Uniformity: Helen Couchman, Mixed-Media Artist

Uniformity is a regular magazine column where we ask Beijing personalities about the various outfits that have defined them over the years.

When we asked artist Helen Couchman to think back over all the uniforms she’s ever worn, we were broadly defining “uniform” to refer to clothes/headwear that:
• She was required to wear in particular situations
• Were not of her choosing and not from her personal wardrobe
• Were either provided to her or that he had to pay for
• Others were also wearing at the same time

Which uniform was the most flattering?
My most flattering “uniform” was a bridesmaid dress I wore in Italy. It was a beautiful silk Christian Lacroix bias-cut evening dress bought for me by the bride and it was wonderful to wear. Hot pink with a low back and thread shoulder straps. I think the three of us (two bridesmaids and the bride) made quite an entrance.

Did you ever feel transformed by wearing any of these uniforms?
I was very pleased with my school’s summer uniform when I was five or six, as we wore a straw boater with a blue band and an embroidered badge. Long after I left the convent, I would wear the straw hat for dressing up.

Did you ruin any of these uniforms?
My school uniform from when I was 13-16 years old. I cut the bottom off and hemmed it shorter and cut the itchy grey nylon lining out. There can’t have been much of it left by the time I was finished with it.

Which uniform did you have the most fun in?
I was only a Girl Guide for a year and I can’t say I understood what we were doing much of the time, but it was definitely fun. I remember I found the uniform oddly militaristic, and for doing classic Guide activities – like making a wash stand out of branches – it was fairly impractical.

Which uniform were you most mocked for wearing?
When I was waitressing to help pay for art school, I could not bear to spend money on a boring white shirt and black skirt. So I had a good line in being given secondhand shirts from friends. One night, for a flashy wedding disco party in Knightsbridge, London, a friend had given me a nice cream shirt to wear. I stepped out with my canapes onto the neon dance floor and circulated the whole room. I got some strange reactions. I was starting out into the room again with my second plate of nibbles when the head waiter came and grabbed me. It turned out that my white bra had been glowing white in the UV on the dance floor but my cream shirt had not! I was hastily offered one of the waiters’ spare shirts. When I headed back out, quite a number of the male guests commented that they were sorry I had changed.

Click here to see the October issue of the Beijinger in full.

Photo courtesy of Helen Couchman