As one of London’s fastest growing independent retailers with an HQ situated at the heart of London’s cultural hub, it is TOWER’s duty to not only support those thriving in our local community, but to create a platform for those driving positive change within their own communities.
Celebrating 50 years of PRIDE events across the UK, our HQ crew gave a number of London’s LGTBQ+ Creative visionaries the opportunity to style, shoot and put their own spin on an editorial that captured exactly what it means to them to be Queer and Diverse within modern creative spaces.
PR(iD)E at TOWER
Boss Lady, a.k.a. @BbyMilosWorld, gave a team of five LGTBQ+ innovators complete creative license to recreate a TOWER editorial through their own eyes; sharing the load across a select crew of photographers, designers, artists, poets and so on.
There should be no limits to creativity, so why stop at footwear?
Next up in the series - Loreley, who is a drag siren, singer and lipsyncer from Germany.
Meet Loreley
Loreley enchants with her beauty, but that alone is not what defines her; the siren is independent, she is strong. She doesn't need to fear anyone, on the contrary - people respect her and she doesn't even have to be cruel to do so. She doesn't sneak up on ships, she doesn't drag anyone down into the depths of the Rhine River, she doesn't hurt anyone with her own hands - she just sits on her rock and sings. When she does that, everyone around her forgets everything else and can do nothing but listen, so that the sailors' ships smash unsteered against the rocks of the Rhine.
"Und das hat mit ihrem Singen die Loreley getan"
This line from a German poem by Heinrich Heine about the legendary figure of the siren Loreley has inspired me since I was a child.
Growing up as a gay child often means powerlessness. Powerlessness not only over one's own life, but also over how others perceive one. Loreley was my role model. I always loved to sing and her voice was Loreley's great strength, a strength I often would have liked to use for myself, but couldn't most of the time. For a long time I wanted to be like her and one day I picked up a makeup brush and all of a sudden I was her. Now Loreley's strength is available to me both in and out of drag, but instead of using my voice to capsize ships, I can use it for people who cannot yet be strong for themselves. A bit like Loreley was strong for me.”
“My style is very important to me. What makes my drag special, is that everything about it is unapologetic self-expressing art, created by myself in my living room.
Loreley is the queen of DIY, she makes her own wigs and sews her own costumes - clothes for me are an expression of myself and a way to carry my inner self to the outside. My drag is fantasy, larger than life and colourful; how I express myself to the outside world stems directly from the fantasy worlds I create in my mind.
To create my looks, I often use old materials that have been reprocessed. As such, the look in this picture consists of old jeans that I have repurposed to give them new life - I picked the Vincent van Gogh inspired Dr. Martens to go with it as they compliment the essence of what my clothes are supposed to represent: wearable art.”