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BY CARYN B. BROOKS |
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Show Off featuring DJs Sol, Pete and Gregarious Bebati's Pan 231 SW Ankeny St., 248-4579 10 pm Sunday, Dec. 27. $3 for showoffs, $5 for lookie-loos Jeffrey Kyle makes things happen. In the early to mid '90s, as Portland's celebrated New-Wave drag queen Chick Startena, Kyle tapped into the power of this town's underground scene and accessorized, accessorized, accessorized. He ran a retro clothing store and was a favorite player on the punk-rock party circuit. Then Kyle moved away. After an almost four-year absence, he recently swooped back into town, gathered up his troops and formed Le Less Co., a happening-making company. Le Less Co.'s first production to hit the market is Show Off, a style and music extravaganza. Willamette Week caught up with Kyle at Hamburger Mary's. WW: You were the glam-tran queen of Portland in the early '90s, and then you left. Why? Jeffrey Kyle: I felt as though I needed to explore to see how I'd be received in other cities, how I'd fit in. You went to New York, right? Went to New York for the first two years, then San Francisco for the next year and a half. There's no real heart in cities like that. You used to own Magpie [a retro clothing store], right? I opened and owned Magpie. What was the essence of Magpie when you owned it? The essence of Magpie was basically this: Walk in with like $75 in your pocket, and walk out a completely different person--from wig to '50s stiletto heels to sequined dress. If people were into it, I'd help them with their makeup, glue their eyelashes on for them, make jewelry custom to match their dresses, shoes and everything. What were you doing when you were away? Mostly freelance makeup artistry for weddings, dominatrixes, drag queens and girls who were going out to parties dressed like Marilyn Monroe or Twiggy or Edie Sedgewick. What do you think of the fake vintage stuff that has overrun the department stores? There's a difference between fashion and style. The new vintage is fashion, and it's a passing phase. People that are buying the new things are inspired by vintage, are into fashion. They're not into style. Style's eternal, but fashion changes with every page you turn, and I think it sucks. So, with this Gapification of the vintage style, what do you recommend for the rock 'n' roller on your shopping list? I'd recommend for them never to pick up a fashion magazine. Just study album covers of their favorite bands, up to 1976. Tell me about Show Off. Well, we're going to have live attractions featuring Bavarian snack-tray hostesses. That's for real? That's for real. And we're going to have a 9-foot round bed on the stage, covered in red velvet with a red velvet headboard. Also, there's going to be a selection of different Show Off models. I'm going to be doing the makeup and styling of course, and they're all going to look like blow-up dolls, male and female, and you can choose which one you want to have your picture taken with. Maybe we'll have a go-go cage. Show Off isn't really going to be a show, it's going to be attractions happening while the music's playing. Your eyes will always have something to look at, but there's not going to be one thing that commands your attentions too much. No runway? Right. Very interactive. Just crazy vignettes of things to look at and participate in if you so want to. How about the music? Overly produced, very flashy '60s and '70s plugged-in dance music--and a lot of European porn music from the '60s and '70s. Music and fashion skip down the street holding hands. Why are they so in love? Because one inspires the other. Which came first? Neither. Music and style--I won't say fashion because that's a completely different word in my book--but music and style work with each other. You know how when you put on a certain outfit and you want to put on certain music to go with it? I just find the two completely interactive. Neither came first--there's been both forever. Is fashion in fashion? No. When was its height? I think it was at its height probably in the late '70s for the very last time. Is brown the black of the '90s? Hell NO! Black is the black of the millennium and that is all there is to it. And no one can convince anyone otherwise ever, no matter what. That's a bunch of shite. Glamor can hurt. So where's the comfort? The comfort in glamor is the respect that you get. It's true. The comfort zone is the way people respect you, want to buy you drinks, want to know your name or light your cigarette. Is this shallow? It's wonderfully shallow. The fact that I was hated from the time I was a little kid until I could come to Portland and be glamorous tells me that I prefer to live a shallow existence. Your advertisements for Show Off says that "showoffs" get in for $3 and "lookie-loos" get in for $5. What's a lookie loo? A lookie-loo's someone who is not at all interested in participating in the dress-up feeling of the evening. And how will you judge that? Well, everyone who's going to be part of Le Less Co., which is the group of friends that's putting this on, we all have very trained eyes. We can tell when people are dressing up and having fun, and we can tell when people are just getting off work and looking like crap. We're going to say, "I'm sorry, you could have done better, five bucks," or, "You look great, three bucks," or if somebody comes up looking like the main float of a grand floral parade, that would be free. Sort of like a New York club in that way. This is very un-Portland? Very un-Portland. So this is a risk. Jeffrey Kyle, will you pull it off? Totally. Because I've got genius minds working with me. What would your ode to Portland be called? [Pause] Ode to Portland? Oh Gaaaad. That's going to take a sip or two here. Um, my ode to Portland would be called, "I've paid my dues. I've worn out my shoes, and I've paid my dues." You like that?
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