Tamás Király
Tamás Király (1952–2013) came to light with his cutting-edge fashion performances at the beginning of the 1980s in the underground scene of Budapest. The counter-fashion designer, who mixed fashion with elements of the fine arts and of theater, gained his first international success in that decade. Already during the socialist era, he participated in fashion shows in West Berlin, Amsterdam, and New York. In 1988 in Berlin, he presented a refined, geometric collection alongside seven leading avant-garde designers, including Vivienne Westwood, Yoshiki Hishinuma, and Claudia Skoda. Király’s show, created under the motto “open doors,” was covered by prominent fashion magazines such as i-D and Vogue. Well before the German Stern magazine’s journalist named him “the pope of fashion” in 1990, Király had already been dressing the Hungarian alternative scene from his “punk boutique,”, New Art Studio, renowned for its moving window displays. He staged his fashion performances of unwearable garments in the Petőfi Hall of Budapest, accompanied by the music of the most progressive Hungarian new wave bands. (2017)
- Publications
- Tamás Király ‘80s, eds. Gyula Muskovics and Andrea Soós, Budapest: tranzit.hu, 2017, 68 pp. With texts by David Crowley, Jan Kromschröder, Gyula Muskovics, et al. Publisher. Exhibition. [1] (Hungarian)/(English)
