scp 5 (1) pp.

67–78 Intellect Limited 2020

1. Studies in Costume & Performance

2. Volume 5 Number 1
3. © 2020 Intellect Ltd Article. English language. https://doi.org/10.1386/scp_00014_1
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15. SOFIA VRANOU
16. Queen Mary University of London
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n. 02
21.
22.
‘Pakis from Outer Space’: tio 2
bu td
23.
Oriental postmodernity in
tri t L

24.
25.
is ec

26.
Leigh Bowery’s performative
r d ell

27.
fo Int

28.
29.
costuming
ot t
N igh

30.
31.
yr

32.
op

33.
34.
C

35. ABSTRACT KEYWORDS

36. With his extraordinary self-styled personas, the late London-based costume Leigh Bowery
37. designer, nightclub extravaganza and subcultural icon Leigh Bowery constantly postmodernism
38. unsettled clear divisions between fashion, performance and visual art. His perform- orientalism
39. ative costuming reflects in a prolific manner his hybrid aesthetic and his ability cultural appropriation
40. to fuse a wide range of visual elements stemming from high fashion, art, main- pastiche
41. stream culture and underground practices that en masse render his bizarre pres- 1980s
42. ence highly enigmatic. Inspired primarily by the aesthetics and the representations
43. of South Asian culture, and noticeably deviating both from the subcultural style
44. of the early New Romantics and mainstream fashion trends, Bowery’s allegedly
45. first performative look, the ‘Pakis from Outer Space’, integrates an array of clash-
46. ing symbols and motifs in a distinctively postmodernist fashion. As fetishization
47. of South Asian iconography, Bowery’s enactment provides a platform for deeper
48. analysis in regard to the problems that postmodernist cultural appropriation poses
49. for the politics of representation of the ‘exotic’, non-western other. Drawing on
50. the discourses of postmodernism and orientalism, this article examines the visual
51. codes of the controversial look and unfolds the ways in which by constructing a
52.

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 Sofia Vranou

distorted and eccentric image of an inclusive South Asian identity, Bowery slips 1.
in cultural stereotyping and ethnic generalization. Although his postmodernist 2.
parodic ethos could potentially be read as an attempt to create a critical – but polit- 3.
ically problematic – dialectical space regarding orientalist clichés, it does not only 4.
fail to deconstruct monolithic representations but, conversely, reinforces oriental 5.
banality. 6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
PRACTISING SUB/CULTURAL PASTICHE 11.
Thinking about Leigh Bowery, one might be caught in an endless mesh of 12.
cultural allusions. He is mostly remembered as an outrageous costume maker 13.
of the 1980s that inspired some of the most significant contemporary fash- 14.
ion designers, a club persona and performance artist, Lucian Freud’s muse, 15.
but above all, a visual provocateur. As a postmodern dandy of sorts, Bowery 16.
with his performative costuming constantly blurred the boundaries between 17.
art and life challenging and disrupting at the same time the dominant histo- 18.
ries of visual culture and performance art. Fellow club freak and collabora- 19.

0
tor Boy George, for whom Bowery designed some of his early career outfits, 20.

n. 02
famously described the latter’s grand self-styled presence as ‘modern art on 21.
tio 2
legs’ to underline his perpetual performative practice that extended beyond the 22.
bu td
gallery (Tilley 1997: front cover). Particularly interested in the shock effect of 23.
tri t L

the looks he mostly created for himself, Bowery has been variously described 24.
as ‘outrageous’, ‘beautiful’, ‘genius’, ‘terrifying’, ‘larger than life’ and ‘the sick- 25.
is ec

est person’ (Atlas 2004). 26.

r d ell

Originally from Australia, Bowery showed an interest in clothes from an 27.

fo Int

early age. Although he briefly attended a fashion design course at the Royal 28.
Melbourne Institute of Technology before moving to London in late 1980 29.
ot t

to mix with the trendy crowd and pursue a career in fashion, he soon after
N igh

30.
rejected its commercial aspect and principle of distribution. The objective of 31.
yr

the industry for mass appeal was ‘a bit problematic’ for Bowery as such a condi- 32.
op

tion would mean not only compromising his extravagant vision but also losing 33.
the uniqueness of his individual sense of styling that he mainly showed off in 34.
C

nightclubs (Carlaw 1986). His grotesque creations, which subvert mainstream 35.
trends and normative ideals of beauty significantly, served as an extension of 36.
his own persona and constituted the most significant means of his perform- 37.
ativity. At the same time, Bowery’s extraordinary designs and styling reflect, 38.
according to Francesca Granata (2017), the transgressive spirit that emerged 39.
widely in 1980s fashion inducing the blast of experimentation witnessed in 40.
the field at the turn of the twenty-first century. 41.
Fashion in London during the 1980s, ‘the decade of nightclubbing’ in 42.
cultural terms (Godfrey 1990: 161), became inextricably linked to the city’s 43.
vibrant subcultural club scenes and cutting-edge publications such as i-D, 44.
The Face and Blitz, which celebrated creativity and scrutinized subcultural 45.
styles regularly (Stanfill 2013). As Michael Bracewell remarks, getting ready 46.
for a night out had become at the time an ‘art form’ of sorts epitomized by 47.
the New Romantics: London’s subcultural club scene that followed the explo- 48.
sion of punk and inspired Bowery’s early sartorial experiments (Atlas 2004). 49.
His biographer and close friend Sue Tilley recalls how these ‘new trend-setters’ 50.
adopted an exorbitant attitude towards the appropriation of historical period 51.
fashion elements and androgynous style: ‘[n]othing was too fancy: frilly skirts, 52.

