This article argues for the consideration of the lecture-performance as a genre that offers rich possibilities for critical fashion discourse, one that is uniquely suited to the material, embodied nature of clothing.The article recounts a lecture-performance by Australian-based design
group The Stitchery Collective, which explored moments in history that demonstrate fashion’s capacity to resist, rebel and turn the political into the fabulous. From Amelia Bloomer’s bloomers to the sans-culottes of revolutionary France, fashion has acted as a tool and medium for
great social protest and momentum for change. In contemporary fashion, local designers in Australia embed counter-fashion ideology into their business practices to offer a counteraction to the more negative effects of capital-F Fashion. The lecture-performance aimed to reframe personal consumption
choices in the now, via the political fashion of the past, as politically motivated and most of all, capable of contributing to real change. The Stitchery proposed that in fashion, the personal is political and the political is personal, both throughout history and in the present day. The
creative work combined public lecture, historical dress up, contemporary fashion showcase and call to action in an engaging lecture-performance format.
This visual essay explores the creative practice of The Stitchery Collective, which uses costume as a strategy in their participatory works. Inspired by performance artist, queer icon and costume lover Leigh Bowery, The Stitchery Collective has created The Bowery Party, a series of events encouraging radical dress up. These immersive occasions emphasize the significance of costume as enabling joy, community and extravagant social performance. The essay discusses the importance of Bowery as a figure in designing the party in terms of the nature of participant responses, as his legacy provides a subversive approach to costuming the self. The analysis focuses on strategies for and the importance of making and holding space, both physical and virtual, for alternate visions of the body – an empowering ethic that celebrates diversity and inclusivity. The costumes created by the attending public are challenging, often both to wear and to social, gender and body norms. This essay offers a brief example of the costumes created by participants in direct response to Bowery as a radical, slippery and chaotic aesthetic target.
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