Interview with Wardrobe Designer, Jeffrey Bryant. (Originally published in 'VAULT: Australasian Art & Culture, 2017)

 

 

Innovative designer Jeffrey Bryant has created iconic looks for some of the world’s most recognisable performers, including Lady Gaga and Duran Duran. His work has been seen by millions. I spoke to him while he was on tour with the Pet Shop Boys, with whom he has collaborated since the early 1990s.

 

Growing up in South Wales, were there any clues about your destiny?

As a child, I daydreamed. I was obsessed with Greek and Roman history. I was always dressing up. I remember tying bamboo table-mats around my chest, like Samurai armour; a tea towel became the helmet. I left school at 16 to work in a factory, completing a mechanical engineering apprenticeship. In 1976, everything was about to change.

I'm sure you'll agree that the UK Punk explosion was life-changing for many of our generation!

Punk became the natural progression for a tribe of like-minded people. In 1977 I began to explore wilder fashions and music. In ’78, I visited Vivienne Westwood’s shop, Seditionaries, in Kings Road, Chelsea. I bought their ‘Destroy’ tee-shirt for £4.50. I also bought the now-iconic lime-green, leopard tee-shirt, from ‘Boy’, which I still have. By the summer of ‘78 I started customising vintage clothing and spray-painting tee-shirts. My older sister had a sewing machine, which was easy to operate. I made a pair of red tartan bondage trousers. The creative formula was: ‘REBEL, AND RIP IT UP!’

 In the early ‘80s you were associated with the New Romantic movement. The magnificent Leigh Bowery called you ‘The Most Wonderful Creature’.

In 1980 I was living in London. My friends wore my unusual clothes in nightclubs in London, Mykonos and Miami. They got invited to the best parties and clubs, free. All the strippers, hookers, and go-go boys wore my clothes.  Then, in the ‘90s, celebrity hairdresser Trevor Halls got me working for Cathy Dennis and Billie Ray Martin. Uber-stylist Alan Keyes got me working for George Michael and The Rolling Stones. My work featured in 20 television commercials; 3 documentaries; and 3 films. I’ve dressed: Tina Turner; Mick Jagger; Right Said Fred; Cindy Lauper; and many Techno dance acts.

In 1991 you appeared as one of the gorgeous young extras in the Pet Shop Boys’ video for ‘Was It Worth It?’

Style icon Michael Costiff sent me to an audition. I took a book full of pictures of different outfits. They were all pictures of me, in many varying ‘looks’. They were impressed that I had the ability to transform people with clothing. Previously, I’d been at a party with my friend (Melbourne-based, British artist) Robert Doble, and Neil Tenant was there. I was wearing a floor-length Issey Miyake kimono coat, which I’d seen Neil wear at the Brit Awards. He just scowled disapprovingly. However, in 1994, I was brought in to do sections of the Disco - Very Tour.

Can you tell me about your fabulous drinking-straw jacket?

It was made for PSB’s Electric Tour. It comprised 3,700 straws. Neil’s was flat-fronted so he could sing and move his arms without getting tangled up. Chris, at the keyboards, had more bristles sticking out the back. Jean Paul Gaultier told Neil that he thought the drinking-straw jackets ‘Magnifique!’  Sarah Burton also had great things to say to Neil about this jacket.

Other great designers have also expressed admiration for your work, which must be extremely gratifying. 

During PSB’s Fundamental Tour (2007), Hedi Slimane, who is a great friend of Neil’s, came backstage, and was highly complementary about, “That mirror jacket!” I felt a bit silly, as it’s obviously a Thierry Mugler rip off! Then, after the Boys’ show in Beijing, in 2011, Miuccia Prada appeared backstage, with gallerist Jay Jopling. Her first adoring words were “Mirror jacket!”

 
You have a brilliant ‘Blue Peter’ approach to your designs, whereby everyday objects are miraculously transformed.

As a British child in the ‘60s, I probably watched every episode of ‘Blue Peter’. It schooled me at an early age in how to turn a cornflakes box into a Chanel handbag. Inside my early creations are Domestos bottles, cornflakes boxes and detergent boxes. More recently, we’ve glued pan-scourers onto helmets; and when cut into circles and painted they were ideal to stick onto full-face globe helmets, for the backing musicians on the PSBs’ Super Tour.

 
Can you speak about your design process?

The priority is that the artist must be able to move and perform the song. However, there are some stars who will wear really uncomfortable clothing, just because it looks good. They will suffer for their art!

For Duran Duran’s ‘Red Capet Massacre’ (2007) they were given great jeans and shirts from Juicy Couture. We had good satin suits, which I took apart and slimmed-in, making them very skinny. Recently, with Duran, it’s been all about colour, so we’ve done neon leather jackets, bright blue and pink Lurex suits, and colourful shirts splashed in between.

For PSBs’ Electric Tour, we had four wardrobe-cases crammed with clothes, some of which were only worn for thirty-seconds, with multiple changes for the Boys and the dancers. PSB had a reputation for wearing crazy clothes long before they met me. I’m always aware of what they have worn before. Clever absurdity is the goal. It must always be unexpected!

 

You dressed the supermodels in Duran Duran’s video for ‘Girl Panic’?

I worked with Melbourne-born stylist Vanessa Coyle (then Fashion Editor for Harper’s Bazaar). Our brief from director, Jonas Åkerlund, was to dress the models as Duran Duran. It was shot at London’s Savoy Hotel, with a big final performance filmed in the Grand Ballroom. We also shot the cover for Harper’s Bazaar, the same day, with Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbanna in attendance.

 

You have said that London has the best fabrics in the world. Could you elaborate?

Borovick in Berwick Street is great for glamorous showbiz sequins. Also in Berwick Street, Cloth House has the cleverest new textiles, such as hologram plastic – really space-age stuff. All the edgy London designers get their fabric from them. And the fabric shops on Goldhawk Road, opposite the tube station are great as well!

What has influenced you over the years?

Duran Duran and I are enormous fans of David Bowie and Roxy Music. So I’ve made versions of clothing that they wore on stage while we were all still at school. In the ‘90s I made versions of the trousers designed by the legendary Anthony Price for Bryan Ferry, which had double zips down the front: he’s wearing them inside Roxy’s ‘For Your Pleasure’ album cover.

The lamé suits I made for Duran’s Nick Rhodes reference the Glam Rock era. I’ve borrowed Yamamoto’s jumpsuit idea for my own fashion shows.

During the New Romantic period, historical clothing was my main influence. I used upholstery materials, which looked like rough, medieval fabric, and these fitted the ‘look’ perfectly. I often left unfinished edges on the outside, which I borrowed from Westwood’s Seditionaries tee-shirts, and from Luke Skywalker’s clothes in ‘Star Wars’. My huge coats from around this time were influenced by Yamamoto, and Comme des Garçons.

Kimonos are another obsession - I’ve cut up heavily-embroidered uchikake, and morphed them into other garments. I’ve been to Tokyo many times, so I know where to get the best ones!