Totally devoted

When Italian Vogue shoots a fashion story at a retro London club night, you know they're tapping into a subculture that's about to go supernova. The club is Lady Luck, a smoky bohemian den in London's less-than-fashionable Euston; the sort of place where rock 'n' roll reigns supreme and the spirit of the 1950s has been exhumed in a cloud of black magic mambo. It's where girls with hourglass figures vamp it up while suited spivs run combs through perfectly sculpted quiffs. Ignore the price of the drinks and you'd never guess this was 2004.

In case you hadn't noticed, the 1950s are back and it's not only niche clubs like Lady Luck that are lapping up the vibe. It's never wise to lump a few sundry facts together and call it a scene but there's no escaping the whiff of nostalgia. Ever since Kate Moss made a second-hand chiffon dress look like the most glamorous thing you'd ever seen, vintage clothing has elevated itself from Desperately Seeking Susan to Breakfast At Tiffany's in the blink of a false eyelash.

Go retro

Designers such as John Galliano at Christian Dior and Dolce & Gabbana have all plundered the decade with a tongue-in-chic ferocity while high street stores now reproduce the look ad nauseam. Everywhere you look, from a Stray Cats rockabilly reunion to the red peep-toe sandals in M&S, people are going retro.

So what's with this endless fascination for a bygone era? What is it that's made a generation brought up on sex and drugs suddenly want to rock'n'roll?

'Fads and styles and re-evaluations of previous eras seem to ebb and flow and have done since the late 1970s,' says Lady Luck's DJ, Ian Johnston. 'I can't dismiss the revival because I would never have heard 1950s music if people like Ace

Records or The Cramps hadn't revived it in the early 1980s. Everything comes around; it's all about putting it into a new context.'

Ladies' night

Although the music confines itself to specialist nights, 1950s style has gone mainstream. 'One of the main reasons is Miuccia Prada,' explains Lucie Kearney, senior fashion editor at British Elle. 'When she does a trend, the fashion pack follows. It's about women wanting to be more feminine, so designers have focused on an era when women were women and men were men,' she says. 'The vintage thing really took off in Milan for autumn/winter 2004. D&G based their show on a kind of British eclectic vintage style and even Armani made references to it in both his shows. It also came through in many of the accessories, like little fur shrugs and Marni's bags and shoes. It was everywhere.'

Of course, the die-hard fans have seen it all before. As soon as the next big thing comes along, the fashion faithful will simply kick off their brothel creepers. For the truly dedicated, the aesthetic and mood of the period is not something you can buy off the peg and their devotion, much like Elvis, lives on.

'With Lady Luck, there is no elitism,' says Johnston. 'Everybody's welcome as long as they've put some sort of effort in. Of course, other clubs have sprung up and jumped on the template that we established, but hey, good luck to them.

No one holds the copyright to a decade.'