Part 1 of TED Radio Hour's The state of fashion
In the past few decades, minimalism has surged in popularity — in art, clothing, and home decor. Think of the Minimalist guys. Or Marie Kondo. Or the #CleanGirl aesthetic.
Minimalism is simple, clean, efficient. Proponents swear that simple, neutral garments and furniture are the key for cultivating inner peace — and taming the madness of a chaotic world with less noise, less fuss, less stress.
Costume designer and performance artist Machine Dazzle gets the allure of minimalism. “I understand why people do that,” he says. “You know, we live in a crazy world; life is stressful.”
But ultimately, Dazzle sees minimalism as a futile attempt to control chaos.
Instead, he embraces the complete opposite: maximalism, or the idea that “more is more” when it comes to fashion, art, and life.
“Maximalism is a feast,” Dazzle says. “Maximalism is confidence.”
At his workshop in Jersey City, Dazzle creates extravagant, museum-worthy garments: an apple pie headdress, a skirt made of candle sticks, a blouse that looks like giant typewriter keys. The 1500-square foot space brims with colorful wigs, sewing machines, and racks and racks of clothes.
It’s chaotic — and that’s the point, says Dazzle.
“It's taking all of this chaos and giving it an order,” Dazzle says. “And it's also entertainment.”
Maximalism is about being brave & and taking up space
Dazzle moved to New York about thirty years ago to pursue design. Seeing other queer people boldly express themselves and challenge gender expectations gave Dazzle the confidence to cultivate his own style and move through the world assertively.
“Maximal look, maximal behavior,” Dazzle says. It means giving yourself permission to take up space and be seen for who you truly are, he says — rather than more minimal aesthetics that could emphasize conformity and neutrality. This mindset, he says, is intrinsically linked with his community.
“It took me years to realize that what I'm doing is creating queer space. That's what I do. And that is space that other people are forced to consider,” Dazzle says. “As soon as I walk outside and I'm all dressed up in my drag or regalia or whatever you want to call it, I am changing the energy around me.”
Telling a story through dazzling, expressive fashion
Dazzle’s everyday style is expressive but not outrageous. On the day of his interview with TED Radio Hour host Manoush Zomorodi, he wore patterned overalls, Birkenstocks and a tie-dye graphic tee.
Yet his design work is all-caps camp and delightfully indulgent. Dazzle throws everything and a kitchen sink full of glitter into his designs, some of which have been featured in museums and in an HBO documentary.
In 2016, for performance artist Taylor Mac's A 24 Decade History of Popular Music, he designed a series of eye catching, thought-provoking costumes that depicted 24 decades of American history.
The top of the show represented 1776, and Taylor Mac emerged wearing a whimsical, campy sports-inspired outfit. It had a big jersey number 13, for the 13 colonies, and tattered flags as the shirt. The outfit was a tattered celebration, telling the story of a young nation with an upset win against the British empire — a rookie country, shocked by its own success.
Another outfit commemorated the Civil War era and featured a huge barbed wire skirt adorned with hot dogs (made popular around that era), and a Civil War-style soldier’s jacket with red and yellow streamers flowing off it, like ketchup and mustard. “It's almost grotesque,” Dazzle says. “It's like, well, is it ketchup or is it blood that we're talking about the Civil War here?”
The work is avant-garde, but Dazzle says the coupling of the almost ludicrous costumes and the heavy subject material is intentional. “Humor is good,” Dazzle says. “Humor is healing.”
Maximalism contains multitudes
Dazzle knows that not everyone wants to dress in garments quite as theatrical as the creations in his workshop. But he says this type of expression is crucial to him. He argues that his clothing has the power to communicate with people, even to change someone’s life and give them license to express themselves when they might not otherwise.
“Most people would not leave their homes wearing what I wear,” he says. “But I do it because it's shocking. It's my language.”
This segment of the TED Radio Hour was produced by Katie Monteleone and Fiona Geiran, and edited by Sanaz Meshkinpour.
The digital story was written by Fiona Geiran and edited by Rachel Faulkner White and Sanaz Meshkinpour.
You can follow us on Facebook @TEDRadioHour and email us at TEDRadioHour@npr.org.
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