Burlesque star, activist and historian Jo Weldon explores the fierce side of fashion history in new illustrated lecture.
September 19, 2024 at Laurie Beechman Theatre
After wowing audiences with "What I Wore to Work", a look at the history of adult entertainment industry workers, burlesque star, activist and historian Jo Weldon will present FIERCE: A HISTORY OF LEOPARD PRINT at The Laurie Beechman Theater (inside West Bank Cafe at 407 West 42nd Street -- at Ninth Avenue, accessible from the A,C,E,N,R,V,F,1,2,3 trains at 42nd Street). It will be presented Thursday, September 19 at 7pm. Tickets are $24 for general admission or $38 for reserved VIP seating. Please note that there is also a $25 food/drink minimum at all performances at this venue. To purchase tickets, visit www.SpinCycleNYC.com.
FIERCE: A HISTORY OF LEOPARD PRINT is an illustrated lecture that traces leopard print’s path through modern fashion and celebrates some of its fiercest wearers (like Beyonce, Joan Collins, Michelle Obama, Carmen Miranda, Jackie Kennedy, and RuPaul, to name a few). These days leopard print is so common that we take it for granted, but it remains one of the most controversial topics in fashion, equally denounced and adored. From being the sole province of kings and warriors, it has become a fashion staple for people in every walk of life. It now evokes a wide range of conflicting implications, depending on who wears it and where they wear it. Because it was created in nature, it can never be purely cultural, but pop culture has imbued it with impact no one could have imagined 100 years ago. No matter how ubiquitous the print becomes, it never loses its bite!
The leopard is an apex predator: powerful, adaptable, and impossible to domesticate. Leopard print is an apex fashion statement: powerful, fluid in meaning, and impossible to ignore. A pattern adapted by nature to help a killer blend in has been adapted by culture to make a fashionista stand out. In her history of its presence in fashion, Jo Weldon discusses the cultural implications of wearing the pattern in the Western world, and the effect of developing technology and agency across class, race, and gender on our options to express ourselves through clothing. The woman wearing leopard print may not be saying she is a predator, but she is making it clear that she is not prey.
Jo Weldon is a theatrical fashion historian who has been costuming exotic dancers and burlesque performers for decades, and is herself an internationally touring burlesque instructor and performer. After a lifetime of admiring and wearing leopard print, she began to research its history in Western popular culture. She discovered that its legacy is intertwined with the history of global trade, the democratization of fashion, and feminism. She has presented lectures on the history of leopard print around the world for the past six years, and her book Fierce: The History of Leopard Print was featured in The Metropolitan Museum of Art bookstore during their 2019 exhibition on Camp. She is currently a scholar in residency as a New York Public Library, researching fashion history and its intersections with and dependency upon alternative lifestyles and the demimonde.