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Michael & Gerlinde

Michael and Gerlinde have run the world in London's West End for the past three years. They've always been travellers ( We've gypsises at heart!!),  but now their business is travel - bringing clothes and accessories from all over the globe  ( Africa, Asia, North and South America ) to sell in the shop.  but they don't see themselves as just shopping for pretty ethnic baubles - what they're doing is celebrating cross-cultural fertilisation.  "It's not really a question of exploitation;  we buy direct and bring money into different countries as well as taking stuff out there to give away.  "They won't buy in South Africa until apartheid is abolished.  "Travelling" they insist, "makes you wiser."                            I-D - 1993

As a resident of London with her spiritual home in Rio, German-born Gerlinda Kostiff is perhaps the original "citizen of the world " Currently Britain's reigning diva of the night, she is the hostess of "Kinky Gerlinky", a decadent festival that many regard as the best club night in Europe. Kostiff : " I was inspired by the Mardi Gras in Rio, so I bought a bit to London." With near-monthly frequency over the last three years, she and husband Michael have played host to drag queens, celebrities, and minor European royalty. Most months see hundreds of stunned tourists gawking at the pageant parading through the Kinky door at the Empire Ballroom on Leicester Square. Despite having speant a lot of tme in Miami recenttly, Kostiff says that Kinky is not going to move across  the Atlantic.  "But I am planning something in Miami that's going to be fabulous - it's going to be a fusion of fashion and music. " For the moment, Kostiff is content to host her club, "where everyone can be part of the show." and is planning  to take Kinky on summer holiday to Amsterdam and Venice.  "I like to do clubs that ar not full of voyeurs in cities where people take part."                                     Vanity Fair - june 1992

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