Tamás Király (toh-MAHSH keer-EYE; 13 September 1952 – 7 April 2013) was a Hungarian underground avant-garde fashion designer active beginning in the 1980s.

In many cases, Király used found materials, took clues from queer art, and employed geometric forms in a "decadent" manner; in at least some projects of the period, he took additional inspiration from previous experiments within the Russian avant-garde scene.

Though not expressly political, his work sometimes flaunted the artistic conventions permitted by the communist regime; authorities tolerated his shows, which came with performance art elements, but did not promote them.

Beyond his cult following in Hungary, Király achieved international fame after he participated in the 1988 Dressater fashion show in West Berlin, as the only designer from the Eastern Bloc.

"[3] In May 1971, as a student at Berze Nagy János High School [hu], he was granted a second prize ("bronze certificate") at an art festival organized by the Hungarian Young Communist League.

"[5] Király's career as an independent fashion designer coincided with Hungary's experiment in "Goulash Communism"—integrating free-market elements to the socialist command economy and loosening political censorship restrictions.

[12][9] He also collaborated with theater groups starting in the 1980s, most famously designing white- and cream-colored costumes evoking the phantasmagoric atmosphere of A Midsummer Night's Dream for a reinterpretation by the Baltazar Theatre, a company of intellectually disabled actors.

[9] After a "chance encounter" during one his frequent travels in West Berlin,[5] Király was co-opted as a costume designer for Az Emberevő szerelme ("A Man-eater's Love"), a 1984 film produced by Mafilm and ZDF.

[13] In 1988, he presented at the Dressater fashion show in West Berlin as the only designer from an Eastern Bloc country, having been recruited by Vivienne Westwood.

[17] In 1990, fellow artist Gábor Szerényi reported his "patriotic pride" at seeing Király featured and advertised "in capital letters" by Vogue México.

In December 1990, at NA-NE Gallery on Pest's Lónyay Street, he exhibited work from the previous decade alongside architects and designers—including Gábor Bachman, Giorgio Soss, and János Czalbert-Halasi.

[27] During early 1992, Király, alongside Marianna Pádé and István Ocztos, submitted a project to have Chain Bridge tunnel transformed into a fashion runway for that year's World No Tobacco Day.

[22] Király still enjoyed success, and in 1998 his hometown of Gyöngyös made him president of the local fashion show (he awarded top prize to a designer who had reused a car tarpaulin).

Critic József Keresztesi gave it a positive review, arguing that Király's feat was outstanding in itself: "Anyone who spent his childhood in a small town is aware of the risk of returning."

[9][15] His muse Judit Gyüre, who also worked on the dressmaking process, recalled: "I didn't just have to sew, I had to connect a wide variety of materials: plastic with metal, textile with dry bread.

[37] In a 2020 piece, artist Eszter Ágnes Szabó drew attention to Az Emberevő szerelme as being quintessentially "camp", and thus naturally suited to Király's "entire creative career".

[15] In the early 1990s, the artistic relevancy of Király and NA-NE was seen by author György Szegő as threatened: "The question now is what will happen after the political opposition of the avant-garde is no longer needed.

"[25]: 66  Art historian József Vadas reported on NA-NE's "big surprise"—namely, that all its affiliates, including Király, were taking direct inspiration from Cubo-Futurism and other currents of the early-20th-century Russian avant-garde.

"[41] As Trufelman notes, public perception of Király's works was negatively influenced by a hostile 2013 documentary that aired on TV2 and portrayed him as insane, and by coverage of his death that emphasized its scandalous aspects.

[42] According to Trufelman, the difficulty of classifying Király's work, as well as lingering censorship of Hungarian arts institutions, has hampered efforts to preserve his legacy.