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 ‘Pakis from Outer Space’

1. velvet knickerbockers, satin gowns, patent leather shoes with big buckles and,
2. of course, plenty of make-up for both sexes’ (1997: 17). Although Bowery was
3. highly invested in the New Romantics and London’s club scene more broadly,
4. which consisted his cultural and social milieu, he did not adhere to any of
5. the subcultural styles. Undeniably, his looks reveal that he rather embraced a
6. much more complex approach to styling by enriching the post-punk attitude
7. of the New Romantics with a multitude of aesthetics deriving from a wider,
8. cross-cultural context soaked in glitter.
9. In the ‘Pakis from Outer Space’, Bowery’s controversial first performative
10. look that is examined below in detail, signifiers of South Asian traditional styl-
11. ing and iconography merge with visual elements inspired by European fash-
12. ion and high art, queer aesthetics and the colourful vibe of the circus clown.
13. Unlike New Romantics’ prevalent fetishizing of the English Romantic period,
14. Bowery’s absurd bricolage exceeds any attempt at identification since ‘extract-
15. ing a final set of meanings from the seemingly endless […] play of signifi-
16. ers’ is ‘doomed to failure’. Such unorthodox approaches to styling as Bowery’s,
17. embrace the idea of ‘polysemy’ whereby ‘each text is seen to generate a poten-
18. tially infinite range of meanings’ (Hebdige 1988: 117). This article provides a
19. close reading of Bowery’s imaginative first look and argues that his postmod-

0
20. ernist cultural appropriation of the ‘exotic’ other unsettles the politics of repre-

n. 02
21. sentation of non-western identities by reconstructing a distorted (yet based
22. tio 2
on stereotypical and generalized visual codes) highly contested orientalist
bu td
23. ensemble.
tri t L

24. According to Tilley, Bowery created the look in 1983, but as he was hesi-
25. tant at first to wear it in public, he let artist and close friend Trojan (aka Gary
is ec

26. Barnes) debut it. It was the positive attention Trojan started to attract at night-
r d ell

27. clubs that liberated Bowery from his second thoughts and sparked his crea-
fo Int

28. tivity in costuming (1997: 39–40). Thereafter, Bowery embarked on a lifelong

29. engagement in ‘the total theatricalization of the self, using the nightclub as
ot t
N igh

30. the stage’ (Als 1998: 15). The first time he appeared in i-D magazine’s night-
31. life column was in September 1984 modelling the look during a night out
yr

32. at ‘Do-Do’s’, a monthly club night held at Busby’s in Charing Cross. Fully
op

33. embodying his crafted persona, Bowery presents himself in the caption of the
34. photograph as a designer who is ‘very spiritual’ and ‘one’ with ‘the cosmic’,
C

35. while in his company is a ‘fashion entrepreneur newly arrived from Colombia’
36. Victoria Fernandez (now an established figure  in high fashion) (Anon 1984:
37. 47). A few months later, The Face caught up with the ‘outrageous style’ and
38. dedicated a double-page spread to Bowery and friend Trojan titled ‘The New
39. Glitterati’, which included an introduction to ‘designer and jovial poseur’
40. Bowery along with studio photographs of them in the look shot by Sheila
41. Rock (White 1984: 56).
42. The look, which in various images appears slightly modified, yet firmly
43. attached to its concept, is a visual collage of kitsch, ‘ethnic’ and contemporary
44. fragments put together in a distinctively postmodernist manner. In a studio
45. photograph by Johnny Rozsa documenting the look in its early stages, Bowery
46. and Trojan are seated on the floor close to each other modelling a striking
47. combination of peculiar garments that blend the feminine and the masculine
48. in clashing patterns and textures (Figure 1).
49. Bowery is clothed in what looks like a clownish stripy buttoned jumpsuit
50. in red, yellow and sky-blue shades with a big silver star at the front, and bright
51. red flat ankle boots. His head is covered with a hexagonal-style hat deco-
52. rated with sequins, little shiny stars, and a half moon shaped with rhinestones

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 Sofia Vranou

in the middle. The specific design is suggestive of a ‘chand-bina’, a ‘moon- 1.

