Did you know Mike Kelley fronted Sonic Youth years before they used his art for Dirty?
How a performance poem, an art-school friendship and one thrift-store toy became part of 90s alternative-rock history
Climax Books
Climax is a bookstore and cultural space founded by Isabella Burley. From London and New York we explore the pleasures of print, publishing and wearables. This is Climax after hours — deeper dives, archival finds and extended Under the Cover ♡
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Latest posts
Did you know about Marc Jacobs’s controversial "Grunge" collection at Perry Ellis?
The designer's Spring 1993 collection was so infamous that many believed it to be the reason the label fired him
Thrill-Seeking: a guide to London by Camille Charrière
The writer and cultural commentator shares her guide to the British capital, from the zen of The London Library to Portobello Road Market on Fridays, to the best spots to go OUT out
Did you know Juliette Lewis accidentally broke her co-star’s nose when filming Natural Born Killers?
Oliver Stone’s 1994 cult satire gave Lewis one of her defining roles. A very unscripted collision with Tom Sizemore made the final cut.
Books in Movies: Permanent Vacation (1980)
Jim Jarmusch’s first feature follows an aimless teenager through a derelict New York, finding J.G. Ballard’s Crash and Lautréamont’s Maldoror along the way
Did you know Walter Van Beirendonck staged a line dancing show for his 1998 collection?
Long before cowboy-core was trending, the Antwerp Six designer turned W.&.L.T. into a queer and carnivalesque fashion rodeo.
Did you know that at just 16 years old, Björk fronted a wild Icelandic punk band?
Before her avant-garde solo career, Björk was already tearing through Reykjavik punk in porcelain dresses with Tappi Tíkarrass.
Did you know William S. Burroughs rewrote his own dialogue for Drugstore Cowboy?
How Gus Van Sant fought to cast the Beat icon, then let him turn a brief cameo into the film’s most chilling monologue.
Did you know Isabelle Huppert played a ruthless femme fatale in Christine Pascal’s 1984 neo-noir La Garce?
Christine Pascal’s icy cat-and-mouse thriller let Huppert turn the femme fatale into something colder, stranger and harder to forgive.
Did you know Milla Jovovich’s Ultraviolet wardrobe was designed to change colour with her mood?
How the 2006 sci-fi film turned Violet’s costumes into a future-tech mood ring
Book Buying in San Francisco ♡
Our founder Isabella shares her favourite San Francisco stops for radical ephemera, secondhand art books, late-night counterculture and queer archive finds