Leslie Winer (born December 24, 1958) is an American musician, poet, and writer. She began her career as a high fashion model before she transitioned into music.
Winer began her career as a fashion model in 1980. Fashion designer Jean Paul Gaultier described her as "the first androgynous model."[6]
Winer appeared in fashion campaigns for Valentino, Christian Dior and Chloé.[7] She also appeared on the magazine cover of Vogue Italia Pelle, Vogue Gioiello, and Vogue Australia. She continued to model throughout the 1980s.
In 2014, Winer returned to modeling as the face of Vivienne Westwood's spring/summer 2014 campaign.[8]
Musical career
After her work brought her to London in the mid-1980s, she spent a great deal of time at Leigh Bowery's nightclub, Taboo. It was while in London she met musicians Jah Wobble, who was a former bassist for Public Image Ltd, and Kevin Mooney, former bass player for Adam and the Ants.[4]
In 1990, Winer recorded the album Witch with Wobble and Mooney. BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel played some tracks off this white label and the record went on to become a small cult classic prompting NME to refer to Winer as "The Grandmother of Triphop".[9]
In 1991, she moved to Miami and was working at Island Records founder Chris Blackwell's South Beach Studios, where she recorded her albums 3 Bags Full and Spider.[3]
Helmut Lang did a small pressing of her album Spider that he released in his NYC shop sometime around 1999 to promote one of his shows.[10] Winer occasionally records music with Swedish composer Carl Michael von Hausswolff and others.[11] She has also worked with Grace Jones.