Lunchtime Lecture: Gender Performance Transformation

Figuring out who you are? Then forever inventing who else you could also be? Actors, singers, dancers, herself, closet transvestites, performance artists - Sonja Harms has dressed them all and continues to be fascinated by the stories and fantasies behind the alternative identities. Join Sonja Harms for a discussion on playing with the elements of transformation, performance and gender that form the centre of her work.

Working towards a self-made career making women’s clothes for men, Sonja Harms started by completing a traditional German apprenticeship as a dressmaker in Bremen, then a year of learning pattern drafting for women and men in Hamburg and Munich, waitressing in a transvestite basement bar on the weekends. She moved to London in 1995 to make clothes for Transvestites, finding clients in transvestite bars and discos. Later, she branched out into making costumes for Theatre, Dance, Opera, Film and performance artists. Since 1996 Sonja Harms has been making the clothes for Grayson Perry and his alter ego Claire.

Visit our SoundCloud channel to listen to past Lunchtime Lectures: soundcloud.com/vamuseum/sets/v-a-lunchtime-lecture-series