PEARL ! When I first met Pearl, i was unaware of shim’s couture skills- I only knew herm had worked on the legendary Leigh Bowery designs and that was all I needed to hear to commission a butterfly costume intended for the INFINITY WITHIN deee-lite tour in 1992. I didn’t know at the time that my rehersals , costumes and entire tour plans would be squashed due to Warner brothers rackets /Nelektra records refusal to give one dime of tour support nor aknowledge our music and message as anything worthy . ”it’s too gay ” or “you already have the dancefloor’s attention- use that as a stepping stone to POP because we will not promote house music” is what I was told repeatedly by the label folks in charge. However … just before I got slapped with that dirty business of dreams realisation and the heartache that comes with it as a misunderstood artist on a major label ….Pearl was a bright shining star representing a bright future filled with fabulous costumes and magical shows to come.I was pestering Pearl after the first month ” where is my costume -we’ll be on tour soon?” shim said it’s going to take a little longer and i was impatient but at the mercy of a true artist and so , I left shim to it.. 2 months later shim invited me to the fitting and that’s when I understood what Couture was. I was gagging when my eyes were first beholden to the vision of copper , pink, and mellon colored beads swirled into the most beautiful insect costume worthy of museum space. One day there will be an exhibition with Pearl’s many costumes and I shall surely lend the garment. I have very little footage of the 2 times i wore it ( if anyone has any video footage -please send to me at info@ladykier.com) I recently saw this little documentary on Pearl and it brought back memories when i lived in London and we would swim together in a huge pool somewhere in the old east end. It was like swimming with a prima balerina mermaid. Pearl-I’ll always have a smile for you. -lady kier