Fashion Design
Dara Kiely
THE LOVE BUTCHER
My collection is an immersion into the subcultures of 1970’s/80’s New York City, namely the sex trade, the gay leather/BDSM scene and the Punk scene. Each look in the collection is representative of a character typical of each scene; The John, The Working Girl, The Rent Boy, The Leatherman, The Punk, and The Groupie. I decided to make two womenswear looks and one menswear look out of my line-up.
As these characters interact with one another, their entwinement is portrayed through the dissection, deconstruction and intermingling of garments symbolic of each of these subcultures; the business suit, stockings, denim jeans, bondage wear and the Perfecto biker jacket.
These shapes are supplemented with the use of print – portraying anecdotal stories of key members of each these subcultures and is informed by the bricolage club-flyers, band T-shirts and underground magazine publications that spread the word of Punk throughout New York City.
The monochromatic colour palette is influenced by the photographic works of Miron Zownir, Robert Mapplethorpe and David Godlis, whose images documented the sex trade, the gay leather/BDSM scene and the Punk scene respectively on grainy 35mm black and white film stocks, which is echoed in the distressed surface treatments of the textiles. Red is used throughout and is informed by the expressive use of this colour in William Friedkin’s 1980 crime thriller “Cruising” and personifies “The Red Light” of vice, as well as the violent and dangerous nature of the city during this time, which ultimately claimed the lives of many of the key figures of these subcultures.