Les Child
As a master choreographer and movement director expert in elevating fashion imagery through stylised dance moves, Les Child has collaborated with some of the biggest image makers and designers in fashion including Tim Walker, Patrick Demarchelier, Miuccia Prada and Alexander McQueen. Child started out as a student at the Lindsay Kemp Company, then went on to dance for the Rambert School of Ballet for three years before joining the celebrated Michael Clark Company. It was at the latter that he began working with artists like Leigh Bowery. He worked closely with Bowery on dance and movement for eight years, becoming one of his close friends in the process.
Princess Julia
A club icon whose career spans 40 years, Princess Julia was part of the New Romantic movement in the 1970s. (That movement was a reaction to punk that embraced flamboyant fashion, theatrical makeup and rejected mainstream values.) Since then, she has been an integral part of London counterculture including Leigh Bowery’s Taboo nightclub (1980s), the ground-breaking queer club night Flesh at the Hacienda (1990s), and The Ghetto (2000s), besides being resident DJ at Kinky Gerlinky (1990s). She continues to be an active member of the LGBTQ+ club, art and fashion scenes.
Sue Tilley
Sue Tilley was born in South London in 1957. While working full time in jobcentres, she became a stalwart of the 80s club circuit, where she met Leigh Bowery. Initially, Bowery hired her as a cashier at his nightclub, Taboo, but, over time, they became best friends. Bowery introduced her to artist Lucian Freud, and, alongside Bowery, Freud began painting Tilley. His portraits of her, among them Benefits Supervisor Sleeping, broke world records at auction for paintings by living artists at the time. In 2015, Tilley retired from the jobcentre and moved to St Leonards-on-Sea, where she began painting. Since then, she has had exhibitions in London, Hull and Hastings, and her illustrations figured prominently in Fendi’s Spring 2018 menswear collection. Her biography, Leigh Bowery: The Life and Times of an Icon, originally written in 1997, will be republished in February 2025.
