On watching two ‘bio-streams’ about dead gay fashionistas I could have been Lee Alexander McQueen’s husband. Back in the last years of the 20th century, the now sadly deceased British designer, usually described as an ‘enfant terrible’ of the fashion world, offered to marry me. In writing. In 1998, my fax… Read More »High Stitching: The lives & loves of Lagerfeld & Balenciaga
When ageing Smiths fans like me sing along to ‘This Charming Man’, their second, breakthrough 1983 single – and the song that ruined our lives – we fondly imagine ourselves achieving some kind of crude approximation of his famous vocals, after all these years of study and devotion. Trying to… Read More »This Disarming Man: Morrissey’s Smiths Solo
On the 55th anniversary of the NYC bar riot at which everyone over 75 now claims they threw the first bottle, I thought I would post this piece about the expiration of gay bohemianism in the 1980s. More a series of not terribly well-integrated notes than essay, it was originally… Read More »1989: The Year the C20th & Gay Bohemianism Ended
How the Austrian Cinders became a Hollywood Prince Two decades ago, during peak metrosexmania in the US, the bodybuilder movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger, never exactly shy about drawing attention to himself – and now running for office – briefly came out as metrosexual. Or at least, welcomed the tag being applied to… Read More »Arnold Schmahzenegger
We’re all living in Nick Kamen’s Launderette now Another fondly remembered part of the 1980s finished its last cycle last week. Nick Kamen, real name Ivor Neville Kamen, the Essex-born much-gasped-over star of the famous 1985 Levi’s 501 male striptease ‘Launderette’ TV ad, checked out. He was just fifty-nine. Sadly,… Read More »Jeans-Genie – The Lecherous Legacy of Those 80s Levi’s Ads