shaped pendant’ which, according to Jamila Brij Bhushan, is a type of forehead 2.
decoration for women in Upper India (1964: 164). At the back of the head, a 3.
mop of long hair sticks out, which, in Tilley’s account, was glued to the head- 4.
wear (1997: 40). 5.
In terms of make-up, Bowery appears literally covered in thick paint. Every 6.
exposed part of his body, his face and neck as well as his hands, are painted 7.
grass green. Tiny tinsel stars are glued below his black-lined eyes echoing 8.
the tradition of ‘barwat’, a style of women’s facial decoration that includes 9.
their wear over the eyebrows (Brij Bhushan 1964: 164). On his forehead, left 10.
cheek and neck, something is written in Sanskrit in gold paint. When Cerith 11.
Wyn Evans filmed Bowery and Trojan in the look for his experimental film 12.
Epiphany, he was ‘overjoyed’ to find out that the script Bowery had painted 13.
on his face was copied from a box from a greengrocer and translated as ‘fresh 14.
satsumas from Nepal’ (Tilley 1997: 196). Bowery completed the look with a 15.
‘bindi’, described as ‘a small tinsel forehead ornament’ and known as a reli- 16.
gious symbol in most South Asian cultures (Brij Bhushan 1964: 164), various 17.
faux bijoux, such as a big nose ring with two pearl chains that went to the ear, 18.
plastic pearl bracelets on both hands and cheap-looking rings on all fingers 19.

0
that were emphasized even more by his red pointy manicures. 20.

n. 02
In contrast to the West where certain kinds of non-western jewellery, 21.
tio 2
such as nose rings and piercings in general, are adopted as expressions of 22.
bu td
subcultural style, they are across the region of South Asia not only crafted to 23.
tri t L

‘decorate’ but ‘enhance’ and ‘protect’, with their use being often symbolic and 24.
designating the wearer’s identity, beliefs, community, caste or family status 25.
is ec

(Bala 2010: 142). Bowery’s selection of multiple ornaments reads as a reference 26.
r d ell

to South Asian body decoration, which is favoured by both men and women 27.
fo Int

since antiquity. His nose ring or ‘nath’ is a popular ornament among Indian 28.
women and is regarded as ‘the most seductive’ of all (Bala 2010: 142). Varying 29.
ot t
N igh

in shape and form (from a small stud to a large hoop), the ‘nath’ is a symbol 30.
of ‘marital felicity’ (saubhagya) and a necessary accessory for married women 31.
yr

(Bala 2010: 143). The chain across the cheek (katia) attaching the ‘nath’ to the 32.
op

hair with a hook is used to relieve the strain of the ornament on the nostril 33.
(Brij Bhushan 1964:167). 34.
C

Trojan’s styling appears to be quite minimalistic in comparison to Bowery’s. 35.

He is depicted wearing what looks like a long pale-pink satin skirt, a white bra, 36.
and silver chunky-heeled platform boots, while his purple hat, which is similar 37.
to Bowery’s, is adorned with glitter. His face is bare apart from extra features 38.
painted on, such as misplaced glittery lips and a suggestive outline of a nose 39.
in profile, a style of representation reminiscent of Picasso’s Cubist portraits 40.
of the 1930s. He also wears pieces of Indian-style ornaments, such as chains 41.
attaching his nose ring to his ears, rings on his fingers, and a ‘hath phool’ on 42.
his right wrist: a women’s accessory that consists of a bangle with chains 43.
attached to one or more rings worn on the fingers (Brij Bhushan 1964: 168). 44.
Like Bowery, Trojan sports long green fingernails and a red ‘bindi’ between his 45.
eyebrows. The most distinctive trait in Indian women’s facial decoration, the 46.
red circular mark on the forehead, is yet another element serving as a sign of 47.
cultural appropriation. 48.
As Bracewell observes, Bowery’s significance lies in the fact that he 49.
‘represents the cult of pure artifice and pure alienation [in] a culture which 50.
has become obsessed with authenticity’ (Atlas 2004). Both in terms of style 51.
and means of production, Bowery’s practice reflects to a great extent the 52.

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 ‘Pakis from Outer Space’

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.

0
20.

n. 02
21.
22. tio 2
bu td
23.
tri t L

24.
25.
is ec

26.
r d ell

27. Figure 1:  Leigh Bowery and Trojan as ‘Pakis from Outer Space’, 1983.
fo Int

28. Photograph by Johnny Rozsa.

29.
ot t

postmodernist ethos that culminated during the 1980s in visual culture and
N igh

30.
31. privileged a kind of ‘aesthetic populism’, namely, the assimilation of high
yr

32. culture into the realm of commercial ‘low’ aesthetics (Jameson 1991: 2). This
approach allowed for the ‘emergence of new kinds of texts’, whose hybrid
op

33.
34. nature, Fredric Jameson writes, highly contravened the modernist values of
C

35. aesthetic purity and authenticity (1991: 2). When postmodernism emerged as
36. a cultural dominant in the West in the second half of the twentieth century, it
37. designated a ‘radical break or coupure’ with the existing modernist ideologies
38. and aesthetics, the waning of which was followed by the ‘empirical, chaotic,
39. and the heterogeneous’ (Jameson 1991: 1). The bloom of late capitalism and
40. consequently of consumerism and technology was vital in the fabrication
41. of the postmodern era, which was ‘fascinated’ by a ‘“degraded” landscape of
42. schlock and kitsch’ (Jameson 1991: 2).
43. Viewed as an artistic gesture, the look seems to correspond to the post-
44. modernist ethos and aesthetics, which by the 1980s had reached their peak.
45. Bowery’s visual cacophony, especially in this case, can be read as an instance
46. of pastiche: an art technique synonymous with postmodernist practice that
47. displaced the ‘distinctive individual brush stroke’ of the modernist painter
48. giving space to appropriation (Jameson 1991: 15). In fine arts, pastiche decon-
49. structs the high modernist ideology of an autonomous personal style as well
50. as the much-valued notion of authenticity and the idea of the artist as the
51. absolute centred subject. As ‘the imitation of a peculiar or unique idiosyncratic
52. style’, it stands like ‘blank parody’ without the desire for satire; it is an amalgam

