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<p class="p1">"It's not about aspiration, it's about inspiration": Ibiza's newest resident DJ sets the tone for the rest of the season.&nbsp;</p>
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<p class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">Honey Dijon is not just a DJ; she's a cultural icon, a movement, a fierce force of nature who's broken barriers and blurred boundaries across art, fashion and music for decades. Born and raised in Chicago, the birthplace of <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/ibiza/arkadyan-house-music-trio-ibiza-parties-2024-beachhouse" target="_blank" rel="noopener">house music</a>, Honey's journey from the underground clubs of her hometown to her role as pop culture pioneer, Grammy-winning producer and esteemed collaborator for fashion's elite has been meteoric. Now, with the extraordinary opening party of her much-anticipated first Ibiza residency <a href="https://dice.fm/event/dkgwk6-honey-dijon-presents-cozy-12th-sep-chinois-ibiza-tickets?pid=6791c9f3&amp;_branch_match_id=1090280989574266396&amp;_branch_referrer=H4sIAAAAAAAAA8soKSkottLXz8nMy9ZLyUxO1UvL1a8wMUw2NjUxS0k0SbQvyEyxNTO3NEy2TDNWUzUyKEpNSy0qysxLj08qyi8vTi2ydc4oys9NBQDO3UGrSgAAAA%3D%3D">COZY, at Club Chinois, </a>under her belt, <a href="https://www.clubchinoisibiza.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"></a>Honey Dijon has cemented her status as one of the most influential figures in contemporary culture.</p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">In an exclusive interview with <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/ibiza/iconic-ibiza-hotel-montesol-toni-riera" target="_blank" rel="noopener">L&rsquo;OFFICIEL IBIZA</a>&rsquo;s Maya Boyd, Honey opens up about a life spent dedicated to art, activism and authenticity.</p>

<p class="p1" style="text-align: justify;"><b>On being a multi-hyphenate performer and finding representation within the industry:</b></p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: justify;"><em>&lsquo;I always talk about how my music came from the queer Black underground, but it was still a mostly male scene. The only other female artist that I knew in Chicago back in the day was Lori Branch, and she really held her own. She was someone who was super impactful in my life and my career. She was very close to Frankie Knuckles and she introduced me to disco. Not only was she the first female artist that I saw play among the boys, but she also introduced me to the work of cultural icons like John Waters. She was a real pioneer for me. But if there's one artist who really defined that social mobility space between art, music, fashion and culture, it was Grace Jones. As a performance artist, a musician and a <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/ibiza/dj-peggy-gou-interview-l-officiel-ibiza-work-of-art" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fashion icon</a>, she represented a real sense of possibility to me. I knew I had to burst those doors down. As my therapist said, I had to create the world that I wanted to live in.&rsquo;</em></p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: justify;"><b>On blurring the boundaries between fashion, music and art:<span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span></b></p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: justify;"><em>&lsquo;When I think of my life in fashion, I always think of the phrase, &lsquo;necessity is the mother of all invention.&rsquo; I've always looked at clothing in a cultural context. Most of my early fashion inspiration came from bands and musicians. Everybody would bring Vogue or L&rsquo;Uomo Vogue to school and we would try to recreate the clothing in the magazines to go dancing. I had a seamstress who would copy Ala&iuml;a pieces for me and I&rsquo;d pair them with things from the thrift store. I never really saw a separation between how we expressed ourselves through clothes, club culture and art. For me, they're all creative outlets. The ultimate era of this was the late 1970s and early 1980s in New York: the music that was played, the colours that you&rsquo;d see, the slogans, the language. It was all about Interview Magazine, it was the Mudd Club, it was Studio54, it was the Paradise Garage. And people dressed to communicate to other people what club they went to, where they lived, how they felt. It wasn't so much about aspiration, but inspiration. And collaboration was at the heart of it all &ndash; Jean-Michel Basquiat walked for Commes des Gar&ccedil;ons. Keith Haring did a collection with Vivienne Westwood. It's always been intertwined and connected.&rsquo;</em></p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: justify;"><b><br />On the importance of cultural perspective in house music:</b><span class="Apple-converted-space">&nbsp;</span></p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: justify;"><em>&lsquo;In a lot of ways, house music culture has been colonised and corporatised and the people that have created the culture have been left out. I call it the Elvis syndrome and it goes hand in hand with imperialism and totalitarianism and colonialism. It's frustrating because I feel that everything - including <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/ibiza/7-reasons-ibiza-is-the-hottest-spot-for-wellbeing-in-europe" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dance culture</a> - is supposed to evolve and change and progress, but instead it has been sanitized and made shiny and it's gone from culture to entertainment. That&rsquo;s why, in my own field, I try to bring the sense of culture and remind people of what has come before. I don't ever think that it's just me. I stand on some mighty big shoulders and I like to remind people of that through my art and through the sort of parties I throw and the music that I play. It is very much rooted in a cultural perspective.&rsquo;</em></p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: justify;"></p>

