Written work

A long-overdue homage to the late queer icon Leigh Bowery, this exhibition at the Tate Modern does not disappoint. The exhibition covers most of Bowery’s lifetime, and includes his work, some of his possessions, and artwork of him. It’s loud, camp, vulgar- what some would call an eyesore. Exactly as Bowery would have wanted.

‘Leigh Bowery!’ is a totally immersive exhibition that Tate has gone all-out for. Walls in one room are covered in the same Star Trek wallpaper Bowery had in his flat, which he shared with close friend Trojan. Walls in another are painted red with huge silver circles, like an inverted recreation of Bowery’s iconic red spotted makeup. Videos and music overlap each other throughout the exhibition, creating a vibrant soundscape like inside the nightclubs Bowery spent his life in.

The exhibition truly honours Bowery, and portrays many elements of his life. He is lauded for his work as a designer, an artist, and a revolutionary queer figure, but he is also recognised as a human. Exhibition curators did not shy away from depicting the grit of Bowery’s life, be it in his letters denoting his sexual encounters, the half-naked images of his explicit performances, or even the direct recognition of the offensive nature of some of his work. Other belongings include Bowery’s music certificate and his Transport for London card- reminding viewers that Bowery was not just an artist, but a person too.

It seems a fitting time to spotlight Bowery- a queer icon who rejected social norms in a period of growing conservatism. A man who actively avoided doing things the ‘right’ way (see heels in clogs) and dismissed labels. Maybe Tate is calling for the next Bowery to emerge and provide us all with some sense of hope?

The ‘Leigh Bowery!’ exhibition runs at the Tate Modern from February 27 to August 31 2025.

Chanel presented its Spring/Summer 2019 ready-to-wear collection on the runway on Tuesday. Guests including Vanessa Paradis and Pharrell Williams attended the show in Paris’s Grand Palais, which creative director Karl Lagerfeld transformed into a beach complete with sand and real waves. The collection boasted 86 looks which spoke to both the sophistication and the playfulness of Chanel’s brand identity.

Models adorned with layered pearl, gold and multicoloured necklaces strutted barefoot through the shallow water in time with the techno music, pastel-coloured mules or sandals in hand. A handful of pieces included scattered sparkly gold detailing, appearing to reference the sand. Though the collection was presented by the water, it contained a range of clothing styles, from sparkly evening wear to tweed suits to minidresses with retro prints.

Lagerfeld overtly referenced the label through the motifs of both the brand name and logo across many pieces. Gold necklaces, earrings and bracelets read ‘CHANEL’, as do shirt pockets and two-piece sets. Logos appear on earrings, dress fronts, straps, shoes, and handbags. This logo-centric approach to fashion design has become popular in recent seasons amongst brands including Gucci and Louis Vuitton.

Whilst this collection is frequently on-the-nose with its brand name, Lagerfeld also made sure to pay homage to the Chanel identity through its iconic design elements. Much of the collection included the classic Chanel tweed material, and there was no shortage of pearl necklaces.

Other notable elements of the collection include the lapis blue lace cover-ups, black sequinned evening wear, straw hats, and crossbody bags- the latter of which many models wore two.

Lagerfeld, through this collection, caters to both the Chanel woman and the Chanel girl. Whilst the Chanel girl ambles across the beach in a babydoll dress with her toes in the water, the Chanel woman slips into her heels and follows the wooden path.

(Read on my Substack here)

Last week, I attended designer Kim Parr’s pop-up in her central London home. I had never heard her name, but I’m always open to being introduced to an independent designer’s work and getting a look behind the scenes of a fashion brand. Which is what I thought was happening.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the pop-up since I left, both positively and negatively. Either way, I have to give the marketing team behind Kim Parr credit for leaving a lasting impression on attendees.

(This article will be divided into two sections, in case you’re reading this and already know about Kim Parr and the pop-up. I’ll outline what happened first, then give you my thoughts in the second section. I’d also love to hear other people’s thoughts if you have anything to add!)

The event

Having been handed only the invitation pictured below, I had next to no information about who Kim Parr was or what I could expect from this pop-up. From my research I could find just one underdeveloped website (kimparr.com) on the designer, which gave me hardly any more information.

However, as a bored student with free time and curiosity, I turned up to the 3:30pm slot. I was welcomed into a beautiful house by a team of staff members, who quickly offered to take my bag or give me a refrigerated kombucha. The marble counters in the kitchen were topped with fruits and pastries, which we were free to take as well. Any concerns that I had previously had about the fact that I was entering a total stranger’s home were quickly dispelled.