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 Sofia Vranou

of clashing visual elements and an endless appropriation of styles, suggesting, 1.

as Jameson characteristically writes, ‘speech through all the masks and voices 2.
stored up in the imaginary museum of a now global culture’, a phenome- 3.
non that dominates the postmodern condition (1991: 17–18). In contrast to 4.
Jameson’s scepticism towards postmodernist pastiche, Linda Hutcheon views 5.
it as ‘a liberating challenge’ in the artists’ constant struggle for subjectivity and 6.
innovation (1988: 11). As a ‘perfect postmodern form’, parody that lies behind 7.
it, bears a subversive quality for it questions its subject, attacks the suppressive 8.
notion of originality and contests the widely established assumptions of high 9.
art (Hutcheon 1988: 11, 19). 10.
The visual pluralism of pastiche and the tactics of appropriation that 11.
dominated the artistic landscape of the 1980s – and undoubtedly occupy a 12.
central position in Bowery’s look – unravel one of the constitutive features of 13.
the postmodern, namely, the notion of intertextuality: ‘now depth is replaced 14.
by surface or multiple surfaces’ (Jameson 1991: 12). By challenging the high- 15.
modernist concept of authenticity along with the ideal of an artistic or politi- 16.
cal avant-garde, postmodernism shifted the attention from the figure  of the 17.
author to the act of interpretation; as Roland Barthes argues, ‘a text’s unity 18.
lies not in its origin but in its destination’ (1977: 148). Similarly, in the look 19.

0
under study, Bowery constructs a visually provoking assemblage of multiple 20.

n. 02
‘borrowed’ texts and leaves the viewer to decode the message. 21.
tio 2
In fashion discourse, postmodernist design similarly contradicts the 22.
bu td
modernist ideal of ‘good taste’ and beauty and can be loosely interpreted as 23.
tri t L

‘anti-haute couture or anti-fashion’ by employing unconventional techniques 24.

in dress-making, embracing the imperfect and adopting a critical attitude 25.
is ec

often (English 2013: 91). Jean-Paul Gaultier, ‘the enfant terrible of Paris fash- 26.
r d ell

ion’, whose collections included body-shaping futuristic bodices and skirts for 27.
fo Int

men, drew inspiration from a wide spectrum of visual culture and the arts in 28.
the early 1980s such as ‘Dada, 1950s glamour, the male peacock and London’s 29.
ot t
N igh

club scene’ (Mendes and de la Haye 2010: 236, emphasis in original). Pastiche 30.
in fashion includes the appropriation of past styles, cross-cultural references 31.
yr

and the diversity of sources and materials, constructing a ‘visual paradox’ that 32.
op

through humour, irony or parody intends most of the time to communicate 33.
a message (English 2013: 91). As Bonnie English writes, ‘[t]he aim of post- 34.
C

modernist design is to be provocative’ (2013: 92). In attempting to stand in 35.

opposition to conventions of the past, pastiche, deconstruction and experi- 36.
mentation played a vital role in shaping a postmodernist identity and laid 37.
the groundwork for new possibilities to rise. Like Bowery, plenty of fashion 38.
designers indulged in cultural appropriation during the 1980s under the rubric 39.
of postmodernism. John Galliano’s collection ‘Afghanistan Repudiates western 40.
Ideals’, Yves Saint Laurent’s ‘exotic elements of non-western cultures’, Ralph 41.
Lauren’s ‘Indian reservation chic’ inspired by New Mexico, and Rifat Ozbek’s 42.
designs influenced by ‘Turkish dress, dance wear and the London club scene’ 43.
are some notable examples (Mendes and de la Haye 2010: 220–51). However, 44.
what differentiates Bowery’s South Asian–inspired look from catwalk collec- 45.
tions with visual elements extracted from non-western cultures is the fact that 46.
his served as a performative device. Bowery became the look, which he kept 47.
modifying by adding more explicit references until he created a sort of walk- 48.
ing caricature so remote from his western identity that ran the risk of being 49.
perceived as an offensive parody. 50.
51.
52.

