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Photo via Sass & Bide
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In a wide-ranging conversation with Fern Mallis on stage at the 92nd Street Y this week, Marc Jacobs said he discussed not taking over for John Galliano in sessions with his psychiatrist.
"It was actually my psychiatrist who said, 'How is this going to improve the quality of your life?' and I said, 'It's not.' I mean, two more shows — and after Galliano, what he has done — when am I going to live my life?" Jacobs asked.
The designer also talked about growing up in New York City, studying at Parsons, and being treated for substance abuse. A few highlights from the conversation below.
On going to college: "Every day was like a fashion parade. There was a little troop of us. It was me, a girl named Susan Martin, Chris Iles, and Tracy Reese. The four of us were inseparable. We were the overachievers. We would do five times what was required just because we really enjoyed it."
On the critics: "There are very few, and I don't mean this in a bitchy way, journalists who I respect. I don't think a lot of them know what they're looking at. . . . I'm fine with constructive criticism but I'm not so good with stupidity. It's one thing to say 'I like or I don't like' but to misread or mislabel something or to be out of sorts because it was raining, or a late show, or you were hungry. That just all feels not valid."
On his sobriety: "I wouldn't say I'm 100 percent sober. What I'm saying is perfection is not my deal. Yeah, maybe I have had a glass of wine or a couple of whiskeys. Maybe I've smoked a joint or something like that. Or other things, but I'm mostly sober."
On what he tells aspiring designers: "What's worked for me is not quitting, being more passionate about what I do, and not giving up. And when I don't believe in myself, turning to other people who believe in me."
Photo by Joyce Culver, courtesy of 92nd Street Y.
Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.
Diane von Furstenberg made her first public comment about the departure of her creative director Yvan Mispelaere on the same day his exit was announced.
"Yvan is a really talented designer," von Furstenberg said. "He joined DVF almost three years ago, and he helped me to brand it. He was very, very helpful. I think he had a good time. He saw a whole other way of seeing fashion and doing fashion, and then he felt like his mission was accomplished, so we parted."
Citing a press release from von Furstenberg's team, previous reports said Mispelaere would not be replaced, and that an in-house team would lead the design process. But the designer herself — who has counted Catherine Malandrino among her creative directors — seemed open to bringing another young designer into the fold.
"I think that he put together a really dynamic team," she said of Mispelaere. "There's a lot of talented designers, and I love the idea of having a laboratory."
Von Furstenberg was similarly vague about the implications of another staff change: the hiring of former Tommy Hilfiger executive Joel Horowitz as cochairman. Some have suggested Horowitz will help the company go public, but von Furstenberg wouldn't discuss specifics of his job.
"I realize that I have created a brand. And I look back and there's a big body of work and there's a huge recognition," she said. "I really have an asset — that's something that can go on after me. . . . It's a platform to build the next step."
Those stories and more in our daily news roundup.
Michael Kors is the funniest man in fashion — or at least that's how Fern Mallis described him when she brought him on stage for the latest edition of her Fashion Icons series at 92nd Street Y.
Mallis asked Kors about everything from growing up on Long Island, where he was born Karl Anderson Jr. — "the least likely name for a nice Jewish boy" — to his first dalliance in fashion: redesigning his mother's second wedding dress at the age five. "The dress is pretty timeless," Kors said. Read on for more highlights from the talk — including Kors on his first Met Gala, who he'd like to play him in a movie, and why he dropped out of FIT.
On redesigning his mother's wedding dress: "My mom tried the dress on and it was covered with a zillion bows — bows everywhere! And my grandmother said, 'That's magnificent!' And I just kind of sat in the corner, and my mother said, 'What's wrong? What do you think?' So I said, 'I think it's really busy.' So my grandmother said, 'Oh, don’t listen to him, he’s only five.' Priscilla of Boston, how could you go wrong? And then the tailor came in and my mom said, 'Trim off a few of the bows,' so they took them off the bodice at first. And then my mom said, 'You know, he’s right. Take them all off,' so the bows went off."
On dropping out of FIT: "I got to school and I had been sketching since I was really small, and I had such firm ideas about what I liked, so I was fighting with the teachers . . . I don't think that there's a rule in fashion in how you have to chart your course. I would never tell anyone, 'Oh drop out, it worked for me.'"
On his first Met Gala with Vera Wang, while he was working for the retailer Lothar's: "Vera, in fact, was working at Vogue ... and wore a Michael Kors for Lothar's charmeuse slip with a leather down vest and a mohair sweater around the waist. I think we were definitely doing creative black tie. In we went and it was the year of the Saint Laurent exhibit. I got to meet him and I almost levitated. This was when it was in December and it started snowing while we were in the Temple of Dendur. Suddenly it got very quiet . . . and then we found out that it was the night that John Lennon was killed."
On the show that inspired Mallis to start fashion week: "The music started, and it was very hot that day. Pounding, pounding, pounding music. Naomi Campbell was out there strutting her stuff and all of a sudden I heard this explosion from backstage. It sounded like gunfire and I was just, 'What on earth was that?' Naomi got off the runway and she said to me, 'The ceiling caved in. The plaster just came down. And hit people.' We hit Suzy Menkes . . . It was time for New York to get professional show spaces. Voila!"
