BlackBook Magazine

The haunting voice behind ghostly tracks like 'I Fell In Love With A Dead Boy' and 'For Today I Am A Boy' recently designed a one-off dress with YOOX.com for charity. Below, the New York-based singer-songwriter opens up about the female body, heroism, and why two garments are better than none.

On “I Fell In Love With A Dead Boy,” Antony Hegarty of Antony and the Johnsons sings, “I fell in love with you/ Now you’re my one, only one/ ‘Cause all my life I’ve been so blue/ But in that moment you fulfilled me.” Each of the band’s songs is so earnest, so oppressively sincere, that the relationship between an anonymous wanderer and his dead lover seems almost plausible. Antony’s lyrics embrace liminal spaces in which messy human emotion thrives. Not surprisingly then, his personal style reflects those shades of gray, yoking together disparate fashion sensibilities to create something decidedly unique.

BLACKBOOK: Tell us about your design.

ANTONY HEGARTY: Well, I wanted to introduce a print, and I’ve been doing a lot of drawing recently. I was thinking about the movement of it. I was thinking about wind, the movement of the elements. I was thinking about fluidity.

BB: Where do you imagine this dress being worn?

AH: In Heaven.

BB: That seems as good a place as any.

AH: It has a Roman feeling. You know what I mean? It has—I don’t know what you’d call it—a tunic? It’s almost kimono-esque, the way it closes in the back, and I think it’s nice to wear around the house, for women to wear to feel special. It’s more of a dress to wear for you. Who really cares who’s looking at you?

BB: Is this style something you might wear?

AH: I don’t know if I could squeeze into this dress. Really, it’s sized for someone more slight. But, I don’t know. I hadn’t thought of it. I’m interested in wearing longer clothes, longer shirts—down to my knees or so.

BB: Are you more inspired by clothes traditionally designed for men or women?

AH: I like a mixture of things that are broken down and crisp. I love that London hard times look from the early ‘80s. But I like to mix something like that with something really precious. My apartment, for example, is filled with decayed fabrics and things with holes mixed with something really exact and beautiful. So, if someone were to wear this white dress of mine, it would be beautiful to wear with something really decaying as well. In terms of designs for men or women, I don’t know. I don’t think of clothes like that. I just think of forms. Everything has its place. Like women’s clothes—the female body can be so beautiful. Everything I wear is special-made because my body isn’t the same as either of those, the model male or female body.

BB: Are you able to express yourself creatively through the clothes you wear?

AH: For me, the choices I make about what I wear, what I’m drawing, what we’re making on the computer, what we’re singing—they’re all colorful, creative choices and I feel so fortunate that I’m allowed to do that with my life. How lucky that I’m always playing in the sandbox, you know?

BB: Do you think that clothes act as a protective barrier, or a window into the self?

AH: I think that they function in both ways. There are times when I’ve worn clothes as armor, and other times when I’ve wore them as a revelation. I don’t think clothes are very useful. Not unless you’re in a dangerous situation would I encourage people to hide inside clothes. But, then, there are parts of the world where people have to hide inside clothes in order to remain safe.

BB: What about you, Antony? Are you freer in or out of clothes?

AH: I’m probably most free in just a couple of garments. I’m not really so comfortable that I can just prance around nude.

BB: Style is a big part of your life, but what about fashion?

AH: I’m not really involved in fashion. I’m just always thinking about color and line and shapes and movement. Those are the things that I notice. They were the first things I noticed when I was a kid that really made sense to me and made me feel alive. Creativity, in general, is what nursed me as a kid and follows me to this day. Outside of trends, the underlying things in fashion are design and aesthetics. And those are the things I’m concerned about in music, and also in visual arts.

BB: Madonna designed a line for H&M and David Bowie worked with Keanan Duffty for Target. Would you ever consider designing a full line yourself?

AH: I don’t think I’m qualified to do that. I have some ideas, but I should probably leave it up to the experts. But, who knows? No wait, I’m not qualified. You know, there’s a reason why I sing.

BB: Have you ever looked back on an outfit you’ve worn in horror?

AH: Oh yeah, probably most of them.

BB: The charity you are raising money for with the auction of this gown is the Sylvia Rivera Law Project. Why this organization?

AH: Sylvia Rivera is one of my heroes. She’s an activist. And talk about wearing clothes as armor! That was the story of her life. She fought her whole life on the streets of New York for the right to manifest herself as a transgender person. She was a real warrior. She died a few years ago and they set up this fund, which basically provides legal counsel for people without the means.

BB: I Am A Bird Now was a very personal exploration of self. How will that exploration evolve on your next album, The Crying Light?

AH: With The Crying Light, the focus is on my relationship with the world in general. I Am A Bird Now was cast inward, whereas this album is informed by my story and personal experience, but I’m now looking out at the natural world.

—Ariel Vered and Nick Haramis