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 ‘Pakis from Outer Space’

1. PERFORMING THE ORIENT

2. Although inhabited by a variety of ethnic groups, the region of South Asia
3. is ‘unified by a shared cultural tradition’ (Dhamija 2010: 19). Its deep-rooted
4. traditions, dress codes and symbolism in body decoration, many of which
5. are still in place in the early twenty-first century, were ‘shared, assimilated,
6. or transported’ (Shastri 2010: 38). Bowery’s apparent fascination with the
7. representation of South Asian style and culture derives from Brick Lane, a
8. neighbourhood in London’s East End with a predominantly British South
9. Asian population that was proximate to his council flat in Ronald street.
10. Largely inspired by the aesthetics of the cultural other, Bowery acquired
11. most of his materials from the vibrant textile shops in Brick Lane; hence, he
12. named the look as a tribute, paradoxically, to the area, disregarding perhaps
13. the offensiveness that the appellation ‘Paki’ bears for British South Asians
14. (Tilley 1997: 40).
15. As fetishization of the cultural other, Bowery’s look projects the constantly
16. frail relationship between western intelligibility of non-western populations
17. and their social and cultural reality by the politically troubling representation
18. of a generalized Asian identity – a project that, as I will demonstrate, is always
19.

0
destined to fail. In his extensive postmodernist appropriation of arbitrary
20.

n. 02
South Asian elements and iconography, which becomes more explicit as the
21. look evolves, Bowery falls into the political trap of orientalism that is broadly
22. tio 2
defined as a body and tradition of western representations of the Orient,
bu td
23. namely, the ‘exotic’ non-western cultures. When applied to fashion, oriental-
tri t L

24. ism refers to ‘the character, quality or style associated with the philosophies,
25.
is ec

expressions and fashions of Eastern nations’ that expand from Turkey to Japan
26. (Craik 2009: 332). Signifying the ‘unknowable, mysterious, threatening, and
r d ell

27. exotic’, the term contrasts western ideologies and culture becoming synony-
fo Int

28. mous with colonialism (Craik 2009: 332).

29. In later photos of Bowery dressed in the look and shot by Sheila Rock, he
ot t
N igh

30. is depicted posing awkwardly against a white background in a green short

31. ass-less bodysuit with a discreet decorative pattern, cuffed batwing sleeves
yr

32. and an extremely low-cut neckline that leaves his chest exposed (Violette
op

33. 1998: 38–39). Three pearl chains connect his pierced nipples and fall loosely
34.
C

across the front of his body while his legs are covered in dark-striped tights.
35. Otherwise, the styling resembles that of the contemporary portrait by Rozsa;
36. he is still wearing the same headgear with the fake hair glued at the back
37. and the Indian-style accessories on the face and his hands along with long
38. red nails and plastic watches. However, every exposed inch of his body and
39. face is now painted light blue and the script is nowhere to be seen. The two
40. strands of cheap-looking pearls, which protrude from his hat across the left
41. side of his face, are seemingly inspired by the excessive decoration favoured
42. by Indian women. ‘Mauli’, for instance, is such an ornament and is described
43. by Brij Bhushan as ‘[a] long chain of […] rows of pearls hanging on one side
44. of the head’ (1964: 164).
45. A close-up photo of Bowery’s face in the same series reveals his flawless
46. balanced make-up in all its splendour: his skin looks smooth and matte, and
47. only little patchy areas at the back of his hands attest to the artificiality of the
48. skin’s hue. His eyes are thickly lined with dark make-up (suggestive of the
49. ‘kohl-smudged eyes’ of South Asians to ‘ward off evil’), with little tinsel stars
50. glued underneath and a bigger one in the middle of his forehead, reminiscent
51. of the traditional ‘bindi’ (Shastri 2010: 38). His eyelids and brows are adorned
52.

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 Sofia Vranou

with glitter, and his ears are painted gold. A striking detail is a stripe of yellow 1.
paint on the top of his red lips, which gives the impression of a well-groomed 2.
moustache, a preferable type of facial decoration in stereotypical representa- 3.
tions of South Asian men. 4.
Furthermore, Bowery’s unusual posing and particularly the stiffness of his 5.
fingers and the way his extended arms explore the space, can be read as a 6.
reference to Indian dancing and religious iconography. Indeed, certain Hindu 7.
deities (most notably, Kali, Shiva, Vishnu and others) are traditionally depicted 8.
with vibrant blue skin (the hue of which resembles perfectly Bowery’s blue), 9.
overly adorned bodies with jewellery, and with make-up that emphasizes their 10.
eyes. In these depictions, the deities’ bodies appear rigid, either in a medita- 11.
tion posture or wild and triumphant, often with multiple arms and expressive 12.
hands. Furthermore, Bowery’s queer display, the incorporation of ornaments 13.
in his look that are perceived as women’s decoration, his long polished nails 14.
that are also perceived as such, especially in the West, as well as the emphasis 15.
on his bare ass as the epitome of gay male desire, correspond to the 'andro- 16.
genity' of ancient Indian deities (Pande 2010: 52). 17.
Bowery’s tactic of pastiche as reconstruction of an alien other inevitably 18.
led him to assimilate some of the most cliché traits of the representation of 19.

0
South Asian culture, which, in reality, appears to be ‘wide and complex, defy- 20.

n. 02
ing both generalization and simple definition’ (Shastri 2010: 38). This may 21.
tio 2
reinforce the central conception of the Orient, which, according to Edward 22.
bu td
Said, is nothing more than 23.
tri t L

24.
a set of references, a congeries of characteristics, that seems to have its 25.
is ec

origin in a quotation, or a fragment of a text, or a citation from some- 26.

r d ell

one’s work on the Orient, or some bit of previous imagining, or an 27.

fo Int

amalgam of all these. 28.