On who should play him in a movie: "If it's a drama and vanity comes into it, I'm gonna have to go with Daniel Day-Lewis. If it's a big box office comedy, Will Ferrell."
On his philosophy of life: "You can have it all. You can be glamorous, you can be sexy, you can be comfortable, you can feel good in your own skin. Balance indulgent with pragmatic. You have to feel good, that's what it's all about."
From his childhood in the American Southwest to his positions at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, there's never been a point in Tom Ford's life when aesthetics didn't matter — and he said as much during a discussion with Fern Mallis Tuesday night at the 92nd Street Y in New York.
Mallis asked Ford about his entire life and career, allowing plenty of room for witty banter and revealing moments. Ford even mentioned that he's always wanted to have kids. "I think I'd better get busy soon, though, because I'd like to be able to pick them up," he joked. But between designing his next women's collection and the three films he has planned for the future, Ford is already plenty busy. Below, some of his most memorable quotes from the evening.
On getting dressed for school at age 7: "I didn't want to carry a book bag. I thought it looked messy. No, I had a nice little overcoat and I had a briefcase. And it was a real man's briefcase. And when you're 7 years old, a real man’s briefcase is like going to school with luggage."
On his first job with designer Cathy Hardwick: "Of course you would assume if someone is showing you a fashion portfolio that they studied fashion. I didn't. [Ford studied interior design and architecture at Parsons.] The first day she said, 'Draw some circle skirts.' And I'm like, 'Sh*t.' So I went to Bloomingdale's, flipped open the circle skirts, saw where all the seams were, ran back to the office, sketched some circle skirts, and put them on her desk. So I learned a lot on the job."
On feeling accomplished: "You never 'make it.' Especially in an industry where you have to churn out stuff. Things. You're never finished, and you're only as good as your last collection. I mean, in the last year, I've had a comeback, I've been finished, I've come back again. You can't rest. You cannot rest."
On designing Yves Saint Laurent: "Yves was very friendly at first. . . . As things started to go well and as things started to get good reviews and our sales started going up, Yves was no longer my friend. And I actually have some wonderful handwritten letters in very beautiful handwriting in ink: 'In 13 minutes you have destroyed what I worked 40 years to create.' . . . It was tough."
On his first movie, A Single Man: "I wasn't trying to create a big box office hit. I was trying to create something personal that I loved that I didn't compromise on, and it was a very different type of expression."
On that H&M rumor: "I keep reading that, and I find that amusing. I've never had a conversation with H&M. I'm really happy doing what I do. . . . What excites me now is the very best: the best stitching, the best fabric, the best quality. And unfortunately, or fortunately, that does tend to cost money."
Ford's advice to aspiring designers: "If there's anything else in the world you could be happy doing, do that. I'm serious. This is the hardest industry. . . . If you love it great. You'll have a wonderful life. But I don't think people realize how hard people work in fashion."
Photo: Chanel Iman with Tom Ford at the 2012 Met Gala.
>>Tommy Hilfiger has been plagued by rumors that he made racist remarks for decades — and he denied them once again Sunday night during a talk at New York's 92nd Street Y.
Hilfiger chatted in front of a live audience with Fashion Week organizer Fern Mallis, whose Fashion Icons interview series includes talks with everyone from Calvin Klein to Tom Ford. But neither of those designers has been accused of saying they don't design clothing for people who aren't white — and Hilfiger has. Rumors that Hilfiger told Oprah he wouldn't have made his clothing "so nice" if he'd known that people of color would wear them have circulated since the mid-'90s. WWD reports that last night, Hilfiger — who didn't make his first appearance on the Oprah show until 2006 — attempted to put those rumors to rest for the last time.
"Some people may still believe it," he said. "Some people may look at it logically and realize it was a myth. But it hurt for a long period of time, not from a business standpoint, because our business doubled in that time. It went from $1 billion to $2 billion in that time. But it hurt here [placing hand on his heart]. It really made me believe someone was out for me. We really never found the source but hope that at some point in time people will realize it was just a nasty rumor."
That rumor apparently didn't matter to Hilfiger's customers, whose continued support has allowed him to do things like buy the Karl Lagerfeld brand.
"I was doing a photo shoot in Paris, and he was the photographer. The next day he invited me to his home for lunch. I told him we were thinking about maybe acquiring new brands. He said, "Why don’t you buy my brand?" I said, "OK." We consummated the deal in less than 30 days . . . I think he wishes he had done with Karl Lagerfeld what we did with Tommy Hilfiger."
But even though he owns the rights to one of the most powerful names in fashion, Hilfiger says he's still just as inspired by the designers of the past as he was when he first started his collection years ago.
"Well, I look at the old guard, because the old guard had a certain way of doing things like a [Yves] Saint Laurent or a bit of [Christian] Dior. The way they did the collections way back was quite remarkable, so I look at them as inspiration. Or Giorgio Armani, or Ralph or Karl. As my hair gets whiter, I'm thinking, "Look, if I'm standing next to Karl, Giorgio or Ralph, I'll be in the crowd. They're much older, by the way, so I have a long way to go."
