The Legend Leigh Bowery: the man who has influenced me.

There are people who’ve influenced me in terms of my behavior, in terms of who I am, in terms of my style. The biggest person who has ever influenced me has covered all those bases and more.
Leigh Bowery: a fashion designer, a performance artist, a musician, a socialite and a club owner, a man who was simply famous for no reason. Leigh Bowery, hailing from down under originally and eventually coming to rule over the queer club scene, is my truest idol.
When I was younger, I always wanted to show the world how wild I could be but could never find a true way to express my psychotic psyche. I was quieter in school and moderate in dress. It was an awkward time, especially going out of middle school to high school. Then one day—I’m a musical theatre dork—my mother gave me the CD of a musical currently receiving a lot of press because it was sponsored by Rosie O’Donnell: Boy George’s “Taboo”. I listened to it over and over and became so intrigued by the characters, who apparently were real people, I felt I had to research them. The most colorful character (literally) was a gay club owner who served as a rival figure to the Boy George character. I started looking into his clothing designs and how they affected the Club Kids of the 80’s-90’s, I watched videos of his infamous “Birth” performed at Wigstock a little over a year before his all too soon death of AIDS. I started putting mismatched outfits together and painting my face with glitter in odd shapes in order to shock the world and get attention, which as an acting major is definitely what I want. Following his lead with my actions and outfits, I started to develop a personality and gained more friends, as well as confidence in myself. It was also through seeing him and his style that I started to dream of becoming a makeup artist, which is something I dabble in outside of school. His snobbishness-and-propriety-be-damned attitude and willingness to compromise nothing about himself is something I truly idolize and hope to truly be able to do one day.