I S S E Y M I Y A K E

Miyake is considered the

first Asian fashion designer

to gain renown worldwide.

Known for blending

the flowing fabrics and

textile designs of the East with modern

technology and production methods of

the West, he experimented with natural

and synthetic fibers and advanced textile

science. The winner of nearly every

fashion award, he is known to dislike the title “fashion

designer” and prefers to be considered an artist whose

medium is fabric. Two of Miyake’s most popular lines

are the Pleats Please prints that are permanently pleated

yet flexible, and A-POC (A Piece of Cloth), a

single, ready-to-wear piece of clothing. The

Issey Miyake label also appears on numerous

non-clothing items, including perfume, hosiery,

and home furnishings.

Miyake was born in 1938, in Hiroshima, Japan, and was seven years old when the atomic

bomb was dropped on that city during World War II. His mother, a teacher, was badly

burned by the bombing and died four years later of complications. In an illness unrelated

“

“

to the bomb, Miyake suffered from a bone-marrow

disease at age ten. Ironically, it was the American

occupation in Japan that gave Miyake an introduction to

western culture.Miyake’s interests turned to the artistic

even as a child, and with dreams of being a dancer and

an artist, he took an interest in the pictures of fashions in his sister’s glamour

magazines. Admiring the

way clothes could drape

the human body to make

a statement, he decided

By the way, Marilyn Monroe was a size 14

Words like ‘important’ and ‘controversial’

inevitably surface when you examine

the lengthy career of German composer

Karlheinz Stockhausen. A few facts to

kick off. He pioneered electronic music in

“variable form”. He has written graphical

scores that can be read from any direction.

Inspired by dreams of flying, he has

written works for a string quartet where

each participant performs from their own

helicopter hovering aWbove the concert

hall. In short, he does things none of us

really understand but sound really

quite impressive.

I AM GOING TO BE A GREAT ACTRESS .

I don’t want to be remembered as a

person with Aids,

I want to be remembered as a person with ideas.

Leigh Bowery

unique

26.03.61 - 31 .12 .94

Leigh Bowery (1961-1994), undoubtedly one of the most

controversial and avant-garde personalities of the 80’s.

“About Leigh Bowery” aims to be a photographic cross-

section of the deeds of the artist, performer, fashion

designer, aspiring pop star and object of art that Leigh

Bowery has been. Though almost unknown in Italy, he has

changed the visual language of fashion, and his personality

influenced people

like Lucian Freud,

Boy George,

Antony & the

Johnsons and

David LaChapelle,

who all have shared

and spread his

avant-garde ideas.

For his ability to

change identity,

Leigh Bowery can

be considered as an

authentic witness of

the protest against

s t anda rd i z a t i on

and conservatism,

thus representing

the uniqueness

of every life that

does not accept

rules of conduct

or appearance, in a

pure new-romantic

style, bringing out the individual with the expressive

freedom of genius. Bowery offers himself in an image

that - in a transgender vision - goes beyond the separation

of masculine and feminine appearances and behaviour by

means of the body and clothes, originating new concepts

of glamour and beauty. Leigh Bowery is one of the most

extreme interpreters of the historical context he lives in:

the one of the abolition of every limitation in favour of

complete experimentation and contamination among the

languages of music, art, fashion and design. It is the decade

of Margaret Thatcher (1979-1990), the birth of MTV

(1981), the fall of the Berlin wall (1989), the release of Like

a Virgin (1984) and other music hits like Thriller (1982).

Moreover, with tv, and especially with the promotional use

of music videos, visual impact becomes essential for every

artist willing to enter the commercial circuit. Fergus Greer

and Johnny Rozsa met Bowery and collaborated with him

from 1986 to 1994,

when he passed

away because of

HIV. Through a

series of portraits,

both photographers

give to those who

could not meet

him a real visual

guide of Leigh

Bowery and all he

created with his

own image. Johnny

Rozsa collaborates

with Bowery in a

photo shooting

for the creation of

Christmas Card.

With an unusually

emotional view

for a fashion

p h o t o g r a p h e r ,

Rozsa depicts

Bowery’s genuine

transformism, which sacrifices the wearability of the dress

in favour of the show. As well as actively collaborating

with him, Fergus Greer is also a dear friend of Bowery’s:

he released the “Leigh Bowery Looks” book, with

previously unreleased photos. It is Wexactly with this

visual account that the more intimate acquaintance

between the two emerges. Greer captures al the profound

and hard work that Bowery carries on around his body.

“I try to have the best possible image thanks to my

individuality and expressiveness”. (Leigh Bowery)v