Young Greek costumier-scenographer takis strikes a resonant chord with his lavish pitch to reclaim the forgotten peacock in the conformist world of male fashion. This exciting, loaded concept evokes a parade of iridescent plumage: a return to sumptuous, sensual textures and flourishing structural forms, with subtle reference to the powdery wigs, crisscross lacings and the whalebone corsetry of forgotten epochs.
takis has been linked to a series of high-profile wardrobe collaborations which have included the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, Greek National Opera and the Opera Festival of Rome. He is the Artistic Director of his own company, Artluxe, and is now pursuing a practice-based phD at the London College of Fashion.
This presentation-performance was an unusual synthesis of dissertation defence with community service project. The installation is the main practical body for the research project ‘The Apotheosis of Man: The Forgotten Peacock’. As a self-identified “creative social experiment”, nine volunteer male models “escape the shackles of contemporary society’ to show that anyone can ‘become a fashion icon”, and in doing so, gave us the designer’s two latest suit collections.
This ambitious production struts an iceberg as its runway. A project with the glorification of masculinity as its fulcrum cannot escape implications of gender delineation and crossover, nor the historical frivolities which preceded the straightjacketing of the contemporary suit. The result could have been a whirling mardi gras extravaganza but in an unexpected twist, takis chooses instead to highlight and celebrate the insecurities of these nine discomforting men in their white satin suit sets, their personal body maintenance confessionals booming in audiomontage. Each suit variation has a discreet semi-sheer panel, referencing the backlit curtains of the dressing stalls framing the stage, a symbolic window into their private body world. As they stand in picketline formation, the suits form a canvas for an extended animation sequence of evolving brocades, these men little more than a superficial projection surface for social discourse.
As a performance initiative, producing company Artluxe seeks to operate first and foremost within an interactive performance environment. In response to which, I pose a question of intent: is the social experiment in itself the performance? Is this component of Forgotten Peacock about fashion at all? The beneficiary of this project is unclear, but as the preliminary workshopping of a question of male sociological martyrdom, it’s certainly a starting point. Likewise as an inclusive platform for a very large creative team, and as the outcome for a process-based exploration of confrontational vulnerability.
However, for fantastical fashion and daring wearing, saunter yourself instead over to www.forgottenpeacock.com. Following links to ‘get involved’ and ‘become a peacock’: here you’ll inexplicably happen upon takis‘ true treasure trove of fashion design: onion layers of cultural referentiality, bohemian asymmetry and Japonisme operatic characterisation$$s$$ risqué panelling and cutouts, a beautiful tide of backless bravado and a welcoming of skin as the most luxurious fabric of all. Here is the dazzling exhibitionism, the provocative banter between functionality and surrealism, the spectacular invitation into our voyeuristic Postmodern culture that we were expecting in the first place.
