TED2008
Isaac Mizrahi: Fashion and creativity
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Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi spins through a dizzying array of inspirations -- from '50s pinups to a fleeting glimpse of a woman on the street who makes him shout "Stop the cab!" Inside this rambling talk are real clues to living a happy, creative life.
Isaac Mizrahi - Fashion designer
Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi mixes high fashion and the mass market, with a line of haute couture and a line for Target. Plus a talk show, a cabaret act, a movie, a new book ... Full bio
Fashion designer Isaac Mizrahi mixes high fashion and the mass market, with a line of haute couture and a line for Target. Plus a talk show, a cabaret act, a movie, a new book ... Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:18
I have, like, a thing about sleeping.
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I don't sleep that much,
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and I've come to this thing about, like, not sleeping much
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as being a great virtue, after years of kind of
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battling it as being a terrible detriment, or something.
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And now I really like sort of sitting up, you know.
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But for years I've been sitting up
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and I think that, like, my creativity is greatly motivated by this kind of insomnia.
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I lie awake. I think thoughts. I walk aimlessly.
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Sometimes I used to walk more at night.
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I walk during the day and I follow people who I think look interesting.
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(Laughter)
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And sometimes -- actually, once it was on Page Six in the Post,
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that I was cruising this guy, like, sort of, whatever,
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but I was actually just following because he had these really great shoes on.
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And so I was following this guy.
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And I took a picture of his shoes,
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and we thanked each other and just went on our way.
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But I do that all the time.
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As a matter of fact, I think a lot of my design ideas
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come from mistakes and tricks of the eye.
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01:19
Because I feel like, you know, there are so many images out there,
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so many clothes out there.
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And the only ones that look interesting to me
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are the ones that look slightly mistaken, of course,
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or very, very surprising.
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And often, I'm driving in a taxi
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and I see a hole in a shirt, or something
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that looks very interesting or pretty or functional
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in some way that I'd never seen happen before.
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And so I'd make the car stop, and I'd get out of the car and walk,
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and see that in fact there wasn't a hole, but it was a trick of my eye,
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it was a shadow, you know.
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Or if there was a hole I'd think like, oh damn,
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there was actually someone thought of that thought already.
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Someone made that mistake already so I can't do it anymore.
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I don't know where inspiration comes from.
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It does not come for me from research.
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I don't get necessarily inspired by research.
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As a matter of fact, one of the most fun things
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I've ever, ever done in my whole life,
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was this Christmas season at the Guggenheim in New York.
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I read "Peter and the Wolf" with this beautiful band from Juilliard.
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And I did like, you know, the narrator, and I read it.
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And I saw this really smart critic who I love.
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This woman, Joan Acocella, who's a friend of mine,
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and she came backstage and she said,
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oh, you know, Isaac, did you know that, talking about Stalinism
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and talking about, you know, like the '30s in Russia.
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And I said, how do I know about Stalinism?
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I know about a wolf and a bird and, you know,
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he ate the bird, and then in the end you hear, you know,
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you hear the bird squeaking, or something, you know?
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So I don't really know that. I don't really --
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actually I do my own kind of research, you know.
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If I'm commissioned to do the costumes for an 18th-century opera, or something like that,
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I will do a lot of research, because it's interesting,
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not because it's what I'm supposed to do.
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I'm very, very, very inspired by movies.
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The color of movies and the way light makes the colors,
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light from behind the projection,
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or light from the projection, makes the colors look so impossible.
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03:17
And anyway, roll this little clip, I'll just show you.
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I sit up at night and I watch movies
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and I watch women in movies a lot.
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And I think about, you know, their roles,
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and about how you have to, like, watch what your daughters look at.
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Because I look at the way women are portrayed all the time.
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Whether they're kind of glorified in this way,
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or whether they're kind of, you know, ironically glorified,
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or whether they're, you know, sort of denigrated, or ironically denigrated.
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I go back to color all the time.
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Color is something that motivates me a lot.
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It's rarely color that I find in nature,
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although, you know, juxtaposed next to artificial color,
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natural color is so beautiful.
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So that's what I do. I study color a lot.
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But for the most part, I think, like, how can I ever make anything
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that is as beautiful as that image of Natalie Wood?
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How can I ever make anything as beautiful as Greta Garbo?
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I mean, that's just not possible, you know.
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And so that's what makes me lie awake at night, I guess, you know.
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I want to show you -- I'm also like a big --
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I go to astrologers and tarot card readers often,
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and that's another thing that motivates me a lot.
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People say, oh, do that. An astrologer tells me to do something.
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So I do it.
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(Laughter)
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When I was about 21, an astrologer told me
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that I was going to meet the man of my dreams,
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and that his name was going to be Eric, right?
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So, you know, for years I would go to bars
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and, sort of, anyone I met whose name was Eric
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I was humping immediately, or something.
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(Laughter)
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And there were times when I was actually so desperate
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I would just, you know, walk into a room and just go like, "Eric!"
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And anybody who would turn around I would, sort of, make a beeline for.
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(Laughter)
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And I had this really interesting tarot reading a long time ago.
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The last card he pulled, which was representing my destiny
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was this guy on like a straw boater with a cane
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and you know, sort of spats and this, you know, a minstrel singer, right?
