Disco nights in London

The '70s are back! It'll be a while before men outside Dalston start growing handlebar moustaches, but on the high street at least, there is no mistaking its rising popularity. Rock star icons are being looked to for style inspiration (Elton John too, according to online fashion website Asos…), floaty disco frocks are being hyped as the only thing to wear to festivals this summer, and glamorous mirrorball excess is being sprinkled everywhere in between.

Especially in clubland. Even the theme for Bestival this year - Rock Stars, Pop Stars and Divas - reflects this growing nostalgia for a time when partying was all disco-fuelled debauchery and having sex with each other over nightclub balconies. Or, at the other end of the '70s spectrum, pure, unapologetic, 'Saturday Night Fever'-whiffy cheese.

Authentic 2011 clubbing equivalents to the Studio 54 heyday to complement these new fashions are, however, not so easy to find. Frank Broughton, the disco documenter who co-runs www.djhistory.com, concurs: 'Studio 54 was all about celebrity, exclusivity, cocaine and “can you get in”. The closest thing today would be wherever the latest Mayfair spot is.'

Which, let's face it, wouldn't be very '70s chic with Katie P and co lumping around. But, while we're not about to wear anything sheer to Infernos in Clapham on a Saturday night, there is plenty of that cheesy '70s stuff on offer. Dig out your garish glad rags for long-running (21 years!) club night Carwash, which recently moved to The Den in central London, where it now parties twice a month. It's not the most credible Studio 54 experience, and there certainly won't be a sniff of celebrity, but there will be all the disco balls, dancers and oversized Afro wigs that you could ever need on a girly night out. Ditto Pacha in Victoria, which welcomes high-production disco-edged nights like Hed Kandi and a new 'sexy' fashion element, as at its I Love Pacha I Love Fashion special on Friday.

There are a few choice venues for a '70s injection without necessarily using a matching soundtrack. Circus in Covent Garden, a whirlwind of cabaret and well-priced fine dining, is the glitziest setting for a night out that we've seen, complete with shimmering mirrorball wall and futuristic furnishings. You could imagine gorgeous Factory tranny Candy Darling vogueing along its 7m-long head table. Over in Shoreditch, meanwhile, Electricity Showrooms boasts a flashing dancefloor downstairs on which to flex your Tony Manero moves during its weekend DJ nights. On the cabaret tip, there's Agent Lynch's Studio 64, which has just finished its latest disco-burlesque (and Prince-themed) run at The Brickhouse on Brick Lane, but it will return at some point this year.

The '70s spirit that has always lived on in London clubland, says Broughton, is 'the disco underground' which started in black gay clubs in New York in the early '70s and 'encouraged an atmosphere that was much more about wild abandon and tribal/family togetherness'. It's this dirty disco vibe that the high-gloss Studio 54 eventually killed off. But, of course, there are plenty of its disciples still throwing parties in London.

Leaders of the pack are still Disco Bloodbath who, since returning to their former basement home, Passion in Stoke Newington, have shrugged off the rucksack-hunched disco tourists and reignited a mingling of fashion types and proper disco heads. Likewise, Horse Meat Disco is still at The Eagle in Vauxhall for hands-in-the-air diva anthems every week, despite, says Broughton, 'people tiring of a whole night of squealy queeny music'. Broughton and DJHistory.com cohort Bill Brewster's own disco shakedown, Low Life, which has been lying low for 15 years, is another example of authentic disco debauchery, though you have to be on the mailing list to know about the next secret do.

The latest disco contender is Love Fever, whose last party brought 54 and Paradise Garage spinner Francois K over for one of its sophisticated soirées, with a crowd of 'freaky fashionistas, dressed up dolls, playful boys and underground dance lovers'. There's also the impromptu, gayer and more 'art school' side of the disco underground, with nights like Caligula and its new spin-off (from Jim Warboy) SOS, which was last at Egg at the end of April, turning clubbing into a catwalk, not to mention Jodie Harsh's Circus, which is now at showstopping iconic club Café de Paris.

There may not be anywhere to park up your white horses just yet, but you'd better hitch up your pressed palazzo pants - they're going to get just a little bit dirty.