g e t t y i m a g e s ( 4 ) ; p at r i c k m c m u l l a n ( 4 ) ; a l l o t h e r s c o u r t e s y
SLUGTKSubslug in-depth description of the terror that I put myself through in advance of a show. It’s the last chapter of the book, and I’m really pleased with having this very well-defined description of something that occurs again and again in my life. It makes me feel like maybe at some point I’m going to master it. Why do you do it? Sometimes I feel like I do it because I’m so scared of it. I do it because I know it’s so ridiculous and so out there. To me, those are the only things worth doing. If you’re that sure of something: Don’t do it. If something is that easy, then shame on you. That’s what I think. I think every human soul is better burnished by a great challenge. I think that’s a good quote, that’s a bold-faced quote. I just came up with that. And it’s so funny, you know, when I was a kid, I did female impersonations with puppets. Crazy combinations of things, but I just found myself on street corners or in the beach club in New Jersey, just doing Streisand or doing Shirley Bassey and people just crowding around me. And there was no drag involved—it was a voice thing; it was singing. I was 12. And it’s not exactly something parents in the 1970s would actually be proud of. They’re not going to say, “Oh, good boy, you just did the best Liza impersonation we’ve ever heard.” There was a little shame involved. And so that made it more tricky and more compelling. Maybe the stage fright and rising to this level is in a little bit of defiance to all of that. I really mean it. Funny, right? When is your book coming out? Not until March of 2019, but it has been an incredible experience writing it. In many, many ways, having written so much about the past and having told my story over the past seven years through my show, it was not easy doing this book. It was rough and challenging, and I had epiphany after epiphany while writing. I also had terrible—if there’s such a thing as stage fright for writers—every other day I’d wake up and say, “This sucks. Who the hell is going to like this book? Why have I written this book?” Who’s read it so far? I gave it to my best friend, Richard, to read and to my cousin because she knows my family. People seem to really love it. Of course, they’re not going to tell me, “Oh, this sucks,” but they would tell me, I think, here and there, especially my editors. I’m not saying it’s good; I’m just saying it’s so brave to do this. It just tells my story, and if it does go to the edge of anger or sarcasm, it needed to. Like, I describe bullying. And the thing that I know more than anybody, is that I am not a victim. So I never put it in those terms, never. And I have felt, in the past months since I handed in the final draft, very light and free of my past. People should write a memoir. Even if they don’t publish it. I’d recommend it to everyone.
What did you learn about yourself from writing the book? Writing the book and writing for the stage is very much a similar process, except a book doesn’t have to beg for a laugh at the end of every single beat. What did I learn about myself? I have to say, nothing. Nothing profoundly different than what I always thought. There is something great about getting it down and looking at it and saying this has been the truth all along. You’re just going to confirm things that you believe. I’m such a pessimist. I wake up every morning and think the world is coming to an end, which it is. But I’m 56; I’m at this age where I’m much better at accepting it. I don’t chastise myself anymore for being negative. I don’t question it anymore. I just go, like, “Okay, this is not helpful. These thoughts are not so helpful. Could you please think something else?” I move past the pessimism faster. I feel like as I get older I’m getting more functional, which is crazy. I’m less tentative. I just go forward. Do you miss doing fashion shows? No. I had a dream the other night of clothes I was creating. They were so beautiful. It was a full collection. It would take me literally 15 minutes to just sketch the whole thing. And it was this miracle of an idea, and I actually consulted with a psychic. I said, “Should I do this? Should I go forth and look for somebody to make this and look for someone to market it?” Just the idea of that made me get hives. To do that again would take my eye off the ball of what I really want to do in the world now, which is more and more performing. Later, if I have time, I will make these clothes, but right now, it would take too much time. In a perfect world, if I could walk into a room and it would be done, and I could do that like Elizabeth Montgomery in Bewitched or something, then I would for sure do it, but that is just not the way this works. If you want to make beautiful clothes, expensive beautiful couture clothes, you have to literally grovel for weeks. It takes a lot of groveling. And then once you’ve made it, there’s this whole other layer of selling it and promoting it. That is not what I want to do anymore. Do you still pay attention to what the new designers are up to? No, I don’t really. Occasionally I see something that I like. Mostly I see stuff I don’t like. I think it’s because I’m not young. It’s best done by young people. I mean—sorry, Karl! I’m not wrong. And what’s great about him is that he has young people around him that go, “No. Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes.” And I think one really needs that, and I don’t want to do that. That’s not what I ever did. I never partook in that kind of hard-core fashion thing where things had to be a certain length or had to be heroin chic. I always did stuff that I just liked that pleased me. And for a minute people really enjoyed
isaac land (Clockwisefrom left) Mizrahi performing at Café Carlyle and with friends Coco Rocha and Iman.
isaac does it all!
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1. Isaac’s become a prolific TV personality with his own weekly show on QVC and as a judge on Project Runway All Stars.
2. His 2002 Target diffusion line was an enormous success. The line featured accessories, bedding, houseware, and pet products. 3. He won a Drama Desk Award in 2002 for Outstanding Costume Design for The Women on Broadway. 4. He wrote a comic book in 1997, Isaac Mizrahi Presents, The Adventures of Sandee, The Supermodel or Yvesaac’s Model Diaries, published by Simon & Schuster. 5. Johnson & Johnson released a series of Mizrahi-designed BandAid adhesive bandages in 2013. 6. The 1995 documentary Unzipped followed the launch of his 1994 Fall collection and featured Naomi, Linda, Cindy, and Kate at the top of their game. 7. Isaac’s cabaret career is a hit, with The New York Times noting in 2017, “His Café Carlyle engagement is a big deal.”
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