(1980: 177) 29.
ot t
N igh

30.
Orientalism constitutes not only a ‘discipline by which the Orient was (and 31.
yr

is) approached systematically, as a topic of learning, discovery, and practice’, 32.

op

but a ‘collection of dreams, images, and vocabularies available to anyone who 33.
has tried to talk about what lies east of the dividing line’ (Said 1980: 73). The 34.
C

Orient appears to be ‘almost a European invention’ that has existed since 35.
antiquity, Said notes, emphasizing the artificiality of such an idealized concep- 36.
tion. Perceived and constructed as the adverse of western culture, it is a place 37.
of the ‘exotic’, the voluptuous and the mysterious (1980: 1). At the same time, 38.
it represents ‘Europe’s greatest and richest and oldest colonies’, as well as the 39.
‘deepest and more recurring images of the Other’ in the West; a reality that 40.
informs a framework of dominance in viewing the Orient (Said 1980: 1). 41.
The hegemony of European culture both in and outside its geographical 42.
territory finds its voice in the discourse of orientalism ‘as an exercise of cultural 43.
strength’ and is conditioned by the collective notion of a European identity as 44.
‘superior’ to ‘all the non-European peoples and cultures’ (Said 1980: 40, 7). The 45.
Orientalist projects upon the Orient all his fantasies and desires concerning the 46.
experience or identity of the other; ‘yet none of the Orient is merely imagina- 47.
tive’ as the fantasy constitutes ‘an integral part of European material civilization 48.
and culture’ (Said 1980: 2). Similarly, for Ziauddin Sardar, orientalism ‘is memory, 49.
imagination and present utility in a process of representation that structures 50.
knowledge and information’. As such, it ‘cannot be appreciated only as academic 51.
discourse’ but as ‘a cultural discourse in the widest possible sense’ (1999: 117). 52.

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 ‘Pakis from Outer Space’

1. Bowery’s experimentation towards a transcultural whole within the context

2. of subcultural practice can be seen as an exemplar of the impact of orientalism
3. in contemporary visual culture. Although the look is not intended to portray a
4. realistic representation of South Asian people (they come ‘from Outer Space’
5. after all) has yet slipped in cultural stereotyping and ethnic generalization, two
6. common issues when it comes to cultural appropriation bearing very often
7. racist implications. That Bowery, a white westerner, used an offensive slur to
8. describe an already politically precarious whole that almost crudely illustrates
9. the cultural other, is just the icing on the cake.
10. Mostly influenced by his surroundings in London’s East End and, possibly,
11. by the variety of orientalist representations that circulate in the West, Bowery
12. incorporated the most typical signifiers of South Asian culture without neces-
13. sarily acknowledging their symbolism or cultural significance. His artistic
14. gesture, like orientalism, is ‘premised upon exteriority’ to use Said’s words, and
15. his perception, similar to that of the Orientalist, is distant from the social and
16. cultural reality of non-western peoples (1980: 21). As a result, the represen-
17. tation of the Orient, as ‘the product of this exteriority’, constitutes ‘an artifi-
18. cial enactment of what a non-Oriental has made into a symbol for the whole
19. Orient’ (1980: 21). Therefore, Said continues,

0
20.

n. 02
21. [T]hat Orientalism makes sense at all depends more on the West than
22. tio 2
on the Orient, and this sense is directly indebted to various Western
bu td
23. techniques of representation that make the Orient visible, clear, ‘there’
tri t L

24. in discourse about it. And these representations rely upon institutions,
25. traditions, conventions, agreed-upon codes of understanding for their
is ec

26. effect, not upon a distant and amorphous Orient.

r d ell

27. (1980: 22)

fo Int

28.
29. What Said highlights is that as a constructed identity without a voice of its
ot t
N igh

30. own, the Orient becomes intelligible only through the ‘complex series of
31. knowledgeable manipulations by which [it] was identified by the West’ (1980:
yr

32. 40). In the postmodern era, this stereotypical view of the Orient has been rein-
op

33. forced and intensified even more through the media; ‘[t]elevision, the films,
34. and all the media’s resources have forced information into more and more
C

35. standardized molds’, he notes (1980: 26).

36. By occupying the role of a postmodern Orientalist, Bowery composes a
37. repertoire of contemporary elements and ‘ethnic’ fragments taken out of their
38. original context. The ornaments, make-up as well as the script he copied on
39. his face are evident of his depthless approach, with the look shifting their
40. status from cultural, functional or religious to art. Although such an approach
41. is not necessarily condemned for the sake of postmodernist art, it opens up a
42. space for considering the complexities that may come with cultural appropria-
43. tion within the broader spectrum of visual culture. The Orientalist’s failure to
44. acknowledge and distinguish the subtle disparities within the culture under
45. study leads almost always to misrepresentation and stereotyping of the other.
46. Perhaps the most significant political issue concerning orientalism, as
47. Anouar Abdel-Malek notes, is the racism resulting from the orientalist’s ‘essen-
48. tialist conception of the countries, nations, and peoples of the Orient under
49. study’, which is expressed ‘through a characterized ethnist typology’ (1963: 107).
50. The obnoxious and hateful slur ‘Paki’, which Bowery unjustifiably employed to
51. call his Brick Lane–inspired look, rests, perhaps, on his lack of political aware-
52. ness and sensitivity, and the cultural distance from his subject. The term, both

