Honey Dijon is a DJ on the go — in the 48 hours before we speak, she has played a five-hour set at Berghain, two hours in Ibiza and sat front row at Gucci’s London megashow. ‘I’m a bit knackered, but I’m fine,’ says the Chicago-born, 55-year-old trans musician and producer, who is beloved by a unique cross section of the queer community, the fashion industry, ravers, Beyoncé and Madonna.
Last year she moved to London, leaving behind New York and Berlin, and today speaks from her sitting room, which is still full of unpacked boxes. ‘London nightlife makes me very sad in a lot of ways. Just like New York, there used to be so many clubs but now gentrification and all these laws are stripping away club culture,’ she says. ‘Most young people now only experience dance music at festivals — that’s not the same as clubs. It’s not community, it’s not culture; festivals are entertainment.’
Dijon will still be playing Glastonbury among a host of other festivals this year, but it’s not the same as the magic that is born during a sweaty club set. ‘I can’t say who I am as an artist in an hour and a half. My work is about bringing back clubbing culture.’
She shares that role, I say, with one Amy Lamé, London’s much-mocked ‘Night Tsar’, whose salary under the newly re-elected Mayor, Sadiq Khan, has increased to a controversial £132,000 a year. Dijon yelps at this figure. ‘The first thing I would do as London’s new Night Tsar is get rid of the Night Tsar,’ she says. ‘To me that’s the complete opposite of what it’s supposed to be — nightlife and subcultures are counter movements to the mainstream. It is people who are creating new ways of living, loving and existing and we don’t need that policed.’
Sex, drugs and great music make a great f***ing party. Let’s just be honest
Where would she spend that money instead? Dijon pauses, before saying: ‘Trans healthcare. It’s dire in the UK for trans people. It’s horrific and barbaric, mean and cruel to have these long waiting lists for trans people. And if you’re not trans, what business do you have defining what trans is?’ This is Honey Dijon — unabashed, powerful and, as such, an inspiration to many.
Others (certainly anyone who has heard her play) will also know her as a very good time. ‘Sex, drugs and great music make a great f***ing party. Let’s just be honest, a lot of us go out to get laid and to have a good time, and I’m so happy that I get to provide a backdrop for people to lose their inhibitions.’
She does this around the globe, ‘which has made me a professional packer’, she explains. For this reason, she has designed a capsule collection with German leather label MCM Worldwide that spans oversized duffel weekenders, portfolios ‘which are chic for going to dinner’, and a string of cross-body bags, ‘because when I’m in the club, it’s all the kids wear’. Rifling through nearly 50 years of MCM’s archive was heaven for Dijon, who first fell in love with fashion as a child growing up in south Chicago. ‘My parents were very into how they presented themselves,’ she says, recalling her uncle who was a tailor and the times she accompanied her father to have his bespoke suits made. ‘No matter what I have now, I take it to a tailor and have it fit my body. The key thing to style is fit.’
It’s music that will define her summer, though. Dijon is still producing — sessions with Bree Runway, Greentea Peng and Jacob Lusk from Gabriels have excited her recently — and happy employing the lessons she learnt working with Madonna and Beyoncé. ‘They are legends,’ she says. ‘They get a lot of negative shit thrown their way, but they continue to still do the work in spite of ageism or sexism or misogyny. They keep going and they don’t let that stop them.’
She has countless sets lined up, is working on her new album, but it is ‘going back to Chicago and New York to DJ which is always the highlight of my summer, because it’s home and where I learned my craft’, she says. Oh, ‘and I’m looking forward to being naked and doing Pilates. I have to take care of myself as much as I do the music.’ To live like Honey Dijon is a balancing act, after all.
HONEY DIJON’S FIVE TIPS TO TRAVEL IN STYLE
1) Make sure you always have clean underwear, moisturiser, deodorant, concealer and a comb — you can’t go too far wrong.
2) Don’t drink alcohol on the plane — they want to sedate you. Drink electrolytes instead.
3) Only eat protein and vegetables on board — your stomach expands when in lower pressure.
4) Stock up on baby shea butter sticks — I recently discovered these and I lather them all over my face.
5) It’s private jets for the win — you don’t have to take anything out at security so your luggage stays pristine.
