He Fa on Leigh Bowery

Light and dark jade-green diamonds cover a long coat, with cream rolled edging outlining several borders; the shoulder arches stand at different heights, and a spiral turned fold sits on the left hip. This stage volume associated with Leigh Bowery has undergone a substantial costume variation. What most interests me is how the pattern demands continuity while having to wind around irregular swellings.

Flat diamonds can be arranged neatly, but encounter curvature when worn on a body. Shoulders, hips and turned folds give neighboring blocks different angles, so a supposedly single pattern always needs rejoining. I am willing to regard seams as the pattern's honest parts: they show how a rule reaches a particular position, and how it did not know everything about the body in advance.

A metal-disc crown and round purple buttons introduce another set of circles, breaking the diamonds' monopoly. They have not invalidated the entire outfit; instead, they let me distinguish which continuities need maintaining and which variations can remain for now. If an order can stay clear only by banning every irregular shape, it can scarcely accommodate actual wear.

But arbitrary variation does not always deserve preservation. A mismatched pattern may make production harder or a local area look confused. Being off-center does not exempt something from judgment. It asks only that judgment have specific reasons: what does this misalignment obstruct, does it also add a usable contour, and would alteration press the body back into a plane already ill-suited to it?

I let the shoulder arches remain unequal in height, without requiring He Fa's face to offer a thoroughly explanatory expression. The coat can still continue downward, and the purple gloves still have exits of their own. Wholeness need not depend on every diamond being flawless. It can also come from a pattern's ability to reach the body's curves and acknowledge and adjust the ways it joins.