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 Sofia Vranou

in its general use and by extension in Bowery’s title, vocalizes the racist impli- 1.
cations of essentialist approach to the cultural other. Being extremely offensive 2.
in the United Kingdom, the word derives from the exonym ‘Pakistan’ but is 3.
used as an umbrella term to describe indiscriminately any person perceived to 4.
have South Asian heritage. Similarly, Bowery seems to have employed the term 5.
unquestioningly and rather thoughtlessly, at best, to describe a look with float- 6.
ing South Asian cultural references and appropriations from Hindu iconogra- 7.
phy, discrediting at the same time, one might say, the cultural, social or religious 8.
specificities within the geographical territories of the region. 9.
10.
FIGURING OUT COMMON GROUND 11.
12.
The postmodernist style of representation, which may privilege what Jameson
13.
calls ‘aesthetic colonization’ towards the formation of a fragmented whole,
14.
along with the technique of pastiche that defines it, seems to embrace consid-
15.
erably the orientalist zeal for constructed ideals (1991: 19). As a ‘vehicle for
16.
imaginative appropriation’, which ‘has always indulged in parody, ridicule and
17.
pastiche’, orientalism echoes the postmodernist allure for restructuring iden-
18.
tities by ‘appropriating eclectically’ from a wide spectrum of visual culture,
19.

0
histories and traditions (Sardar 1999: 116). Furthermore, the nebulous charac-
20.

n. 02
ter of orientalism in ‘its ability to accumulate and ignore inconsistency exactly
21.
tio 2
fits this temper of postmodernism’ (Sardar 1999: 116); the repudiation that is
22.
bu td
of ‘depth’ in favour of ‘textual play’, to use Jameson’s words (1991: 12). Even
23.
though as discourses of representation, orientalism and postmodernism seem
tri t L

24.
to share common ground, orientalism, as a traditional process with its roots
25.
is ec

firmly attached to the past, can become the subject of deconstruction; as Sardar
26.
r d ell

characteristically writes, ‘it can receive a postmodern kick as a function of the

27.
old metanarratives that are now superseded’ (1999: 117). In her defence of
fo Int

28.
postmodernist aesthetic, Hutcheon praises its ability to unsettle conventional
29.
ot t

representations by revisiting the art of the past with a critical and ironic attitude
N igh

30.
afforded by parody (1988: 23). Parodic postmodern representation can be both
31.
yr

‘deconstructively critical and constructively creative’ as it calls attention to the

32.
history and politics of representations that might appear démodé, highlight-
op

33.
ing at the same time the distance from the old (Hutcheon 2002: 90, 94). In
34.
C

addition, parody appears to have become an effective strategy for those artists
35.
dealing with identity politics and especially those who feel excluded from or
36.
underrepresented in dominant culture, that is the still predominantly white,
37.
male, heterosexual and non-disabled culture that persists (Hutcheon 1988: 35).
38.
On these terms, Bowery’s look, perhaps, could be seen as a postmodernist
39.
act of resistance and critique of the obsolete and restrictive codes of orientalist
40.
representation, and as an ironic gaze on the stereotypical Orient by appro-
41.
priating and distorting the methods and concepts through which it is formed
42.
and maintained. Besides, many of Bowery’s costumes retain elements of 1980s
43.
fashion at large, albeit in ‘an even more extreme and parodic version […] to
44.
unveil their absurdity’ (Granata 2017: 72), and cultural appropriation, which
45.
is linked to orientalism, carried out a significant part in 1980s fashion. By
46.
deforming the visual language that constitutes the Orient, which is encapsu-
47.
lated here in the racist and generalized term used in Bowery’s title, and render-
48.
ing its signifiers as alien and emerging from ‘Outer Space’, his postmodernist
49.
gesture could possibly enable an advantageous – however politically precari-
50.
ous – reading: the deconstruction of the inflexibility of monolithic representa-
51.
tions of the cultural other in the West and the challenging, at the same time, of
52.

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 ‘Pakis from Outer Space’

1. the convention of authenticity that defines them by revealing their underlying

2. artifice. Yet, Bowery’s look as a postmodernist attack on orientalist representa-
3. tion appears still politically risky and a rather naive and unconvincing strategy
4. since ‘what is deconstructed is a truncated version of a cultural propensity that
5. still leaves the project of Orientalism in the present, in place, in operation’,
6. Sardar remarks regarding the possibility of a postmodernist deconstruction of
7. orientalism (1999: 117). As an imaginative ensemble, it only sharply demon-
8. strates the danger of political slippage such an approach in art-making begets,
9. particularly when performativity is involved and enacted from a dominant
10. position of privilege. This last straw wipes out any attempt to view Bowery’s
11. look in a positive light when it comes to the relationship of postmodernist
12. parody and identity politics articulated by Hutcheon.
13. The ‘Pakis from Outer Space’ look encapsulates splendidly London’s crea-
14. tive playground of subcultural style, nightclubbing and artistic experimentation
15. that defined the 1980s. Envisioned during the heyday of the excess of post-
16. modernist spirit, Bowery’s visual hyperbole of extensive appropriation reflects
17. an aesthetically captivating (but substantially troubling when viewed within a
18. postcolonial framework) twisted South Asian identity. His look is perhaps an
19. overblown case among the numerous examples of cultural appropriation and

