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Bookworm beginningsJed's training for the fashion industry is a little unconventional. In 1994, after 5 A-levels and just over a year doing a Social Science degree, Jed chose a more practical way to explore the Sexualities in Society option that she'd be studying, and joined the ranks of those on the declining welfare state. On her first trip to Brixton's job centre, Jed was spotted by a fashion student from Central St. Martin's who wanted a tall bald woman to model for him at London Fashion Week. A few months later, Jed met the corset designer Velda Lauder and a whole new side of London life opened up for Jed.
The London lesbian scene in the early 1990s was still reeling from the Feminist Sex Wars of the late 70s and 80s, and it felt very much like there was a split between anti-porn, anti-violence feminists, and sex-positive, anti-censorship feminists. Venus Rising at The Fridge, Brixton, started in 1988, and became Europe's largest women only club, attracting a diverse clientele. But by 1993, it seemed as though some women wanted to separate themselves from the leather dykes, who were avidly reading Pat Califia's "Macho Sluts" (1988) and Quim magazine when they weren't out clubbing, and numbers attending Venus fell too low for it to be sustained in a venue with over 2000 capacity.
Common DenominatorQueer theory gathered pace in the 1990s with magazines such as Quim and Common Denominator coming out. Jed had met Sophie Moorcock and Lulu Belliveau when Shocking Pink magazine - a part serious, part hilariously piss-taking political anti-heterosexist, pre-riot grrrl "radical magazine for young women" that Jed had been writing for - was forced to fold after a distributor went bust, and it wasn't long before Jed was photographed by Dixie Thomas (who had introduced Jed to Velda) for a spread in Lulu's Common Denominator magazine (issue one, 1995). A photo of Jed, Velda and Sam, wearing Sam's fantastic leather and metal designs at Pride, also turned up in that premier issue of Common Denominator.
Dandy Dust and Divine ComedyIt was through Sophie, Lulu and the "Bird in Bush Road" dykes that Jed was invited to be a 'cyberdyke' in Hans Schreirl's transgendered/sci-fi/horror/avant garde feature film, Dandy Dust which was released in 1998. This was Jed's first experience on a film set, and it wasn't her last by any means.
In 1998, Jed featured as a punkette flapper girl in the original video (sadly not available anywhere on the internet, it seems) of Divine Comedy's "I've been to a Marvellous Party". Club kid and Party Monster
A few hours after the Marvellous Party shoot, Jed and Anarchy Tank travelled to Soho for their weekly trip to Monster, a club hosted by Nanny TuTu, where Jed and Tank were two of her club kids. The concept of the club was based on the colourful and extravagant New York clubs that were promoted by Michael Alig, and it ran at Substation Soho for a year. During that time, it was visited by many celebs, including, on that Marvellous Party day, Siouxsie Sioux and Budgie of The Banshees and The Creatures fame. What a perfect night to be introduced to one of your heroines! And, to top the synchronicity, it was actually a year to the day that Jed had returned from Los Angeles, where she'd spent time with a pierced and tattooed punk called Spike who had hung out with Siouxsie during a tour of the States! In 2003, "Party Monster" - a film about the rise and fall of Michael Alig and
his subsequent conviction for the murder of his roommate and drug dealer, Angel Melendez - was released, and Angel appears in one scene wearing one of Jed's original 'Obscure Labels' white T-shirts with a 'bender' pin on panel and white detachable sleeves.
Heaven's Weirdomaniacs
Weirdomaniacs, again hosted by TuTu, was upstairs in the Dakota Bar at Garage, one of the many popular nights at Heaven, London's premier gay nightspot. Dubbed as "a night of a thousand skinny bones", Weirdomaniacs was the perfect location for Jed to collaborate with Anarchy Tank, Perverse Skirts, and Other Cat to put on a "Freak Death" fashion performance, with Jed wearing a pair of one-off black PVC trousers with red PVC straps, red DM boots that she customised and a hoover pipe top made by Other Cat. Weirdomaniacs was reviewed in Thud magazine, and Scene Update in 1997.
1990s Fetish scene
Unlike the lesbian scene, the London fetish scene in the '90s seemed far more consolidated and accepting of difference. With Torture Garden emerging in 1990, Madonna's Sex book released in 1992, and Operation Spanner's effects running throughout most of the decade, there was a renewed interest in fetishism. TG provided a space for a wide range of perverts, freaks, body artists and theatrical queers to dress up, dance and play, and Jed found herself on stage many times at this cutting edge London club, modelling for various fetish designers, such as Velda Lauder, Demask, SAM Sylvan, and E-Garbs.
Tank Girl and NuremburgIn 1996, Jed travelled to Nuremburg to model for SAM Sylvan and also for Velda Lauder at The Fetish Revolution. The highly acclaimed and international techno band, Lab 4, provided the live music to SAM's fashion performance, which also involved Lucifire angle grinding a huge metal penis worn by Allen TG as Jed held him still! Lucifire and Jed were also two of the models featured in Ritual magazine issue 6, wearing clothes by SAM for a Sub Girls shoot around the time that the film Tank Girl went on general release in the UK.
Velda Lauder, Gary Sollas and Tim FlachJed modeled for Velda Lauder on numerous occasions, both on stage and for photo shoots, and was also photographed by Gary Sollas, on Brighton beach with Joss Munro, for his "Blockage In The U-Bend of Love" painting (featured in the Independent on Saturday magazine in 1998). A slightly more painful and precarious shoot involved a lizard on Jed's head on a day she had a rather painful migraine, but the resulting image, beautifully captured by Tim Flach, turned up all over the Paris and Toronto metro system, and in the windows of the High Street printers Kall Kwik up and down the country!
2-4-6-8 enjoy the right to flagellate
Jed got a part as a featured extra and had a great 19 days on set. Highlights included going to Kwik Save in a limo (with "Bow B4 Me" number plates) with the two leading ladies, Guin Turner and Julie Graham, dressed to the nines, to get essential supplies for the cast and crew; being offered the opportunity to lie down for the day before being tied to an altar in the "Cunt Power" scene; and, of course, being part of a controversial but cult British movie that was aired on the BBC on April 23rd a few years later!
Obscure LabelsIn 1999, and after spending 8 months writing and re-writing a business plan, Jed secured funding from The Prince's Trust to set up Obscure Labels, a small business involved in the designing, printing and selling of T-shirts. Jed took a stall in The Electric Ballroom market every Sunday for 5 years and there she built a varied customer base, introduced and tested new designs, and gained both confidence and business contacts. |
1997 was quite a seminal year. Despite some of the men involved in the Spanner case losing their appeal in the
European Court of Human Rights, there was much positive activity as far as fetishism's media representation was concerned. "Preaching To The Perverted", staring Guinevere Turner, Christien Anholt and Tom Bell, and directed by Stuart Urban, went on general release in UK cinemas.
Three books relating to fetishism were also published in 1997.