Judy Blame

Judy Blame (1960–2018) was a British accessories designer, stylist and art director who turned everyday and discarded materials into distinctive fashion objects. Emerging from London’s club culture in the early 1980s, he assembled jewellery from items such as bottle tops, buttons, safety pins and cutlery. The method made resourcefulness part of the aesthetic, challenging assumptions about which materials could carry beauty or value.

He helped establish the House of Beauty and Culture collective in Dalston and worked with photographers on fashion stories for i-D, BLITZ and The Face. His collaborations extended to designers including Rei Kawakubo and to musicians including Neneh Cherry, Boy George and Björk. The ICA’s 2016 exhibition Never Again brought his jewellery, collages, clothing and editorial work together, showing how a practice rooted in making by hand could shape widely circulated images.