Art & Fashion Friends

David Bowie, accompanied by Klaus Nomi on Saturday Night Live in 1979.

In Peter Wollen's Art and Fashion: Friends or Enemies, the discussion revolves in part around the interdependent relationships that have long existed among designers and artists. I will be presenting some images and examples of this in a slide presentation next week, but also thought about the way in which this played out in the New York club scene in the 80s. The Club Kids were inspired (in part) by David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust character, who in turn found inspiration in club personalities like Klaus Nomi. In an excerpt from Wikipedia, an example of this cross pollination of inspiration is described well:

David Bowie heard about Nomi's performances in New York, and soon after met him and Joey Arias at the Mudd Club. Bowie hired them as performers and back-up singers for his appearance on Saturday Night Live which aired on December 15, 1979. The band performed "TVC 15", "The Man Who Sold the World", and "Boys Keep Swinging". During the performance of "TVC 15", Nomi and Arias dragged around a large prop pink poodle with a television screen in its mouth. Nomi was so impressed with the plastic quasi-tuxedo suit that Bowie wore during "The Man Who Sold the World" that he commissioned one to be made for himself. Nomi can be seen wearing the suit on the cover of his self-titled album, as well as during a number of his music videos. Nomi wore his variant of the outfit, in monochromatic black-and-white with spandex and makeup to match, up until the last few months of his life, when he… wore a Baroque era operatic outfit complete with full collar.

Klaus Nomi