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 items are the ultimate key for cultivating inner peace — and calming 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 that 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 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.
Transcript:
MANOUSH ZOMORODI, HOST:
It’s the TED Radio Hour from NPR. I’m Manoush Zomorodi. Today on the show, the State of Fashion, what we wear and why we wear it. Over the last few years, minimalism has been in. Pairing back, a few simple, chic pieces, keep the look clean. The idea of dressing efficiently has always resonated with me, so I was a little terrified at the prospect of embracing the exact opposite, which is…
Oh, my Lord. Whoa.
…Maximalism.
MACHINE DAZZLE: This is my studio.
ZOMORODI: This is where the magic happens.
MACHINE DAZZLE: This is where the magic happens.
ZOMORODI: A few weeks ago, I visited the artist and costume designer Machine Dazzle at his workshop in Jersey City for a maximalist makeover.
MACHINE DAZZLE: And as you can see, it’s a large space, but it still could be bigger. You know what I mean?
ZOMORODI: It’s like walking into the most glittering, dazzling closet I have ever seen in my entire life. There are mannequins dressed to the nines. There are reams of fabric. There are humungous…
The 1,500-square-foot space is packed with supplies – wigs, a sewing machine, racks and racks of clothes.
MACHINE DAZZLE: Well, right now, it’s extra crazy, like – well, you’re here, but now – but I have a photoshoot tomorrow. Most people know me as a costume designer, but I’m also a fine artist, photographer, sculptor.
ZOMORODI: Machine grew up all over the U.S. Then, about 30 years ago, like many young people who feel out of step with mainstream America, he moved to New York.
MACHINE DAZZLE: I moved to New York so that I could actually start my life.
ZOMORODI: Over those past three decades, he has built a reputation for creating wild, whimsical and over-the-top outfits for the stage.
MACHINE DAZZLE: Maybe it’s opera. Maybe it’s dance. Maybe it’s theater. Maybe it’s me just walking on a street for the sake of something. At a protest. I need a reason. There has to be a reason.
ZOMORODI: But it wasn’t until 2022, when he had an exhibit at the Museum of Art and Design in New York, that his style got a name, thanks to the curator.
MACHINE DAZZLE: Yes, Elizabeth Auther. When she curated my show, she decided to call it queer maximalism. I was aware of maximalism before, but I never called myself a maximalist. I mean, yes, am I maximal? Yes, but I’m so much more than that. Yeah.
ZOMORODI: Of course you are.
MACHINE DAZZLE: Yeah.
ZOMORODI: (Laughter).
MACHINE DAZZLE: So, I mean, I change. I’m constantly changing. I go with the tide.
ZOMORODI: The museum chronicled how – as they put it – a closeted suburban kid from Upper Darby, Penn., turned into Machine Dazzle, the queer experimental theater genius. There was an apple pie headdress, a skirt made of candlesticks, a blouse that looked like giant typewriter keys. So while he may not exactly embrace the term, Machine believes his take on maximalism promotes something very specific.
MACHINE DAZZLE: It’s about sharing your vision. Queer space is about sharing. Yes, we’re making space for ourself, but we’re also sharing ourselves, and we’re inviting people into our circle. We’re being generous. Maximalism is generous. It’s everything. It’s the cake. It’s the flour, the eggs, the sugar. It’s the oven. It’s the heat. It’s the love that was put into all of it. It’s the mouth. It’s the smile. It’s the party. (Yelling) All of it. Because you can’t have one without the other. Can I get an amen up in here?
ZOMORODI: (Yelling) Woo. Amen.
MACHINE DAZZLE: Or is that a gay men? Can I get a gay men?
ZOMORODI: Oh.
MACHINE DAZZLE: Oh.
ZOMORODI: (Yelling) Gay men.
MACHINE DAZZLE: (Laughter).
ZOMORODI: Depending on your perspective, fashion can be frivolous or make a big statement. It can bring out our creative side or our consumer side. But whether you love clothes or could care less, we all have to get dressed in the morning. So how can we do it better? On this episode, ideas about taking style to the extreme, the environmental impact of our shopping culture and how our obsession with beauty built an industry with an ugly underbelly. But first, back to Machine Dazzle. To get a better sense of what his maximalist outfits look like, it helps to hear about the 2016 performance he did with the artist Taylor Mac.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
MACHINE DAZZLE: So we are about to venture into uncharted territory.
ZOMORODI: It was called “A 24-Decade History Of Popular Music.”
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Singing) The young folk tell…
ZOMORODI: A spectacular queer take on American history that lasted for 24 hours, featuring 24 costume changes.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Singing) Happy days are here again.
ZOMORODI: The recent HBO documentary about the performance just won Machine an Emmy in costume design.
(SOUNDBITE OF TED TALK)
MACHINE DAZZLE: It starts in 1776 and goes to the present day.
ZOMORODI: Here’s Machine Dazzle on the TED stage.
(SOUNDBITE OF TED TALK)
MACHINE DAZZLE: For every decade, I created a costume that is conceptually adjacent, not historically accurate. Because traditional historical costume already exists, and I like to break traditions and invent new ones. So, it’s the top of the show in 1776, right after we freed ourself from the British and the United States. And inspiration came when I was passing this laundromat. What were they doing? They were taking down these old plastic grand opening flags. And I noticed how weather-worn and brittle and fragile they were. And I got to thinking about the end of the American Revolution and how tattered and torn and broken everything must have been. And then it hit me. This costume wants to tell a story.
