Any of Sink the Pink’s 24,000 Instagram followers will know that its motto is “Everyone is welcome and everyone is celebrated”, but it could just as easily be “You do you”. The club night – founded in 2008 and run as a collective by Glyn Fussell and Amy Redmond – began as a Saturday event in east London and has grown over the past decade. It now organises and performs at special events several times a year; ones that take in stage shows, dancing, fun and dressing-up.

Sink the Pink stands for self-expression-comes-as-standard, anything-you-like style; the kind not seen on the dancefloor since the likes of Blitz and Taboo, where Leigh Bowery – who counted everything from PVC to green faux fur as part of his nightlife wardrobe – was king of the dancefloor.

Eppie Conrad at Savage. Photograph: Alecsandra Raluca Dragoi/The Guardian

All this may be seen as something to be applauded, but also quite niche, if it wasn’t for Sink the Pink’s reach. The collective has stats that most club promoters would envy. Its events regularly sell out on the day of release, with 25,000 expected to attend this year alone. Regulars include Sam Smith, Daisy Lowe and Caroline Flack, while Lily Allen and Jessie Ware have also performed. It has its regular Saturday night, Savage, in east London; a festival, the Mighty Hoopla; and performs at student unions nationwide. The Colour Ball, on 7 July at the Brixton Academy is its next event, as part of the Pride celebrations.

Sink the Pink calls itself “the LGBTQ+ collective changing UK club culture” and part of its success comes down to its reputation as a place to dress up; one with no rules. This inclusive attitude chimes with a woke generation which – across gender – champions self-expression through the-bolder-the-better, selfie-friendly looks. “I think personal style is important, but fashion is something dictated by an industry and we are not about that,” says Fussell. “Stylistically, we encourage people to be themselves.” Forget trends, then. Outfits here are about colour, humour, body-paint, rainbow wigs and smiles – often all at once. This is seen on the dancefloor, yes, but also on the Sink the Pink family, the 80-strong group of men and women who stage shows at each event.

Jacqui Potato at Savage. Photograph: Alecsandra Raluca Dragoi/The Guardian

The rise of Sink the Pink’s take on clothing and style could be seen as part of a wider trend, where the extrovert side of LGBTQ+ identity is becoming increasingly visible in the mainstream. Drag is now streamed on to laptops everywhere, thanks to the huge success of Ru Paul’s Drag Race. The first episode of the most recent series became the No 1 topic trending on Twitter when it aired this year. Fashion brands are seeing an opportunity to connect with the LGBTQ+ demographic. Gap, H&M and Weekday have created products around Pride. Topshop and Topman have commissioned Charles Jeffrey to create a range of T-shirts celebrating LGBTQ+ identity and Adidas has its Prouder campaign, with Edward Enninful, the editor of British Vogue, designing a one-off Samba trainer. “More people are speaking up and out, and celebrating who they are,” says Joseph Kocharian, fashion and grooming director at Attitude magazine, “and brands and celebrities are collaborating and getting involved.”

Joseph Wilson in Savage. Photograph: Alecsandra Raluca Dragoi/The Guardian

Selfridges has worked with the collective for two years and appreciate this point of view. “We’re a place where an irreverent sense of fun, daring and entertainment runs through everything we do,” says its creative director, Linda Hewson. “Of course, we are first and foremost a style and fashion business, so it’s easy to see why we have welcomed Sink the Pink with open arms.” For Hewson, it’s refreshing to see clothing and style in a different way, within the traditional environment of a department store. “Their uninhibited style goes beyond gender and mainstream fashion, instead it places the focus on character,” she says.

Ru Paul’s glossier “girls” are the most visible idea of drag in 2018, but Sink the Pink provides a more arty, experimental alternative; what Kocharian calls “a catherine wheel of frivolity”. Sometimes the everything-is-game attitude can cause controversy – as with a meme of a cat on Instagram that some said was Islamophobic – but it also provides a home for outsiders. Ten years in, Fussell says his collective is “the face of the underdog. I always say weirdos win in the end … as we have got bigger, it turns out a lot of people feel this way.” The anything-goes spontaneity of Sink the Pink is spilling over beyond the Selfridges shopping hall. Although this attitude to style has been celebrated on the gay clubbing scene for a decade, it is only now that the rest of society is starting to catch up. It has been seen at festivals recently: glitter beards, unicorn horns and rainbow wigs. It has even bled into Drag Race itself. The season 10 finalist Kameron Michaels – with pink hair and devil horns in the reunion episode – is very Sink the Pink.

Maxi More at Savage. Photograph: Alecsandra Raluca Dragoi/The Guardian

Jonbenet Blonde and Asttina Mandella, who perform at the club night, are inspired by pop stars including “Toxic-era” Britney, Grace Jones, Little Mix and Diana Ross, as well as fashion designers, including Gareth Pugh, who has created costumes for their shows. They say the look is hard to categorise but does have some defining characteristics. “You know, like a kid’s drawing where they don’t see the lines; they colour outside the lines?” says Blonde. “That’s a Sink the Pink thing, it’s drag outside the lines.” “Whether it’s an outfit made, sewn and glued from scratch, if it’s a bin bag or expensive gown, people do whatever they like,” says Mandella. “As I like to say, you do you.”