We were guided through a series of rooms introducing us to the Kim Parr brand, the first containing a desk overflowing with fashion books annotated with sticky notes. In this room, a Buyer spoke to her small audience of attendees about her working process, and the priorities of a Kim Parr Buyer: durability, versatility, and accommodating wearers’ needs. The next room held shelves upon shelves of more fashion books, a desk, and a crowded pinboard of inspiration images and sketches. The speaker in this room, a Designer, shared a similar message of Kim Parr’s biggest priorities, and how this collection largely utilises natural materials including linen and merino wool.

Next, a showroom, displaying a few pieces from the newest collection. All quite simple, with solid earth-tone colours. I could imagine some of the pieces not being the most flattering on the body, but I could excuse it because they mostly seemed well-constructed (although I am far from an expert) and were made mostly from natural materials, with many pieces being 100% linen. At this point, I would have assumed that most pieces were around £100 or so each.

The next room was where the real surprise came. One-by-one, guests were invited into a dark space, with a mirror with a screen in front of it. Slowly, the words ‘Kim Parr’ transformed to reveal their anagram (see below images, ignore the blurriness…).

Yes, Primark. Every piece we had just seen was taken from the new ‘The Edit’ collection, which launched on Monday. 

If you haven’t heard of Primark, it’s a multinational fast fashion retailer, which, aside from its history of human rights abuses and use of child labour in factories, is known for ultra-low prices and a chaotic store environment. 

The complete collection was displayed in the final room, presented by some of the higher-ups at Primark. They revealed that this pop-up had been intended to challenge people’s preconceptions of the brand, and encourage people to see their products as good-quality by demonstrating how people perceive the clothes differently in a different context. 

Most pieces were priced between £10-25, with accompanying jewellery costing less than £10 per piece.

My thoughts

Firstly, I want to clarify that I will never criticise a brand’s choice to improve their quality and shift away from synthetics to natural materials. I absolutely applaud Primark for this choice, which they’ve been implementing for a while now. I also think that for customers who are primarily concerned with purchasing natural materials over synthetic ones, this would be successful.

I did try to ask the member of staff (whose name I cannot recall) who worked in the fabric/materials section of the brand about how Primark had managed to absorb so much of the cost of utilising natural materials. I was met with a basic explanation of economies of scale. Speaking to another member of staff about how intrigued I was about this, she remarked something along the lines of ‘Isn’t it amazing?’. Needless to say, I didn’t get a comprehensive answer.

These responses regarding the cost of materials reflect what I thought was a wider problem within the pop-up, and which the Primark brand has a history of: a lack of transparency. It was revealed that the ‘Buyer’ and ‘Designer’ that we had met earlier on were in fact actors. I question why Primark didn’t choose to use members of their own Buying and Design teams and simply ask them to pretend that they were working for the much smaller Kim Parr brand. Had this been the case, customers would still have been able to learn a little bit about the brand’s ethos and how choices are made behind-the-scenes. Customers might then have been able to reflect and truly see Primark in a different light.

As it stands, though, I have dismissed everything the ‘Buyer’ and ‘Designer’ had said, as I know it was all a script handed to them by Primark.

Nonetheless, I do think that this was successful in proving that Primark clothing is higher quality than its reputation suggests. I considered most of the pieces to be relatively well-made, and worth significantly more when I first saw them and wasn’t aware that they were Primark pieces.

Personally, though, this didn’t make me want to shop at Primark so much as it made me want to criticise the quality of high-end clothing. The event forced me to reflect on how the environment that I experience clothing in affects how I perceive the clothing. In a more luxurious space with limited quantity, I tend to perceive clothing as relatively high-quality.

Maybe, then, I’ve been giving high-end brands too much grace. Is that Louis Vuitton dress really that well made, or is it the fact that I was greeted by a display of a mannequin driving a Louis Vuitton-branded car, or that I feel a sense of exclusivity because there’s practically a maximum of one piece in every square meter of the store? Or maybe the fact that a welcoming staff member offered me a drink to accompany my shopping experience?

I am curious to see if Primark purchases do increase following this event. I would imagine there is a significant consumer base who are primarily looking for durable clothes and/or natural fibres, and may not view Primark as fulfilling these criteria, but might consider it more if they were to go through the Kim Parr experience.

Personally, I’m not convinced I’ll become a regular Primark shopper. What I will be doing is entering every shop with a keener eye and a more skeptical attitude.