WHY do we want the things that we want, asks video and performance artist Paula Varjack in her playful critique of consumer culture through the lens of high fashion, The Cult Of K*nzo.

Written and performed by Varjack and directed by Martin Bengtsson, this 70-minute show will be performed at York Theatre Royal Studio on April 25 at 7.45pm.

In November 2016, Varjack found herself queuing at four in the morning outside an East London branch of H&M to be the first in line to buy exclusive designs from Kenzo’s new collaboration with the Swedish fast fashion multinational.

Five hours later, she and 20 others were given ten minutes to shop in a cordoned-off section of the store. After paying at a till staffed by cheering, applauding sales assistants, Varjack emerged with the largest shopping bag she had ever carried, but what made her do something "so out of character"?

"In a world where you are who you wear, The Cult of K*nzo is an original, visually spectacular, endearing and accessible examination of consumer culture," says the show's publicity blurb. "It's also a very funny take on class, race, the ways we interact with the world, and the ways in which the world interacts with us. Whether you’re a dedicated fashion aficionado, or couldn’t give a damn about designer labels, there’s plenty to enjoy in this show."

The Cult Of K*nzo interweaves the stories of one woman’s lifelong desire for luxury with the young Kenzo Takada’s dream of becoming a fashion designer. Kenzo was among the first men to study at fashion school in Japan and one of the first Japanese designers to come to the West to train and design.

Incorporating storytelling, videography, sound design and choreography, Varjack's show looks at how high-end designer brands create desire, the tension between inclusion and exclusion and the mysterious allure of the high end. "Why do we want the things that we want? What’s in a brand?" she asks.

"Most of my clothes are from eBay or charity shops but a couple of winters ago I got up in the middle of the night so that I could be among the first to buy from H&M’s new Kenzo collaboration," she says. "I spent as much in ten minutes as I usually do in a year.

"What was it about these clothes and this brand that made me act so out of character? I couldn’t work it out and felt compelled to explore it further; to make a show looking at what drives people to want things that are exclusive, that not everyone can have, and the stories we tell by what we wear.

"Fashion is an art form everyone is forced to engage with. Whatever we wear expresses something, even if it’s that you don’t want to be seen to show an interest in fashion."

Varjack's work explores identity, community and making the invisible visible, driven by her interest in the gap between what we feel and what we say. Her previous show, Show Me The Money, looked at the reality of making a living as an artist in Britain; her latest, by the way, was co-commissioned by Camden People’s Theatre and Battersea Arts Centre, boosted by National Lottery funding through Arts Council England.

Tickets are on sale on 01904 623568 or at yorktheatreroyal.co.uk.

Charles Hutchinson