Dave Baby Print Ensemble

A two-piece club-and-stage ensemble by John Crancher, the London designer whose work — alongside that of Stephen Linard, Leigh Bowery, BodyMap and the wider Blitz-into-Taboo generation — sat at the center of the New Romantic and post-punk club fashion moment of the early-to-mid 1980s. The print is by Dave Baby, the London illustrator and club personality whose graphic line ran through some of the most distinctive printed garments of the period.

The leotard is built on a cotton jersey base; a separate skirt panel has been pinned to the body of the leotard with safety pins as part of the original styling — a deliberate construction continuing the punk-era language of pinned, distressed, accreted dress into the Camden and Soho club scene. The overshirt is built in silk and satin, screen-printed in the Dave Baby print.

A John Crancher / Dave Baby printed garment was featured on Mark Moore on the cover of City Limits magazine. Similar pieces were exhibited as part of Outlaws: Fashion Renegades of 80s London at the Fashion and Textile Museum, London, 2024.