As Seen in Blitz: Fashioning '80s Style

"Like the lightning in its name, it struck us in 1980 and kept us spellbound the whole decade. 'Too fast to live, too young to die', that is BLITZ for me. Every month we would run to the news stand to be 'BLITZed' with irreverent, glamorous, chic and iconic images. BLITZ was Iain R. Webb's brainchild that corresponded perfectly to the era; it was one of its best expressions. He used emblematic faces that were so inspiring, and that I used for my shows, like Martine Houghton, who later became a photographer. BLITZ, we miss you but we are ready for your attack again!" Jean Paul Gaultier

In London at the start of the 1980s, three new magazines emerged to define an era. It was a time of change: after Punk, before the digital age, and at the dawn of a hedonistic club scene that saw the birth of the New Romantics. On the pages of BLITZ, The Face and i-D, a new breed of young iconoclasts hoped to inspire revolution. As BLITZ magazine's fashion editor from 1982-87, Iain R. Webb was at the center of this world. His images manipulated fashion to explore ideas of transformation, beauty, glamor and sex. The magazine's arresting, subversive fashion pages, and its profiles of disparate designers and creative types, let the imagination run free. Lavishly presented here are over 100 BLITZ fashion stories, with previously-unseen archive content, original images and tear-sheets. A separate section features original BLITZ interviews with the key designers, and there is also a vast amount of completely new material: Iain R. Webb has gathered the memories of those involved into a gripping oral history of an under-documented time.

Characters and contributors include: Leigh Bowery, Amanda Cazalet, Boy George, Princess Julia, Nick Knight, David LaChapelle, Paul Morley and Anna Piaggi. Featured designers include Bodymap, Judy Blame, Dean Bright, Comme Des Garçons, Jasper Conran, John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Katharine Hamnett, Hermès, Pam Hogg, Marc Jacobs, Stephen Jones, Calvin Klein, Andrew Logan, Issey Miyake, Franco Moschino, Vivienne Westwood, and many more.

• 1980s fashion and culture, as seen on the deeply influential pages of BLITZ, the pioneering '80s magazine
• A wealth of stunning visuals, text and interviews from the time, plus new commentaries from over 100 key players
• A must-have book for anyone seriously interested in 20th-century , especially devotees of the 1980s
• The Metropolitan Museum is holding the exhibition PUNK: Chaos to Couture from May 9 August 11, 2013