Rewrite
Follow the thump of Kylie remixes down Kingsland High Street on a Thursday night and you’ll find yourself at Dalston Superstore. The air is heavy with Lambrini and spilt tequila. On the pavement outside, queens smoke in tiaras, partygoers pick sequins from their wigs, and someone’s cradling a birthday balloon. Welcome to Bodycon – you’re already late.
Launched eight years ago by nightlife agent Jane Norman, the London-based club night has grown into a monthly pilgrimage for drag royalty, queer creatives and chaotic first-timers alike. Photographer Rae Martins Ashton has been documenting the night for years. At Bodycon, she says, “everyone still looks cunt, but typical beauty standards go out the window. It turns into a free-for-all of creatives from all different aesthetics coming together under the same roof – most of them having sweated their looks off after the first five minutes.”
Their archive is full of these moments: sweaty embraces between friends and strangers, impromptu performance art involving mud and tarp, lipstick smeared mid-make-out, birthday balloons floating over a packed dancefloor. “Nights like these, and the documentation of them, are so important to the community,” shares Rae. “It feels like a proper safe space for these creative queer communities to let their hair down, and I love showing off that unhinged queer joy.”
As it gears up for its eighth birthday, we speak to six key players in the Bodycon circuit about what the clubnight means to them, their most memorable nights, and what beauty looks like when it doesn’t behave.
How would you describe Bodycon in one word?
Sharon Le Grand: Antidisestablishmentarianism.
What’s the wildest beauty look you’ve seen at Bodcon?
Sharon Le Grand: [Club founder] Jane Norman sprawled across the bar while a tiny dominatrix proceeded to mount her and slather an entire tub of Dream Matte Mousse over her already beaten face, false eyelashes completely cocooned, smothered over like a thick concrete mask. One was almost worried how she might breathe.
What’s the origin story?
Jane Norman: I think Superstore might rue that fateful day when they gave me the third Thursday of every month. I was talent scouted by then Superstore culture vulture Emma Kroger while DJing at a friend’s birthday party. I was playing Alexis Jordan’s ”Happiness”. I’ve made it my mission to make their life a living hell ever since.
I am a post-truth cringe-core troll who is trying to find a lighter in the engulfing flames of planet earth. Bodycon is part and parcel of this. It has grown a pair of gorgeous legs and sashayed into the beast that is now. Don’t for one second think I have any control over it.
What does Bodycon mean to you?
Jane Norman: The whole point is that there is no point. We are deeply unserious and boastful about life’s guilty pleasures. If there’s one thing about homosexuals, we know how to party. It is my absolute honour to party with the best of the best. Bodycon is a party for the bar staff, and anyone else who knows what blue roll is.
What does the future of Bodycon look like?
Jane Norman: Bodycon is the only constant. Bodycon now. Bodycon then. Bodycon and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on.
What does the community and space at Bodycon mean to you?
Ashtrey: It’s one of the rare spaces where I feel fully seen, not just tolerated. As a mixed-race, queer DJ, I often exist between worlds, but at Bodycon, that in-betweenness becomes power. It’s sweaty, it’s political, it’s joyful, and it’s ours. The community there doesn’t just dance. We affirm each other. We protect each other. We become the space. It’s not about fitting in – it’s about taking up space exactly as we are.
How would you describe Bodycon in one word?
Ashtrey: Mental.
What are your favourite beauty looks you’ve shot at Bodycon?
Roxy Lee: A personal favourite of mine in terms of looks is the adult baby edition of Bodycon, which was called Bottycon – I just thought it was genius and completely up my street.
What does the community and space at Bodycon mean to you?
Roxy Lee: Superstore as a space always feels safe and homely to me, so it’s nice to have a night like Bodycon there because I’ve also met so many people that I think are so fab creatively, or have become really good friends with. There’s just a bubbliness in the air that’s really special, and I don’t know if there’s any other night at Superstore where I feel as girly as I do at Bodycon. It’s very ‘Lambrini and a shag’, if you know what I mean.
What does the community and space at Bodycon mean to you?
Ratty Nye Davies: Bodycon was my first proper party that regularly asked me to host. Some of my dearest friends I met through working and partying at Bodycon. Bodycon also doesn’t take itself too seriously and is purely about fun, something sometimes our community needs, especially now.
What’s the most memorable Bodycon night for you?
Ratty Nye Davies: Honestly, it has to be when Jane and Bodycon threw me my 21st birthday party and named it Rattycon back in 2019. I even got paid my host fee just to show up, which felt extremely chic. It was the first night of that London heatwave when it hit 40 degrees, everyone’s make-up melted off and I nearly slipped off the bar a few times because the walls were literally sweating. Instead of singing “Happy Birthday”, Sharon Le Grand and the whole top bar sang me Baby Bird’s “You’re Gorgeous” and I cried in a beehive wig.
How would you describe Bodycon in one word?
Ratty Nye Davies: Girls Aloud (two words, does that count?)
