The lecture examines the artistic works of Tamás Király (1952-2013), an influential underground artist from Hungary who combined fashion with various art forms on the catwalk and beyond during the 1980s and 1990s. Király's playful, gender-bending performances in Budapest during the final years of State Socialism will be briefly introduced, and a 7-minute video documenting Király's visionary collection at the Dressater—Dressed to Thrill show in 1988 at Hamburger Bahnhof will be presented in honor of the late artist's work in Berlin. The lecture also touches on  the avant-garde fashion scenes of the former East, highlighting large-scale and multi-disciplinary fashion events that emerged in the cultural capitals of the Eastern Bloc during the collapse of the Soviet Union. Examples such as the Avant-Garde Fashion Assembly in Tbilisi and the Untamed Fashion Assembly in Riga will be discussed to illustrate the world-building capacity of underground and experimental fashion during the post-communist transition.

The event is part of the program Costumes and Collapse organized by Slavs and Tatars’ Pickle Bar. The event in question was co-organized by Leah Feldman and partially funded by the Alexander von Humbold Foundation.