Wise Words from Isaac

I love Isaac Mizrahi. You know who he is. If you don't, Google. Isaac was in Houston this week as guest speaker for The Jung Center's Spring Benefit. He presented "I.M. Enough: An Evening with Isaac Mizrahi" at the River Oaks Country Club.

Isaac in Houston

I've no doubt it was a boffo event, but at $150 for the Zoom attendance and $500 for the in-person, I wasn't going. Besides, I had "an evening with Isaac Mizrahi" one night in Bloomingdale's Manhattan flagship when he was launching an Isaac ready-to-wear line. It was free and even included a VHS copy of "Unzipped".

As I said, Google if this sounds like gibberish.

Before his appearance, Andrew Dansby, a staff writer on the Houston Chronicle, had a Q&A with Isaac. One of the questions went like this:

Q: You haven't cut ties with fashion entirely. But it's a much smaller part of the public persona you present.

A: What's funny, I don't always know how to put this. I love clothes. I love clothes the same way I did in my teens and 20s and 30s. Fashion? Not so much. I adore textiles, styles, people wearing wonderful things. Fashion? Not so much."

Isaac, you have hit the nail on the head. That's where the problem lies. I too adore textiles, styles, people wearing wonderful things. Fashion? Not so much. So that's why fashion reporting leaves me cold, fashion magazines leave me empty, but a museum retrospective leaves me wanting more! 

I think Isaac is saying fashion and style are not one and the same. You can have style without being in fashion and you can be in fashion without having style. I know what side I want to be on.

Thanks, Isaac. 

  

Good as Gold

When GAP shows gilded jeans, The NY Times catches the stylish-in-the-street wearing gold apparel, and designers start dipping their ware in gold, what are we thinking? Gold has never not been a thing, of course, from ancient Egypt to James Bond, but this is more gold than I've seen in a while.

Chanel, Gucci, Kors SS/23

I'll go out on a gold olive branch and say Madame predicts gold is the next big trend. Full disclosure: I just picked up a cropped golden jacket that I can longer wear (too warm), but I had to have it.

Will hang in wait of cooler temps...

Is it odd that coming off sweats 24/7 for a few years, the hip new look would be one of the world's most precious metals? Styling has to be ironic though—gold jeans for day, not so much gold spangles for night (that's always okay).  PS Those jeans are on back order till April 24. See what I mean?

The GAP jeans

Once upon a time I did have a pair of gold loafers. Eventually the "gold" flaked off. My carpet was something of a shiny mess. Today's gold fabrication is amazing. You could almost call it liquid gold.

So why not silver, you may ask? Well, no one minds looking like the Bond girl (despite her unpleasant demise), but who wants to look like the tin man?