Parallel Number One: Leigh Bowery and Matty Bovan.
Whereas once conformity was the aspiration, it is individuality that we value in today’s world. Fashion has expanded from being the response to historical and cultural shifts to being a creative outlet to express one’s individuality. Today everyone wants to be unique.
I’d like to link two designers who in their career have definitely been unique; and in expressing their individuality have gone beyond and above conventional perceptions.
Leigh Bowery (1961-1994) was a fashion designer and performance artist known for his flamboyant costumes and outlandish makeup. Designers (Gareth Pugh, Alexander Mcqueen, Junya Watanabe, and many others) are often referencing and discussing Leigh Bowery’s impressive archive of looks.
One of the designers that continues to explore Bowery is Matty Bovan who is one of the most provocative and unconventional designers of our time. Bovan is able to dispute our inherent ideas of fashion and how we wear our clothes. This challenge to our preexisting notions of fashion was executed by Bowery as well.
Leigh Bowery. Photo: Robyn Beeche / Matty Bovan. Photo: Francesca Allen
Both Leigh Bowery and Matty Bovan are uncompromising in their vision and “mental” about craftsmanship. Both designers are connected to London, both above 6 foot tall, and both, in their own way, are shy and self-conscious.
Both got the attention of creatives/performers/musicians: Boy George in Bowery’s crossings and Bjork in Bovan’s among many others. And, as we know, to entice attention in this crowd is extremely challenging.
Both Bovan and Bowery are known to be friendly, kind, well-mannered, and intelligent. Both used themselves as a medium. “I like it (make up) as a creative expression, I think it’s empowering. It acts as a kind of barrier because I’m 6 foot 3 and I don’t dress that conventionally,” says Bovan in Dazed Beauty Video: Taste the rainbow with Matty Bovan.
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Dazed Beauty: Taste the rainbow with Matty Bovan
Both style mavens, fashion designers, and models have an affinity to hand-crafted garments, bulgy outfits, and colorful prints. Bowery’s aunt taught him how to crochet and knit when he was a child, and he was quite proficient in both. Bovan graduated from Central Saint Martin with a degree in knitwear. With his 12-look graduate collection Bovan won the the L’Oreal professional Creative Award, and soon after the LVMH Graduate Prize in 2015. He also worked under Nicolas Ghesquiere at Louis Vuitton for a year.
Leigh Bowery. Photos: Fergus Greer
Matty Bovan MA Central Saint Martins
Undoubtedly, in the past two and a half decades (since Bowery died in 1994) there were a lot of people challenging the convention. However, as the art historian John Richardson wrote about Leigh Bowery: “In this jaded age, when nobody gets shocked by anything anymore, Leigh still managed to shock people in an intelligent way — in an original way”. The above-mentioned can be said about Bovan who with his designs gets people flabbergasted exactly “in an intelligent way — in an original way”.
Bowery and Bovan generated fluidity between the male and the female representative of the spectrum of gender we understand today. They both created their work from an inspiration generated by the intersections of entertainment, artistic expression, vulnerability, and one’s relationship to power utilizing knits, textiles, make up, and deformation of the body.
Leigh Bowery
Matty Bovan SS19
Matty Bovan says: “People react quite quickly because it’s a very visual medium, so people have quite strong opinions about it, and I think that’s good. My idea is to really challenge and push what I think is tasteful as well”.
Their ideas are a manifestation of the intersection of the body distortion, the clothes, the way we carry ourselves, the environment, and everything is on the edge between wearability and desirability.
Leigh Bowery. Photos: Ole Christiansen, Fergus Greer
Matty Bovan AW18
Both designed the least literal pieces, most perplexing, most fun and fantastical and theatrical with hoods and headpieces that covered the head entirely (Bovan collaborated with illustrious milliner Stephen Jones).
Both designers connect us with a fantasy people always keep craving. Whereas Bowery only designed looks for himself and his friends, we are lucky to have the opportunity to purchase Matty Bovan’s creations, though some get sold out rather quickly. So, why don’t we experience thе fantasy in Bovan’s garments? I’m in!
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MATTY BOVAN AUTUMN/WINTER 2021 “ODYSSEY”
Collage: Lesya Pakharyna