After this we poked them in the eyes to make them miserable
Starting off in our neck of the woods, long clothing was born in the markets of East London by two boys in pursuit of no-nonsense clothing that matched their tastes. Fed-up with over-complicated designs, their signature ‘Long’ shirt was born – simple yet effectively dramatic over sized t-shirts.
Andre and Manaboutworld
A question asked by most people across East London over the last couple of weeks. A mystical creature of 6′1″ in heels and a gamine size 8, Andre J. stepped off the plane on August 18th and hit the party circuit over the bank holiday weekend. Visiting from YC Andre’s, doe eyes and rose-bude red framed smiled command a “who is that?” reaction everywhere he goes . Possibly the prettiest bearded boy you ever did see, Andre also has a fine pair of catwalk stomping pins which made Caroline Murphy’s look distinctly average on the cover of French Vogue.
Candy-floss, Fried Eggs, Bananas, Ginger Bread men – when I was little I used to imagine how cool the world would be if it was completely edible. As a lot of you know I have really bad junkfood addiction so I’ve been drawn to Emma Bell with a rumbling stomach drooling at her delicious use of candy tooth-rot colours and motifs. Emma has created a glitter infused. licorice allsort, pick n mix world of fashion. Her AW09 collection drew on fairytale references with wolves and little decapitated piggies, simultaneously sweet and sinister.
Holestar is a an artist, performer, DJ and tranny. A woman, with a fanny, dressing up as a man, in drag, who generally doesn’t have a fanny. Confused? Yes I was, enought to scratch off the pan-stick and dig a little deeper.
Graduating with a masters degree in Fine Art from Central St Martins her work can be compared to Cindy Sherman who has used her body to express herself in a series of self-portraits using various media. She blurs the boundaries between Avant Garde and mass entertainment, pop culture and the underground managing to seamlessly entertain contemporary art junkies and trash culture addicts alike .
Just back from filming Ring them Bells at Glastonbury – Britain’s first documentary about about London’s alternative queer scene – we caught up with to probe and poke..
I’m feeling slightly like I’m at seance, am I speaking to Julie or holestar? Holestar here. Julie is the manager.
One word, all too often overlooked – Why? It’s a hell of a cliché but I think I was born with a twisted need to create and perform.
If holestar was filling out a job application what title would they be ticking? Artist.
Can you tell us how holestar has evolved? Holestar is my artist name, BD (before drag). My work at the time was about sexuality and gender and I got the idea after seeing many a tired old drag act and thought, “I can do that”. It was initially a one off art piece but carried on when I met a DJ whilst living in Vienna who wanted me to MC over his sets. From there it took on a life of its own and five years on, I still love it.
I’ve since evolved to singing, acting, performance art, DJing and back to the classic drag tradition of lip synching. I’m still a visual artist and currently making a documentary about The Downlow, the worlds first travelling gay disco.
