From 1989 to 1994, London nightlife was defined by a single nightclub: Kinky Gerlinky. The party was sporadic, growing from a one-off and effectively private gathering at a small space in Mayfair to a ballroom-scale event at the Empire in Leicester Square. It was launched by Michael and Gerlinde Costiff, counterculture figures in London since the early 1970s. The individual most linked to Kinky Gerlinky, aside from the Costiffs, is Winn Austin, who was host and MC for each event. A transgender model from Guyana, Winn has worked with numerous fashion designers including Pam Hogg and Rifat Ozbek. She acted in Todd Haynes’s Velvet Goldmine (1998), featured in Claire Lawrie’s 2018 documentary Beyond “There’s always a black issue Dear”, has styled numerous Bollywood film productions, and volunteers for the Stonewall housing charity in London. In 2021, she launched Ms A with designer Bok Goodall, a lingerie and swimwear line for transgender women.
MARK: Clothes are obviously a big part of [your] positivity. Looking around your flat on Warren Street, it’s obvious that these things mean a lot to you, and that you hold on to things.
WINN: I’ve always been a magpie, archivist, and hoarder. My wardrobe represents my past and present. I have a lot of gowns by Jeffrey Bryant, because he’s great at cutting for my shape. I have a cerise sequin suit Rifat Ozbek gave me, which I wore to the opening of the Versace store in London in 1995—Alicia Silverstone had worn it to an event before me, but he said I should keep it because I looked so amazing in it. Rifat took me to the British Fashion Awards in his Turkish coin dress in 1992, when he won British Designer of the Year. He was always so clever in the way he took inspiration from people like Leigh Bowery and the club scene, but he was also influenced by his Turkish heritage. He was way ahead of his time.
I also have several pieces by Pam Hogg. I wore the slashed bridal gown for the finale of the 1992 show, before she retired for a while. I also modeled for her at Freemasons’ Hall in 2018.
Pieces from Winn's private collection
MARK: There’s a lot of stuff that is quite DIY. You’ve never been about just wearing a dress by a designer.
WINN: I make everything my own, whether by adding to it or accessorizing. Sometimes it’s created just for me. I have a red velvet gown I wore to the premiere of Too Wong Foo in 1995 that I had made from the curtains in Porchester Hall, where I won my first drag pageant in the mid-1980s. I went to a party one night in the early 1990s and found out that they were closing and gutting the interior, so I said I wanted the drapes. My friend Tim Perkins, who used to work for Vivienne Westwood and who is now a costume cutter for the Mission: Impossible and Indiana Jones films, worked with me to create something unique.
MARK: What are the pieces in your wardrobe that you find most poignant?
WINN: There’s a white fur wrap that you photographed which I had made when I was going to host Alexander McQueen’s Christmas party in 2009, but it was canceled. He died two months later. They gave me one of his skull-print chiffon scarves, which is now one of my most cherished possessions. I love how things come my way by fate, like the bias-cut dress we shot the white fur wrap with, which I saw in the window of a charity shop in Marlow in Buckinghamshire—it looks like a 1930s design, but it’s actually a contemporary piece made, I suspect, for a wedding. The workmanship inside is extraordinary—couture-quality. It was £28, so I bought it immediately. I also have a gold fringed bustier that used to belong to Helena Springs who was a backing singer with Bob Dylan, the Pet Shop Boys, and Bette Midler. I used to rent her flat and she had left a whole bunch of costumes there. They represent happy memories.
MARK: When we were all going to Kinky Gerlinky, a lot of the people there were dressed in head-to-toe Vivienne Westwood. She used to go to the club, too, with her muse Sara Stockbridge. It was like a cult. Michael and Gerlinde had an impressive collection of McLaren and Westwood, and 178 full outfits ended up in the V&A permanent collection. I have never seen you as being aligned with a certain designer, even though you were friends with Rifat, Pam, and Nicholas Knightly.
WINN: I do have special pieces from designers that I cherish, including a lot of Vivienne Westwood, but I would never wear just one label. I used to go regularly to Kensington Market in the 1980s, and I have a rare John Crancher Pour L’Anarchie skirt. He was hugely influential, particularly for his bondage coats, with their straps and kilt detail, and he ran his own club nights. Like too many of his generation, he was taken from us by AIDS.
I have always had my own sense of style and know what suits me. I know what periods of fashion I like. I have never wanted to be current—I like bringing modernity to something from the past. No one wore floor-length evening dresses in the 1990s but me, and a lot of designers came to the club, saw that and took it to the catwalk.
I was always a stiletto heel girl. I still have the first pair I bought from Shellys. I admire glamorous Black women—Josephine Baker, Lena Horne, Diana Ross, Billie Holiday, Diahann Carroll, and my relatives. I’ve studied a lot about Black history and have always loved seeing Black women on album covers. All the most stylish women in Guyana looked like me, so I could relate. When I moved to London as a teenager, I knew what kind of Black person I wanted to be.
MARK: Michael and Gerlinde were so important in the history of London fashion, and you are still close friends with Michael, who has a presence in Dover Street Market. Michael has a long history with 430 Kings Road, the shop space McLaren and Westwood founded that’s now Worlds End. He told me that he became a regular customer with Gerlinde when it was SEX in 1974. He remembers the first thing he bought: a transparent cerise skin-tight T-shirt, then a black “wet look” T-shirt, followed by apricot-colored Oxford bags tapered at the hem. Gerlinde used to go to the supermarket in her SEX rubber mac and rubber leggings with super-high black patent stilettos and studded ankle straps. The pair of them never had a division between the clothes they wore during the day and their nightlife wardrobe. Is that the same with you, or are there different Winns?
WINN: Well, I’d look ridiculous going to Tesco in a fake fur coat and maxi dress. But if I am coming home from an event, I’ll pop into the 24-hour supermarket wearing that outfit and won’t care. Clothing isn’t the essence of me, but I like dressing up—it’s my joy to transform myself in that way with wigs, jewelry, shoes, hats, heels and gloves. It brings me to life.
I must have been about four or five when it started. I lived with my grandmother. We were inseparable, very like-minded—both Scorpios. She used to allow me to do anything I wanted. I would dress up in her clothes and heels and pretend I was going shopping in the market. All the women in my family were glamorous, and church on a Sunday was the fashion show. Despite the heat in Guyana they would all wear gloves, capes, nets over the face, big hoop skirts. I see what I do as the same—I dress for the occasion. But I bring my essence no matter what I’m doing. If I go out in a tracksuit, I bring it. And you’ll still recognize me, walking down the street in my strength.
The text of this blog post has been extracted from pages 147-154 of Narrative Thread (Bloomsbury, 2023) edited to appear here with the author’s permission. Click here to read the unedited chapter, which includes the full interview.
