The Lolita Complex: - Scholarly Commons Home

After moving back to Sydney temporarily in 1983 and then again in
1985, my relationship with subculture and fashion continued, in that my
closest circle of friends were fashion or jewellery designers and hairdressers
involved with these alternative movements. My hairdresser friend Adam
Sharah, for example, with whom I am still in contact, is the cousin of
Richard Sharah, famous for the makeup of New-romantic celebrities such as
Steve Strange from Visage and for Bowie’s Pierrot character. * I also shared a
flat with two successful jewellery designers who sold to boutiques who
stocked cutting-edge and subcultural fashions of the era. This pair also had a
regular stall at Paddington bazaar, which in the eighties was, in a similar
fashion to London’s Kensington and Camden Markets, and Hyper Hyper on
Kensington High Street, the birthplace for up-and-coming designers. This
Sydney venue was, for example, where the partners of Dinosaur Designs (one
of which, Liane Rossler, I attended High School with) started their now
successful business. During this time, I mingled with other followers of
underground movements at nightclubs such as Stranded and The Exchange,
hotspots for international celebrities while they were in town, most notably
David Bowie, Marilyn, Culture Club and Haysi Fantayzee (Fig. 6).
* I have mentioned only a handful of examples of celebrity connections to avoid a “namedropping”
emphasis as the point is only to demonstrate the importance of this background in
contributing to my knowledge.
Page | 46