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Partying Is An Art: A Susanne Bartsch documentary is on Kickstarter

Susanne Bartsch is the fairy godmother of the weird and beautiful party scene you’ve seen in movies and always kind of hoped was real. Even if you have no interest in parties, fashion, or history, the trailer for @Bartschland is a fun 3 minutes.

At the nexus of style and art and pop culture and subculture and design, there are parties. And if you are very creative, very lucky, and very tapped into the wildest parts of your city, the parties you attend might be changing society. Most of us wouldn’t make that claim, but with help we might be able live vicariously through those who can.

Susanne Bartsch has thrown some of the world’s most stunning events for nearly three decades. The Swiss-born style icon struck out on her own at 17, into the high holy era of early punk London. After falling in with scene noteworthies like Malcom McLaren she moved on to the brighter lights (and trashier trash) of New York City. There she swiftly made a name for herself as both a design curator and a nightlife ambassador. She ran a boutique (eventually two), highlighting then unknown names like John Galiano and Vivienne Westwood. After lamenting the lack of fun in a post-Warhol NYC, she started hosting the parties she wanted to attend, and where few rules applied. 

Her weekly events at Savage, the Copacabana and others are now legendary as the jumping off point for innovative designers and performers, attended by characters as flashy and world-changing as Leigh Bowery, RuPaul, Amanda Lepore, and Madonna.

Though most famous for her lavish bashes and her wild personal looks, Bartsch is also rightfully known for bringing disparate worlds together. Under her direction aesthetic schools have mingled and social worlds tangled, and she has used that melting pot for good. By the late ‘80s the swinging style of her parties had exploded in notoriety, and so had the desperate nature of the AIDS epidemic. Her 1990 Love Ball raised an estimated $2.5 million towards combatting the disease, and highlighted the style and talents of Harlem’s Ball scene performers in the process.

She spent the latter half of the '90s out of the limelight, raising her son and while gourmet brands’ kink and drag themed styles of the era ran their course. In the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks, she felt the city needed its spirit back, and stepped out to become queen of nightlife again, in NYC and around the globe. Since then she’s continued to host, promote, design, and collaborate, as the party scene has changed over and over.

Bartsch was a pioneer in bringing sculptural fashion, BDSM design, and the performative art of drag performers to wider audiences, and she hasn’t stopped stunning now that drag is on TV. A recent retrospective at FIT showcased the still-outlandish outfits she’s worked on and worn over the years and prompted the effort to document her ongoing work and legacy. The @Bartschland project already has hundreds of hours of archival and verite footage shot by Anthony&Alex, who are no strangers to colorful scenes themselves. If successful, the Kickstarter campaign will allow them to shoot and edit towards a feature length documentary in time for a festival-season release. 

The @Bartschland Kickstarter campaign runs through April 8, 2016. Though she shows no signs of stopping, a dedicated documentary would be a worthy way to honor the work of a true grand dame in fashion.

http://www.core77.com/posts/49423/Partying-Is-An-Art-A-Susanne-Bartsch-documentary-is-on-Kickstarter