Thomas Engel Hart is based in Paris, but he worked out his shit when he was club kid in early nineties New York and he’s still way more into fantasy and dressing like a rock god update than a Parisian aristo.

Engel Hart designs clothes for when you’ve outgrown band tees and streetwear but the idea of being a suit still gives you the creeps. Like where Johnny Rotten was at when he became John Lydon, left the Sex Pistols and set-up P.i.L.

Thomas Engel Hart says he’s watched this clip of dancer Michael Clark so many times that his work is still channeling it.

Clark, worked with Leigh Bowery, who is from the end of fashion that likes to think it knows about art and isn’t just about shifting product. He first made his name spinning around in anything other than tights to Iggy Pop’s “Mass Production” and Wire’s Pink Flag.

From Engel Hart’s lips: “I know the words ‘modern dance’ make some people wanna puke, but fuck it. We had a bootleg video of this years ago in New York, when I used to watch videos of weirdos wearing weird clothes and being weird, then did our best to be like that at night until the morning. It was a lot of fun. This is Michael Clark filmed by Charles Atlas for his 1986 film, Hail the New Puritan. The track is ‘Copped It’ by  the Fall. The outfits were designed by Leigh Bowery, and the fried-egg trees and giant pairs of Y-fronts in the background were designed by his flatmate, the artist Trojan. It’s got a certain no-brainer magic: one person, Michael, takes all the things he likes – whatever they are – and tips them into a sort of art omelette. Basically, that dance clip is about rebellion, with a fried egg in the background. Actually, that sums up what I do.”

JAMES ANDERSON