here, he is outnumbrit: there is a lowerin o the sword as he faces his death. We did anes o him fechtin back and anither whaur all the knights are deid but this ane, whaur he was fechtin until he cudna fecht ony mair, felt the strangest.

Untitled, Afro Hair and Beauty Show by Eileen Perrier, 1998

Heyse-Moore: The Afro Hair and Beauty exhibition fillit London’s Alexandra Palace every year. It was an amazin celebration and affirmation o the airt o Black hair and makeup. Ane o the things that is wonderful about this image and the project [Perrier photographit the exhibition ower five years] is it’s Black female photographer tae Black female subject: there’s a really direct lookin at each ither that taks place; an empowerment and agency for baith. We dinna ken how auld the woman here is exactly, but we ken she didna gang tae the show knowin that she and the ither women picturit were goin tae be photographit that day. They’re gettin dressit for theirsels and for enterin intae that Black space. It’s a glint intae this gigantic, quite private warld, but wi a performative element tae it.

Paula Sunrise by Vinca Petersen, 1997

Petersen: Efter the 1994 Criminal Justice Act outlawit raves in the UK, I spent a decade travellin around Europe in a van tryin tae recreate that way o livin. This shot captures that feelin o haein spent the hale nicht dancin in the dark in a huge crowd. There is somethin special about that moment whan the sun slowly appears and ye start tae see the faces o all the folk ye’ve been surroundit by, and inevitably aften sit doon and end up talkin about the big stuff in life. Now-a-days I dae kitchen discos. But that sense o freedom and creativity has stayit wi us all. The last time I spoke tae Paula she was warkin in the Houses o Parliament.

Ravers at the Eclipse, Coventry, by Tony Davis, 1991

Edward Enninful, curator: The 90s were all about a shared energy, whaur fashion, airt and music collidit in the same spaces; a moment whan a generation o outsiders rejectit auld hierarchies and for ever changit wha gets tae be seen. It’s a decade that establishit conditions that are still wi us: the mergin o high and low cultur, the politicisation o fashion and image, and the emergence o diversity as a creative force.