Beauty & The Beast

Repugnant Huw Collingbourne talks to gorgeous, beautiful David Sylvian of Japan

HOW OFTEN had I gasped at the whispered rumours of his unearthly beauty! How many sleepless nights had I tearfully passed, assailed by secret tremblings of envy at the very thought of his enthralling loveliness!

It is said that in lands of distant Orient he is worshipped as a god. Words cannot express the torment of inferiority suffered by all men in contemplation radiant fairness of David Sylvian's sublime good looks. So, when at last we met, my heart was a-flutter. Here was I, an ordinary lad with greasy hair, and there was he . . . at twenty-three the very flower of masculine splendour.

What, I wondered, was the secret of his unparalleled comeliness?

"I am not very attractive,” he said firmly as the sunlight glimmered on his perfect skin, "In fact I feel quite the opposite. But I know my faults and if you know your faults you can make the best of what you are."

You mean that, with a little help, too could aspire to such exquisiteness? Oh, David, tell me how!

"Well, a bit of makeup helps," he confided, "I started wearing makeup and dyeing my hair when I was about 14 or 15. It wasn't the done thing at school. I was naive enough to think that the other kids would side with me against the authorities. But I was wrong – they beat me up instead. So I stopped going to school. When people don’t understand what’s going on, they treat you with violence.

"But that only made me more determined. I've always been extremely stubborn, and that helped me along at the time."

"It only takes that one little act - wearing makeup make – to make the world around you seem to change drastically"

And what did your parents make of your new-found cravings for cosmetics?

"It was a cause of concern to them in those days. They were very worried about what would happen to me. And also about what was going on in my mind.

"They often used to try to persuade me to change my appearance - for the sake of a peaceful life.

"I'm not sure how they feel about it now. I know they enjoy my success. But I don’t know whether they use my work as an excuse for the way I look.

"I’ve always yearned to be independent of other people. I was very much a loner as a child. And I still am.”

But surely, David, these days you must be living quite a busy social life – at the very centre of the glittering world of fashion, parties, models and all that sort of thing? Gorgeous women throwing themselves at your feet must be a daily hazard.

"Oh no. I only mix with the very few people I know. I prefer to stay indoors.

"I believe that there's a certain part of childhood which should be kept - when you're a child you dream a lot.

"Often I do nothing for days on end but daydream. I sit perfectly still on my settee without ever turning on a stereo or a television. The 'phone rings endlessly but I don't answer it.

"If I go to a nightclub I find the quietest place to be, where I'm least likely to be approached by other people.

"I've only been into a pub once or twice. I feel so vulnerable when I'm surrounded by all those people in an open space.

"Maybe it's because of things that happened when was younger - being frightened of being beaten up.

"It only takes that one little act - wearing makeup make – to make the world around you seem to change drastically. People react to you so strangely. It gives you a different outlook on life. It makes you grow up.

"Nowadays I don’t dress up as flamboyantly or wear as much makeup as I used to. I still get remarks on the street, though. Only it doesn’t worry me any more.”

From this description it sounds as though a bit of rouge and lipstick can turn a guy’s life into a living Hell. What chance is there that the ordinary man in the street is ever seriously going to take to the mascara and eye-shadow in a big way?

"I don’t think it’s likely that many men will take to wearing makeup regularly. Though they used to in the past, of course.

"But now people get forced a certain situation in life with all its conventions.

"If a guy had to put on makeup in the morning before to work it would take another hour or so to get ready. It would be impractical. "But I have the time to do that.. I suppose I'm lucky."