Tamás Király was one of the most interesting figures of the Budapest underground art scene in the 1980s. His work crosses genre boundaries and is thus difficult to classify. He had a special relationship with fashion: he was interested in dressing as a process, in the moment, in the performative act itself, and in the possibilities of recycling materials rather than the durability of the object. His costume performances and actions at the Young Artists’ Club and Petőfi Hall had become legendary, while he also participated in numerous film and theatre productions, and created costumes and set the stage for alternative bands. He also founded a boutique called New Art Studio and staged his famous fashion shows on Váci Street. The costumes on display here were created in the late 1980s. During the period around the change of regime, Tamás Király created clean-lined, geometric garments with an aesthetic of Russian revolutionary constructivism and Bauhaus colours. He presented these and clothes from his other collections at the 1988 Dressater fashion show in Berlin. The event was the highlight of his career at the time, earning him the title “Pope of Fashion” by the German magazine Stern.
Jan Elantkowski
