Dressing for Excess
Terri King has been designing and making custom clothing for rock stars, including Marilyn Manson and Ozzy Osbourne, since 1984. And King, 36, knows her rock ‘n’ roll clients have special needs when they wear her clothes onstage and in videos.
King’s clothing is actually “rigged” for fit and function. She does this by hiding extra padding or stretch material into the linings so that the garment can handle stage dives and mosh pits.
Your most recent client is the band Sinisstar. What went into designing those clothes?
It was almost like being an engineer, putting their clothes together. The singer, Edgy, said they wanted something “Road Warrior.” I sketched and got together every kind of leather swatch I could find. Some of it looks like armor. It’s layers and layers of leather, and it’s made to look like they’ve had it for 15 years and just crawled out of a trash can.
Are rock stars’ needs really that much different than the average person’s?
Yes, there are all these little tricks that the normal person wouldn’t care about and wouldn’t even want on their clothes. You try to be functional without letting the crowd know that it’s a rigged piece.
Do a lot of fans approach you to buy the clothes they see on the stars?
I get asked that all the time and we just have to say no. If it’s a custom piece, then we can’t do it. You have to keep the integrity of the artist.
Who wears your wildest creations?
When Marilyn Manson went glam, we made almost Las Vegas-style feather collars that were so large we had to use braces on each shoulder so they would stay up like wings. We made studded gloves with over 1,000 studs on each glove. We used a ton of sequins and rhinestones. It’s really fun to be able to go crazy--and have it be OK.
King on 5 stars she has dressed
* Iggy Pop: He’s hilarious, completely out of his mind crazy! He had an idea of what he wanted, but he didn’t really care as long as it looked cool.
* Grace Jones: One of the strangest people I’ve ever worked with. She scared the hell out of all my assistants. They didn’t know where to look, they were so scared of her!
* Ozzy Osbourne: We make him these incredible coats and he’ll wear them for two seconds, then throw them off and go back to his jeans and T-shirts, which we also make custom. And he gets everything soaking wet!
* Alice Cooper: So many of my clients say they want something that looks like Alice Cooper. He changes clothes a million times in his shows--we even made some that are breakaway. Some were made so he could change clothes really fast backstage and others were torn off as part of the show.
* Marilyn Manson: He’s so creative and so much his own person. He has great instincts and really knows what he wants--he could be a clothing designer.
