For Fashion Aid at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1985, Antony Price treated fashion less like a conventional catwalk and more like theatrical stagecraft. He conceived a presentation in which the model and longtime friend Jerry Hall emerged from a black velvet box, turning her entrance into a piece of visual mythology. Hall wore a highly engineered ensemble consisting of a bolero and a dress with a lampshade-shaped peplum, made from metallic and red French silk lace layered over lamé. Price later admitted that the outfit was not intended to be subtle or conventionally chic: under the stage lights, he said, Hall resembled a Siamese fighting fish in a vast blue tank. The performance captured his broader philosophy that clothing could function as spectacle, character construction, and pop-cultural image-making rather than merely as wearable apparel. It also reflected the increasingly blurred boundary in 1980s Britain between fashion shows, rock concerts, celebrity performance, and theatrical illusion—an approach Price had already pursued through his 1983 and 1984 Fashion Extravaganza events at Camden Palace and the Hippodrome.
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AI concept artworkArchive Record · 1980s
Jerry Hall Emerges from a Black Velvet Box at Antony Price's 1985 Fashion Aid Spectacle
Antony Price / 1980s
For Fashion Aid at London's Royal Albert Hall in 1985, Antony Price treated fashion less like a conventional catwalk and more like theatrical stagecraft. He conceived a presentation in which the model and longtime friend Jerry Hall emerged from a black velvet box, turning her entrance into a piece of visual mythology. Hall wore a highly engineered ensemble consisting of a bolero and a dress with a lampshade-shaped peplum, made from metallic and red French silk lace layered over lamé. Price later admitted that the outfit was not intended to be subtle or conventionally chic: under the stage lights, he said, Hall resembled a Siamese fighting fish in a vast blue tank. The performance captured his broader philosophy that clothing could function as spectacle, character construction, and pop-cultural image-making rather than merely as wearable apparel. It also reflected the increasingly blurred boundary in 1980s Britain between fashion shows, rock concerts, celebrity performance, and theatrical illusion—an approach Price had already pursued through his 1983 and 1984 Fashion Extravaganza events at Camden Palace and the Hippodrome.
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