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Follow the thump of Kylie remixes down Kingsland High Street on a Thursday night and you’ll find yourself at Dalston Superstore. The air is heavy with Lambrini and spilt tequila. On the pavement outside, queens smoke in tiaras, partygoers pick sequins from their wigs, and someone’s cradling a birthday balloon. Welcome to Bodycon – you’re already late.
Launched eight years ago by nightlife agent Jane Norman, the London-based club night has grown into a monthly pilgrimage for drag royalty, queer creatives and chaotic first-timers alike. Photographer Rae Martins Ashton has been documenting the night for years. At Bodycon, she says, “everyone still looks cunt, but typical beauty standards go out the window. It turns into a free-for-all of creatives from all different aesthetics coming together under the same roof – most of them having sweated their looks off after the first five minutes.”
Their archive is full of these moments: sweaty embraces between friends and strangers, impromptu performance art involving mud and tarp, lipstick smeared mid-make-out, birthday balloons floating over a packed dancefloor. “Nights like these, and the documentation of them, are so important to the community,” shares Rae. “It feels like a proper safe space for these creative queer communities to let their hair down, and I love showing off that unhinged queer joy.”
As it gears up for its eighth birthday, we speak to six key players in the Bodycon circuit about what the clubnight means to them, their most memorable nights, and what beauty looks like when it doesn’t behave.
How would you describe Bodycon in one word?
Sharon Le Grand: Antidisestablishmentarianism.
What’s the wildest beauty look you’ve seen at Bodcon?
Sharon Le Grand: [Club founder] Jane Norman sprawled across the bar while a tiny dominatrix proceeded to mount her and slather an entire tub of Dream Matte Mousse over her already beaten face, false eyelashes completely cocooned, smothered over like a thick concrete mask. One was almost worried how she might breathe.
What’s the origin story?
Jane Norman: I think Superstore might rue that fateful day when they gave me the third Thursday of every month. I was talent scouted by then Superstore culture vulture Emma Kroger while DJing at a friend’s birthday party. I was playing Alexis Jordan’s ”Happiness”. I’ve made it my mission to make their life a living hell ever since.
I am a post-truth cringe-core troll who is trying to find a lighter in the engulfing flames of planet earth. Bodycon is part and parcel of this. It has grown a pair of gorgeous legs and sashayed into the beast that is now. Don’t for one second think I have any control over it.
What does Bodycon mean to you?
Jane Norman: The whole point is that there is no point. We are deeply unserious and boastful about life’s guilty pleasures. If there’s one thing about homosexuals, we know how to party. It is my absolute honour to party with the best of the best. Bodycon is a party for the bar staff, and anyone else who knows what blue roll is.
What does the future of Bodycon look like?
Jane Norman: Bodycon is the only constant. Bodycon now. Bodycon then. Bodycon and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on.
What does the community and space at Bodycon mean to you?
Ashtrey: It’s one of the rare spaces where I feel fully seen, not just tolerated. As a mixed-race, queer DJ, I often exist between worlds, but at Bodycon, that in-betweenness becomes power. It’s sweaty, it’s political, it’s joyful, and it’s ours. The community there doesn’t just dance. We affirm each other. We protect each other. We become the space. It’s not about fitting in – it’s about taking up space exactly as we are.
How would you describe Bodycon in one word?
Ashtrey: Mental.
What are your favourite beauty looks you’ve shot at Bodycon?
Roxy Lee: A personal favourite of mine in terms of looks is the adult baby edition of Bodycon, which was called Bottycon – I just thought it was genius and completely up my street.
What does the community and space at Bodycon mean to you?
Roxy Lee: Superstore as a space always feels safe and homely to me, so it’s nice to have a night like Bodycon there because I’ve also met so many people that I think are so fab creatively, or have become really good friends with. There’s just a bubbliness in the air that’s really special, and I don’t know if there’s any other night at Superstore where I feel as girly as I do at Bodycon. It’s very ‘Lambrini and a shag’, if you know what I mean.
What does the community and space at Bodycon mean to you?
Ratty Nye Davies: Bodycon was my first proper party that regularly asked me to host. Some of my dearest friends I met through working and partying at Bodycon. Bodycon also doesn’t take itself too seriously and is purely about fun, something sometimes our community needs, especially now.
What’s the most memorable Bodycon night for you?
Ratty Nye Davies: Honestly, it has to be when Jane and Bodycon threw me my 21st birthday party and named it Rattycon back in 2019. I even got paid my host fee just to show up, which felt extremely chic. It was the first night of that London heatwave when it hit 40 degrees, everyone’s make-up melted off and I nearly slipped off the bar a few times because the walls were literally sweating. Instead of singing “Happy Birthday”, Sharon Le Grand and the whole top bar sang me Baby Bird’s “You’re Gorgeous” and I cried in a beehive wig.
How would you describe Bodycon in one word?
Ratty Nye Davies: Girls Aloud (two words, does that count?)
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