Club Kids
クラブ・キッズ / late 1980s–1990s / Style / Subculture Style
New York nightlife's Club Kids competed in extreme self-transformation rather than finished fashion, assembling body paint, huge hats, toys, scrap and couture into a one-night character whose entrance and photograph were themselves the work.
At a glance
Visual cues
- Full-face paint and prosthetics that turn the wearer into another creature
- Head or shoulders expanded beyond bodily scale
- Toys, scrap, couture and exposed body deliberately mixed
- High chroma, black and white, checks or stripes concentrated into one silhouette
Best used for
- Turning a club, drag or stage entrance into the appearance of a living exhibit
- Building an extreme one-night character from finished garments and scrap for an event or shoot
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Dictionary entry
- Type
- Give the character a name or brief catchphrase as a logo and let the figure appear before any explanation.
- Composition
- Expand one part of the body beyond human scale and make everything else submit to that silhouette.
- Material
- Mix body paint, resin, toys, feathers, scrap and couture, keeping the joins visible as part of the performance.
- Caution
- Indiscriminately adding strange things becomes scattered. Decide the night's character and one silhouette that reads from across the room.
- Further study
- Susanne Bartsch's New York club nights / Leigh Bowery and extreme self-fashioning / Nightlife, fashion and performance
Related entries
- Camp Fashion (キャンプ・ファッション)Shared effects: Play / Exhilaration / Rebellion.Compare Club Kids and Camp Fashion
- Goth Fashion (ゴス・ファッション)Same Subculture Style lineage.Compare Club Kids and Goth Fashion
More from Subculture Style
Continue through styles in the same Subculture Style family, prioritised by shared effects.
- Zoot Suit (ズートスーツ)Shared effects: Rebellion / Exhilaration / Play.
- New Romantic (ニュー・ロマンティック)Shared effects: Exhilaration / Play / Rebellion.
- Acid House Fashion (アシッドハウス・ファッション)Shared effects: Exhilaration / Play / Rebellion.
Browse all Subculture Style entries
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- Link
- https://indexstyle.org/styles/club-kids
- Markdown
- [Club Kids — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/club-kids)
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- <a href="https://indexstyle.org/styles/club-kids">Club Kids — IndexStyle</a>