0
20. orientalist stereotypes in contemporary visual culture, with the fashion indus-

n. 02
21. try being perhaps the most debatable arena when it comes to the fragile issue
22. tio 2
of transculturalism. Considering the politics of orientalism, Bowery’s distorted
bu td
23. bricolage as representation of the cultural other is not only prone to failure,
tri t L

24. but unconvincing on its deconstructive quality afforded by postmodernism,

25. which only serves as another means of ‘expand[ing] the project of orientalism
is ec

26. to new territories and new Orients’ (Sardar 1999: 117).

r d ell

27.
fo Int

28. REFERENCES
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Abdel-Malek, Anouar (1963),‘Orientalism in Crisis’, Diogenes, 11:44, pp. 103–40.

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London: Robert Violette, pp. 10–25.

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Atlas, Charles (2004), The Legend of Leigh Bowery, New York: Palm Pictures.
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Bala, Usha (2010), ‘Jewelry of Indo-Pakistan and Bangladesh’, in J.  Dhamija
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(ed.), Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: South Asia and Southeast
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Asia, Oxford: Berg, pp. 138–46.
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Barthes, Roland (1977), Image, Music, Text (trans. S. Heath), New York: Fontana
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Bombay: D.B. Taraporevala.
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Carlaw, John (1986), South of Watford, London: London Weekend Television.
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Craik, Jennifer (2009), Fashion: The Key Concepts, Oxford: Berg.
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Dhamija, Jasleen (2010), ‘Introduction to South Asia’, in J. Dhamija (ed.), Berg
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Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: South Asia and Southeast Asia,
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Oxford: Berg, pp. 19–29.
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English, Bonnie (2013), A Cultural History of Fashion in the 20th and 21st
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Centuries: From Catwalk to Sidewalk, London: Bloomsbury.
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Godfrey, John (ed.) (1990), A Decade of I-Deas: The Encyclopaedia of the ’80s /
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Compiled and Produced by I-D Magazine, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
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the Grotesque Body, London: I.B Tauris.

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 Sofia Vranou

Hebdige, Dick (1988), Subculture: The Meaning of Style, London: Routledge. 1.

Hutcheon, Linda (1988), A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction, 2.
London: Routledge. 3.
——— (2002), The Politics of Postmodernism, London: Routledge. 4.
Jameson, Fredric (1991), Postmodernism, or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, 5.
London: Verso Books. 6.
Mendes, Valerie and de la Haye, Amy (2010), Fashion since 1900, London: 7.
Thames and Hudson. 8.
Pande, Alka (2010), ‘Cross-dressing in South Asia’, in J.  Dhamija (ed.), Berg 9.
Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: South Asia and Southeast Asia, 10.
Oxford: Berg, pp. 52–58. 11.
Said, Edward W. (1980), Orientalism: Western Concepts of the Orient, New York: 12.
Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd. 13.
Sardar, Ziauddin (1999), Orientalism: Concepts in the Social Sciences, 14.
Maidenhead: Open University Press. 15.
Shastri, Archana (2010), ‘Body Decoration in South Asia’, in J. Dhamija (ed.), 16.
Berg Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion: South Asia and Southeast Asia, 17.
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Tilley, Sue (1997), Leigh Bowery: The Life and Times of an Icon, London: Hodder 21.
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White, Lesley (1984), ‘The New Glitterati’, The Face, 1:48, pp. 56–57. 24.
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SUGGESTED CITATION 26.

r d ell

27.
Vranou, Sofia (2020), ‘“Pakis from Outer Space”: Oriental postmodernity in
fo Int

28.
Leigh Bowery’s performative costuming’, Studies in Costume & Performance,
29.
ot t

5:1, pp. 67–78, doi: https://doi.org/10.1386/scp_00014_1

N igh

30.
31.
yr

CONTRIBUTOR DETAILS 32.

op

Sofia Vranou is an associate fellow and a Ph.D. candidate at the Department 33.
34.
C

of Drama at Queen Mary University of London. She has a background in art

history and visual cultures, and a strong interest in live art, queer aesthet- 35.
ics, performative costuming, subcultural histories and marginal identities. Her 36.
current research explores the live art of Leigh Bowery in relation to the ways it 37.
has influenced the broader spectrum of visual culture and the expanded field 38.
of performance studies. She is a senior editor in CUNTemporary, a non-profit 39.
organization based in London that works with individuals and groups explor- 40.
ing feminist and queer art practices and theories. 41.
42.
Contact: 394 Fellows Court, London E2 8LD, UK. 43.
E-mail: s.vranou@qmul.ac.uk, sofiavranou@hotmail.com 44.
45.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7930-2794 46.
47.
Sofia Vranou has asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents 48.
Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work in the format that was 49.
submitted to Intellect Ltd. 50.
51.
52.

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