<p class="p1" style="text-align: justify;"><b>On the culture of the sixty-minute headline set:</b></p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: justify;"><em>&lsquo;I&rsquo;ve said it before, but in my opinion it&rsquo;s just possible not to condense a meaningful musical journey set into an hour-long time slot. That cheats the audience of a really great experience. You can't know who an artist is in 60 or 90 minutes because they're all playing for applause. Everyone is playing for social media; everybody wants their 30-second highlight reel. But you don't see the other 87 minutes of a set, you know? I feel like it does a disservice to the audience, and it also does a disservice to the artist that is presenting the music, because they end up playing for reaction instead of engagement.'</em></p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: justify;"><b>On the launch of cult fashion label Honey Fucking Dijon:</b></p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: justify;"><em>&lsquo;When I thought about starting <a href="https://www.honeyfuckingdijon.com/">Honey Fucking Dijon</a>, I&rsquo;d been involved in fashion as a musician for many years. And I had a lot of relationships with a lot of people - Kim Jones, <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/portraits/lofficiel-ibiza-cover-star-icon-madonna-by-ricardo-gomes-portis-was">Riccardo Tisci</a> and so on - music is very much a part of their work, too. When I approached [president of Comme des Gar&ccedil;ons International and CEO of Dover Street Market] Adrian Joffe about doing a clothing collection that celebrated club culture, he was so on board. He got it right away. And that's one of the great things about working with Dover Street Market - they really understand the concept of a singular, creative narrative that encapsulates art, music and fashion. That&rsquo;s always been my ethos &ndash; get dressed up, get creative, go out and lose our inhibitions, dance and hopefully get laid. I mean, let's face it, we all get dressed up just to take it off again.&rsquo;</em></p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: justify;"><b>On her new Ibiza residency, COZY:</b></p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: justify;"><em>&lsquo;It's very exciting. It&rsquo;s been a long time coming. There are still not as many female residencies in <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/ibiza/the-ibiza-it-skirt-of-summer-ganesha-print-pareo-sarong-dua-lipa-chiara-ferragni" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ibiza</a> as there could be so I&rsquo;m excited to be able to help break the glass ceiling, so to speak. And I just love this place so much. Ibiza is still one of those truly magical places that is totally open to amazing vibration. I&rsquo;m going to bring my music and my culture and what I represent, and hope that it's embraced in that spiritual, hedonistic, decadent way that Ibiza does so well. And the only way that I can do that is by being authentically naughty! </em><em>I want people to engage with the music and I want them to feel the music. When I was growing up in club culture, you didn't even see the fucking DJ. The music was the star of the show and not the artist. The whole point of COZY is to bring back that intimate vibe where people are more engaged with the music and can hear an artist play for a longer period and get to see who they are. When I was first coming up as a DJ in New York, six hours was a typical night. You opened the room and you closed the room, 10pm to 4am. One DJ all night. I miss that, but it&rsquo;s certainly the vibe I&rsquo;m going to be bringing to <a href="https://www.lofficielibiza.com/ibiza/artist-carlito-dalceggio-in-ibiza-estudio-laterna-club-chinois" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chinois</a> with COZY. I want my guest artists to feel free to express themselves within a longer time frame and recreate that very intimate, hedonistic atmosphere that I grew up with. Chinois is the perfect size and setting for that kind of connection.'</em></p>
<p class="p1" style="text-align: justify;">Honey Dijon presents COZY at Club Chinois <a href="https://dice.fm/event/2wlmwm-honey-dijon-presents-cozy-5th-sep-chinois-ibiza-tickets?lng=en">every Thursday throughout September.</a>&nbsp;</p>

Queen Bee: Honey Dijon's Journey from Club Icon to Pop Culture Powerhouse.

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