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.

Early life

Winer was born in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

to a teenager and handed over to her adoptive grandmother in a hospital parking lot in what was an illegal adoption involving the exchange of money. She grew up in

Weston, Massachusetts Weston is an affluent town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, located approximately west of Boston. At the time of the 2020 United States census, the population of Weston was 11,851. Weston was incorporated in 1713, and protect ...

. She relocated to New York City to attend the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by Silas ...

where she studied with

Hannah Wilke Hannah Wilke (born Arlene Hannah Butter; (March 7, 1940 – January 28, 1993) was an American painter, sculptor, photographer, video artist and performance artist. Her work is known for exploring issues of feminism, sexuality and femininity. Bio ...

and

Joseph Kosuth Joseph Kosuth (; born January 31, 1945) is a Hungarian-American conceptual artist, who lives in New York and Venice,

. She is of Scots-Irish, Basque,

Mi’kmaq The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Mi'kmaw'' or ''Mi'gmaw''; ; , and formerly Micmac) are an Indigenous group of people of the Northeastern Woodlands, native to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces, primarily Nova Scotia, New Bru ...

, and

Acadian The Acadians (; , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, most descendants of Acadians live in either the Northern American region of Acadia, ...

descent.

Modeling career

Winer began her career as a fashion model in 1980. Fashion designer

Jean Paul Gaultier Jean Paul Gaultier (; born 24 June 1952) is a French haute couture and Ready-to-wear, prêt-à-porter fashion designer. He is described as an "enfant terrible" of the fashion industry and is known for his unconventional designs with motifs in ...

described her as "the first androgynous model." Winer appeared in fashion campaigns for Valentino,

Christian Dior Christian Ernest Dior (; 21 January 1905 – 24 October 1957) was a French fashion designer and founder of one of the world's top fashion houses, Dior, Christian Dior SE. His fashion house is known all around the world, having gained promi ...

and

Chloé Chloé () is a French luxury fashion house founded in 1952 by Gaby Aghion. In 1953, Aghion joined forces with Jacques Lenoir, formally managing the business side of the brand, allowing Aghion to purely pursue the creative growth of Chloé. It ...

. She also appeared on the magazine cover of ''Vogue Italia Pelle'', ''Vogue Gioiello,'' and ''

Vogue Australia ''Vogue'' ''Australia'' is the Australian edition of '' Vogue'' magazine. Prior to becoming a stand-alone edition, the Australian edition operated as a supplement to British Vogue from 1952. The magazine is published by News Corp under a licence f ...

''. She continued to model throughout the 1980s. In 2014, Winer returned to modeling as the face of

Vivienne Westwood Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood (; 8 April 1941 – 29 December 2022) was an English fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream. In 2022, ''Sky Arts'' ranked her the ...

's spring/summer 2014 campaign.

Musical career

After her work brought her to London in the mid-1980s, she spent a great deal of time at

Leigh Bowery Leigh Bowery (26 March 1961 – 31 December 1994) was an Australian performance artist, club promoter, and fashion designer. Bowery's performances featured striking costumes and make-up and were conceptual, flamboyant, outlandish, and sometime ...

's nightclub, Taboo. While in London she met musicians

Jah Wobble John Joseph Wardle (born 11 August 1958), known by the stage name Jah Wobble, is an English bass guitarist and singer. He became known to a wider audience as the original bass player in Public Image Ltd (PiL) in the late 1970s and early 1980s; ...

, former bassist for

Public Image Ltd Public Image Ltd (abbreviated and stylized as PiL) are an English post-punk band formed by lead vocalist John Lydon (previously, as Johnny Rotten, lead vocalist of the Sex Pistols), guitarist Keith Levene (a founding member of the Clash), bassi ...

, and Kevin Mooney, former bass player for

Adam and the Ants Adam and the Ants were an English Rock music, rock band that formed in London in 1977. The band existed in two versions, both fronted by Adam Ant, between 1977 and 1982. The first phase began when the band were founded in May 1977 and were call ...

. In 1987, Winer co-wrote the track "Just Call Me Joe" with

Sinéad O'Connor Shuhada' Sadaqat (born Sinéad Marie Bernadette O'Connor; , ; 8 December 1966 – 26 July 2023) was an Irish singer, songwriter, record producer and activist. Her debut studio album, ''The Lion and the Cobra'', was released in 1987 and achieve ...

. The song would appear on O'Connor's debut album, ''

The Lion and the Cobra ''The Lion and the Cobra'' is the debut studio album by Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor, released on 5 October 1987 by Ensign Records, Ensign and Chrysalis Records. O'Connor recorded the album while in the later stages of pregnancy with her first ...

'', with Winer performing the backup spoken vocal. In 1988, she began recording under the name '©'. Winer recorded her first song, "Kind of Easy," with Karl Bonnie from Renegade Soundwave. In 1990, Winer recorded the album ''Witch'' with Wobble and Mooney.

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and Contemporary hit radio, current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including ...

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), better known as John Peel, was an English radio presenter and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original disc jockeys on BBC Radio 1, broadcasting regularly from ...

played some tracks off this white label and the record went on to become a small cult classic prompting ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' to refer to Winer as "The Grandmother of Triphop". In 1991, she moved to Miami and was working at

Island Records Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...

founder

Chris Blackwell Christopher Percy Gordon Blackwell OJ (born 22 June 1937) is a Jamaican-British former record producer and the founder of Island Records, which has been called "one of Britain's great independent labels". According to the Rock and Roll Hall ...

's South Beach Studios, where she recorded her albums ''3 Bags Full'' and ''Spider''. 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. Winer occasionally records music with Swedish composer Carl Michael von Hausswolff and others. She has also worked with

Grace Jones Grace Beverly Jones (born 19 May 1948) is a Jamaican singer, songwriter, model and actress. She began her Model (person), modelling career in New York State, then in Paris, working for fashion houses such as Yves Saint Laurent (brand), Yves St ...

Personal life

Winer had a friendship with writer

William S. Burroughs William Seward Burroughs II (; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist. He is widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major Postmodern literature, postmodern author who influen ...

and credits him with being a major mentor. Burroughs mentions his friendship with Winer in a number of interviews and books with French journalist Alain Pacadis and Burroughs’ own last book '' Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs''. Winer dated artist

Jean-Michel Basquiat Jean-Michel Basquiat (; December 22, 1960 – August 12, 1988) was an American artist who rose to success during the 1980s as part of the neo-expressionism movement. Basquiat first achieved notoriety in the late 1970s as part of the graffiti ...

early in her career.''The New York Times Style Magazine''
/ref> In 1986, Winer married Kevin Mooney for "the papers." "The British wanted me to leave the country," she said. Winer currently lives in France, where she has raised five daughters.

Discography

Albums

Appears on

References

External links

*

LW's Anthology
@ Light In The Attic {{DEFAULTSORT:Winer, Leslie Living people Female models from Massachusetts Musicians from Boston 21st-century American women Singer-songwriters from Massachusetts Writers from Boston 1958 births People from Weston, Massachusetts School of Visual Arts alumni