History is a funny thing. The East Village 80’s Fashion Scene was a tidal wave we were riding a Stussy surfboard on the crest of swept away with the rest of our crazy crew. At this point 109 is at best a footnote to be found in a few books and old mags, here or there. True fame eluded most of us but there it was for the taking. Details Magazine cover shot on top of the Morgan Hotel (by Patrick McMullan) got us on the map, but it was ultimately Ru Paul who made it all the way to Hollywood and cemented the legacy of it all. Michael Alig, “The Club Kid Murderer”, was nothing to be proud of, and Madonna wasn’t the real EV just the national symbol of it and a pop star at heart, not DIY underground fabulousness. I gave Michael his first club promoter gig for the Club Kamikaze Simon & Schuster Wild Style book release party hosted by 109. We were one chapter detailing our fashion nightclub shows expertise alongside Patricia Field, Tribe, and other no limits shops and hair salons. I DJ’d and MC’d to roaring applause mostly for the outlandish models who were “regulars” and after the show in the club within a club upstairs room playing bass in KilPig, the Nozomi Oye led troop of noise/no wavers, and the first official EP release on 109 Records. In a review of that night’s performance one downtown rag wrote “The Wildest band in a wild city”, what a night! Many, many nights nightclubbing is what made the scene a scene. Daytime was about preparing for the night and what better way than to go way down St. Mark’s Place b/w 1st and Ave. A, toward Tompkins Square Park, walk down the short ramp inside a classic NYC storefront and shop for that evening’s one-of-a-kind duds. Our motto was “If you don’t buy it today you can’t wear it tonight!”
When a scene “blows up” and DRAGS you along no one knows who will be hot or not, or who will be remembered because nobody cares! It wasn’t a competitive scene but collaborative, everyone feeding off one another’s artistic energies. Grabbing the best of every moment knowing it would pass but getting in on it while the getting was good. Dean Johnson was the leader of the Drag Queens in the beginning, but it was Ru who had the long view and has become nothing less than an American icon. They both were hot and “made it” but Dean succumbed to the malady of those times and Ru soared to unprecedented heights. A Tale of Two Drag Queens. Someone should make a movie! Brian Vincent, Make Me Famous!
We all wonder what if? What if it was you? It was a just a moment in the end and the moments and memories are all we have. Enjoy this excursion into my part of it and make something, do something, be alive and capitalize on your youth and energy. Be pushed along but go your own direction. This episode is a window into the creative fashion / fashion show scene of the stores and clubs of the 80’s. From the racks to the runways. As the commercial made for us for free that we never used says, “You can wear the fashions of tomorrow today, at 109 St. Mark’s Place, where else?” Nowhere else. (See More 109 Fashion Mixes) So, listen now to the Limelight Fashion Show mix where Dean Johnson debuted his hit “Attitude”, I produced, but we never released it, for reasons detailed in the podcast. The voices of the designers are heard before each of their runway segments. The song Fashion Mannequin by Demetrius was the replacement fashion track for Dean’s “Attitude” and was written up in London’s I.D. the hottest fashion mag of the moment. For a time, we could do no wrong, then time moved on as it does.
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