Honey Dijon: “The only way to be comfortable is to know who you are. I had to create the world I wanted to inhabit "

It's a great day in Somerset, southern England, but Honey Dijon, the DJ, fashion icon and trans superstar, is trapped in a hotel: it's her turn to quarantine like any newcomer from the US. wait, bowling awaited him at the Glastonbury festival - this year's virtual shadowing, rather - Croatia and beyond. She will be performing in some fashion shows and posing in others, and she just updated her clothing line, Honey Fucking Dijon, developed by Comme des Garçons, the influential Japanese avant-garde fashion label. At the same time, her face is an unmistakable part of Calvin Klein's #Pride campaign: her features, let's define them as diversity-glam, will be seen all over Manhattan. It's as if the legendary drag documentary

(1990) would have come to life.

Honey Dijon is, in short, in what we could wisely call a wonderful moment.

"I'm a little busy," agrees.

“But the covid has drowned out many of the things that it was preparing.

Before the pandemic, they wouldn't let me say no to anything;

now, I simply have no choice.

But do we have to talk about covid?

Isn't it better to talk about

?

I could spend my life talking about that movie and those girls. "

Theirs is the word: she is very informed and very little silent.

"There is nothing more

to speak with security ", sentence. “I have had really good teachers of this. They have made me reflect: can I care what people think of me if most do not even know what they think? He does not respond, but drops another gem: “I love words because we have all had to fit our lives in some language or another. I have always been self-taught, especially in art and fashion. They were my two safe places when nobody wanted to be associated with me. "

Born in Chicago in a year whose numbers she doesn't want to remember ("age is not talked about," she protests), Dijon grew up in a less kind time than the present with gender diversity. "My mother hates that I tell it, but at 13 years old I was sneaking to the clubs in Chicago," he smiles. “I was attracted to all that. Seeing different people, being inspired by music ... That changed my life. Before transitioning I was a very feminine spirit packaged very differently from most people. So I swallowed a lot of shit. I grew up in a black neighborhood, a tough place. I had to develop armor now just to get to school: people tell you who you are before you can even determine it. I had no choice.

While he projects an unbeatable calm today (he just did yoga), Dijon has a commanding presence. “I faced a lot of bullies when I was little. My mother instilled in me the idea that you don't need others to be happy. I think that when you fit into otherness, you must arm yourself with language to navigate it, that is, you must have an idea of ​​who you are in order to communicate with those who do not fit. There are so many identities — race, sexuality, artistic expression — that the only way to be comfortable is to know who you are. I had to create the world I wanted to inhabit ”.

The best way to get to know Dijon is through his music, remixes that have made fans like the respected photographer Wolfgang Tillmans and his friend Madonna fall in love.

In the cockpit, she remains like a controlling teacher.

“People know what to expect from me.

Never trust a DJ who doesn't dance ”, he warns.

Watching her play a Stevie Wonder a cappella song to a wild crowd has something of a real beauty to it.

“I can be in the most sordid gay party and later in the heights of fashion and I feel just as comfortable, because I am always the same.

Always.

There are people who find it difficult, but not me.

I just came out of the womb like this ”.

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