Launching this week, the collection will feature imagery of the Australian performance artist, who rose to fame in 1980s London
In news announced today, Supreme’s latest collection will celebrate Australian performance artist and nightlife legend Leigh Bowery. Bowery – who died in 1994 – rose to fame during the 1980s in the midst of the New Romantic movement in London, known for his dramatic hand-crafted looks which delighted in using his body as spectacle. “He liked to create chaos around him, and with Taboo [Bowery’s subversive club night] he created a scene where there were no rules,” the musician Boy George once said of him. Later, Bowery would become a fixture on the city’s art scene, designing costumes for Michael Clark’s dance company, captured on film by Charles Atlas, and posing for British painter Lucian Freud.
Supreme’s collection will feature imagery of Bowery over a number of pieces, including a long-sleeved shirt – pictured above – hoodies, and a T-shirt. The artwork featured is by Jim Krewson, Michael Costiff and Fergus Greer – the latter of which spoke recently to AnOther about photographing Bowery over the years, on the occasion of Fergus Greer: Leigh Bowery – Looks at Michael Hoppen Gallery in 2019. “Leigh brought himself and his looks and creative vision, I brought my cameras, lighting and films, and my craft and creative vision, and together those things produced an alchemy,” Greer said.
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the collection will go to Visual Aids. Visual Aids is an organisation based in New York which uses art to fight Aids by “provoking dialogue, supporting HIV positive artists and preserving a legacy, because Aids is not over”. Bowery himself died from Aids-related complications aged just 33.
The collection will be available online from June 25, 2020 and in Japanese stores and online from June 27, 2020. As stores in US, UK and France are temporarily closed, shipping fees will be waived on all orders over £150/€150.