From Caftan King to Peacock Pasha: Demis Roussos and Orientalist Decadence in Men’s Fashion and European Popular Culture, 1968–1980

Brayshaw, E

From Caftan King to Peacock Pasha: Demis Roussos and Orientalist Decadence in Men’s Fashion and European Popular Culture, 1968–1980

Brayshaw, E

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Publisher:: Intellect Publishing
Publication Type:: Journal Article
Citation:: Critical Studies in Men's Fashion, 2024, 10, (2)
Issue Date:: 2024-01-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Brayshaw, E https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8549-0947
dc.date.accessioned	2023-10-10T23:55:13Z
dc.date.available	2023-10-10T23:55:13Z
dc.date.issued	2024-01-01
dc.identifier.citation	Critical Studies in Men's Fashion, 2024, 10, (2)
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/172622
dc.description.abstract	The Greek-Egyptian singer Artemios Ventouris (Demis) Roussos (1946–2015) was a global superstar in the 1970s, selling more than 60 million albums worldwide. Roussos’s success was built on his hard work, talent and ability to craft a sensual, comforting, caftan-clad performance persona that tapped into the Zeitgeist of the 1970s. Scholarship to date has considered the decadence of Orientalism and caftans in fashion over the twentieth century, including their importance in the so-called ‘Peacock Revolution’ of menswear. It has also considered how Roussos used a nostalgia linked to package holidays to warm, sunny destinations – a new phenomenon in Europe in the 1970s – within his songs to great commercial success. Less attention, however, has been paid to how Roussos used the materialism and Orientalist symbolism of his luxurious caftans with his voice, hirsuteness, and embonpoint to create the seductive, sensual atmosphere that was central to his fame and offered his fans an alternative to dominant images of 1970s masculine popstars. This article also examines how wearing caftans allowed Roussos to create his ‘Pasha’ persona, a hypermasculine figure associated with decadent Orientalist stereotypes of the harems and palaces of the mythical East. Roussos’s ‘Pasha’ image extended beyond the stage and his gargantuan appetites for food and the trappings of luxury were also central to recreating the atmosphere of decadence he remembered from his childhood in Egypt. This article thus traces how, as Roussos’s fame and girth expanded, he made caftans his trademark, blending an Orientalist, libertine style of living and dress that seduced his fans and expressed the era’s, and his own, desires for excesses that transgressed bourgeois notions of restrained, good taste.
dc.language	en
dc.publisher	Intellect Publishing
dc.relation.ispartof	Critical Studies in Men's Fashion
dc.rights	info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess
dc.subject	1203 Design Practice and Management, 1905 Visual Arts and Crafts, 2002 Cultural Studies
dc.subject.classification	3303 Design
dc.subject.classification	4405 Gender studies
dc.title	From Caftan King to Peacock Pasha: Demis Roussos and Orientalist Decadence in Men’s Fashion and European Popular Culture, 1968–1980
dc.type	Journal Article
utslib.citation.volume	10
utslib.for	1203 Design Practice and Management
utslib.for	1905 Visual Arts and Crafts
utslib.for	2002 Cultural Studies
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building
utslib.copyright.status	embargoed	*
pubs.consider-herdc	false
utslib.copyright.embargo	2025-01-01T00:00:00+1000Z
dc.date.updated	2023-10-10T23:55:12Z
pubs.issue	2
pubs.publication-status	Accepted
pubs.volume	10
utslib.citation.issue	2

Abstract:

The Greek-Egyptian singer Artemios Ventouris (Demis) Roussos (1946–2015) was a global superstar in the 1970s, selling more than 60 million albums worldwide. Roussos’s success was built on his hard work, talent and ability to craft a sensual, comforting, caftan-clad performance persona that tapped into the Zeitgeist of the 1970s. Scholarship to date has considered the decadence of Orientalism and caftans in fashion over the twentieth century, including their importance in the so-called ‘Peacock Revolution’ of menswear. It has also considered how Roussos used a nostalgia linked to package holidays to warm, sunny destinations – a new phenomenon in Europe in the 1970s – within his songs to great commercial success. Less attention, however, has been paid to how Roussos used the materialism and Orientalist symbolism of his luxurious caftans with his voice, hirsuteness, and embonpoint to create the seductive, sensual atmosphere that was central to his fame and offered his fans an alternative to dominant images of 1970s masculine popstars. This article also examines how wearing caftans allowed Roussos to create his ‘Pasha’ persona, a hypermasculine figure associated with decadent Orientalist stereotypes of the harems and palaces of the mythical East. Roussos’s ‘Pasha’ image extended beyond the stage and his gargantuan appetites for food and the trappings of luxury were also central to recreating the atmosphere of decadence he remembered from his childhood in Egypt. This article thus traces how, as Roussos’s fame and girth expanded, he made caftans his trademark, blending an Orientalist, libertine style of living and dress that seduced his fans and expressed the era’s, and his own, desires for excesses that transgressed bourgeois notions of restrained, good taste.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/172622