ZOMORODI: The outfit feels like a sports uniform on acid. The headdress is made of cheerleaders’ pom-poms fashioned into a massive wig. There’s a big 13 – for the 13 colonies – Jersey number over metallic streamers. Sparklers are shooting off the back of the outfit like fireworks. The whole thing is one big party.
(SOUNDBITE OF TED TALK)
MACHINE DAZZLE: This is maximalism. Not only is it layer upon layer aesthetically. It’s idea on top of idea conceptually. It becomes its own story almost that you can almost read like a book.
ZOMORODI: Another particularly memorable outfit commemorates the Civil War era.
MACHINE DAZZLE: So when it came to the Civil War decade, I had read somewhere along the way that the American hot dog evolved out of this time (laughter) by, you know, German immigrants selling their sausages on the streets. And so I wanted to include it in the costume.
ZOMORODI: To create the costume, Machine paired hot dogs with another invention from the 1860s – barbed wire.
MACHINE DAZZLE: I love what barbed wire kind of stands for. It’s a barrier. And, you know, what we were doing in the Civil War was trying to break down those barriers.
ZOMORODI: So the costume features a huge barbed wire skirt adorned with hot dogs that almost looks like a cage, plus a headdress of hot dogs and a Civil War-style soldier’s jacket with red and yellow streamers flowing off of it like ketchup and mustard.
MACHINE DAZZLE: Then it’s also almost grotesque. It’s like, well, is it ketchup, or is it blood? And we’re talking about the Civil War here. On stage, we often deal with dark things. Heavy subject matter. I will say that humor is good. Humor is healing. So audience gets to decide what it is.
ZOMORODI: There was no audience back at Machine’s workshop in Jersey City. Nonetheless, he was hard at work on my maximalist makeover, putting together quite an outfit for me.
Right?
MACHINE DAZZLE: Looks really good on you.
ZOMORODI: Thank you.
MACHINE DAZZLE: Yeah. These are good colors for you.
ZOMORODI: So right now, I have a wig made of hair, red hair, but also plastic bags, yarn, flowers, all sorts of things. A bolero jacket that’s vintage with very poofy sleeves. And then the crinoline short skirt just pops out. And we’re not even fully dressed yet.
MACHINE DAZZLE: And it’s like this – yeah, we’re not even fully dressed yet. We haven’t even really done accessories. And also, you’re not in your heels.
ZOMORODI: I’m not in my seven-inch Prada heels yet.
MACHINE DAZZLE: No, you’re not. And I might want to add…
ZOMORODI: By the time I got in my heels and rhinestone gloves, put on some copper lipstick with many dashes of glitter layered on top…
MACHINE DAZZLE: It’s just like a little something.
ZOMORODI: Oh, plus some cat-eye sunglasses. Something kind of transformed inside of me.
I think we were headed at one point into a direction where it was, like, too much, like, Halloween-y. But then you, like, took us in a different direction, and now I actually feel super chic.
MACHINE DAZZLE: All of a sudden, because you’re so outrageous, it’s like you have a license to say almost anything and do almost anything.
ZOMORODI: But I never would have thought I could wear this many colors, this many accessories.
MACHINE DAZZLE: It’s the way you put things together. There’s sophistication involved. There’s effort. I think there’s a lot of minimalism that, you know, it’s effortless. There’s nothing to think about. And I understand why people do that. You know, we live in a crazy world. Life is stressful. I can’t handle – I mean, I can handle it. I’m having fun. A miniature me running through the mountain that is your headdress. And then, like, your shoes are just, like, propping you up. It’s like putting a painting on a wall.
ZOMORODI: I figured at this point, as we get ready to go out to get a coffee, that I would be embarrassed and terrified. But I don’t. I feel like I need to be seen because I look amazing.
MACHINE DAZZLE: Hello. And now, you’re going to want to do this all the time. I have a feeling we’ll be seeing a lot more of each other (laughter).
ZOMORODI: Can I buy you a coffee?
MACHINE DAZZLE: You sure can, babe.
ZOMORODI: All right.
MACHINE DAZZLE: Let’s go.
ZOMORODI: Let’s do it.
MACHINE DAZZLE: (Laughter).
ZOMORODI: OK.
We took our outfits for a spin by going to the local cafe, and surprise, surprise, we turned some heads.
Oh, they just said, you look amazing, and you just cheered me up.
MACHINE DAZZLE: See? I told you.
ZOMORODI: We look like a celebration of life, you and I.
MACHINE DAZZLE: We do.
ZOMORODI: (Laughter).
I was finally embracing the maximalist mindset, and it felt good. And maybe Machine is right. Maybe we’re attracted to minimalism because it’s a way of taming the madness of modern life. Whereas Machine’s approach is to run joyfully towards the chaos.
MACHINE DAZZLE: I’m trying to give light to it. And sometimes, a thing of beauty can be a hand that you hold through a dark time.
ZOMORODI: I feel like a walking piece of art. It’s really special.
It is a flash. It is a moment.
MACHINE DAZZLE: You are taking joy.
ZOMORODI: I really am.
MACHINE DAZZLE: Most people would not leave their homes wearing what I wear. It’s an offering of changing the way people see the world, changing what is possible.
ZOMORODI: Machine Dazzle is a costume designer and performer. You can see his full talk at ted.com. The HBO documentary featuring his incredible outfits is called “Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History Of Popular Music.” You can also go to ted.npr.org and my Instagram to see photos of me and Machine all dressed up. On the show today, the State of Fashion. I’m Manoush Zomorodi, and you’re listening to the TED Radio Hour from NPR. We’ll be right back.