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I want to show you this clip because I do this kind of crazy thing
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where I do a cabaret act.
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So actually, check this out.
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Very embarrassing.
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(Video): Thank you. We can do anything you ask.
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The name of the show is based on this story
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that I have to tell you about my mother.
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It's sort of an excerpt from a quote of hers.
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I was dating this guy, right?
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And this has to do with being happy, I swear.
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I was dating this guy and it was going on for about a year, right.
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And we were getting serious,
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so we decided to invite them all to dinner, our parents.
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And we, you know, sort of introduced them to each other.
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My mother was, sort of, very sensitive to his mother,
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who it seemed was a little bit skeptical about the whole alternative lifestyle thing.
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You know, homosexuality, right?
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So my mother was a little offended. She turned to her and she said,
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"Are you kidding? They have the greatest life together.
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They eat out, they see shows."
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They eat out, they see shows.
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(Laughter)
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That's the name of the show, they eat out, they --
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that's on my tombstone when I die.
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"He ate out, he saw shows," right?
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06:38
So in editing these clips, I didn't have the audacity
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to edit a clip of me singing at Joe's Pub.
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So you'll have to, like, go check it out and come see me or something.
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Because it's mortifying, and yet it feels ...
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I don't know how to put this.
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I feel as little comfort as possible is a good thing, you know.
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And at least, you know, in my case,
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because if I just do one thing all the time,
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I don't know, I get very, very bored. I bore very easily.
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And you know, I don't say that I do everything well,
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I just say that I do a lot of things, that's all.
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And I kind of try not to look back, you know.
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Except, I guess, that's what staying up every night is about.
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Like, looking back and thinking, what a fool you made of yourself, you know.
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But I guess that's okay. Right?
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Because if you do many things
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you get to feel lousy about everything,
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and not just one, you know.
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You don't master feeling lousy about one thing.
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Yeah, exactly.
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I will show you this next thing,
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speaking of costumes for operas.
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I do work with different choreographers.
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I work with Twyla Tharp a lot,
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and I work with Mark Morris a lot,
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who is one of my best friends.
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And I designed three operas with him,
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and the most recent one, "King Arthur."
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I'd been very ingrained in the dance world
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since I was a teenager.
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I went to performing arts high school,
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where I was an actor.
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And many of my friends were ballet dancers.
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Again, I don't know where inspiration comes from.
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I don't know where it comes from.
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I started making puppets when I was a kid.
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Maybe that's where the whole inspiration thing started from, puppets, right.
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And then performing arts high school.
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There I was in high school,
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meeting dancers and acting.
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And somehow, from there, I got interested in design.
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I went to Parsons School of Design
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and then I began my career as a designer.
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I don't really think of myself as a designer,
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I don't really think of myself necessarily as a fashion designer.
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And frankly, I don't really know what to call myself.
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I think of myself as a ... I don't know what I think of myself as.
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It's just that.
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(Laughter)
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But I must say, this whole thing about being slightly bored all the time,
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that is what -- I think that is a very important thing for a fashion designer.
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You always have to be slightly bored with everything.
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And if you're not, you have to pretend to be slightly bored with everything.
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(Laughter)
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But I am really a little bored with everything.
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I always say to my partner, Marisa Gardini, who books everything --
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she books everything and she makes everything happen.
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And she makes all the deals.
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And I always tell her that I find myself
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with a lot of time on the computer bridge program.
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Too much time on computer bridge, which is, you know, like that's
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so ... somehow, like, about ten years ago
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I thought that the most unboring place in the world
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would be like a T.V. studio,
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like for a day show. Some kind of day talk show.
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Because it's all of these things that I love
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all kind of in one place.
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And if you ever get bored you can look at another thing,
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and do another thing and talk about it, right?
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And so I had this T.V. show.
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And that was a very, very, very big part of my process.
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Actually, could you roll the clip, please?
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This is one of my favorite clips of Rosie.
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(Video) Isaac Mizrahi: We're back on the set.
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Hi there.
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Rosie O'Donnell: Hello, Ben.
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IM: Look how cute she looks with this, just a slick back.
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Man: Her grandmother says, "Delish!"
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IM: Ah, wow, delish. All right. So now where should I position myself?
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I want to stay out of the way.
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I don't want to be -- okay. Here we go.
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Do you get nervous, Ashleigh?
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Ashleigh: Doing what?
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ROD: Cutting hair.
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A: Cutting hair? Never, never.
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I don't think there was ever a day where I cut hair I was nervous.
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IM: You look so cute already, by the way.
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ROD: You like it? All right.
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IM: Do you have a problem with looking cute? You want to look cute.
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ROD: Of course I want to look cute.
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IM: Just checking, because some people want to look, you know,
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aggressively ugly.
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ROD: No, not me, no.
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IM: You read about all these people who have a lot of money
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and they have kids and the kids always end up somehow, like,
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really messed up, you know what I mean?
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And there's got to be some way to do that, Rosie.
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Because just because if you're fabulously rich, and fabulously famous,
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does that mean you shouldn't have kids,
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because you know they're going to end up getting messed up?
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ROD: No, but it means that your priority has to be
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their well-being first, I think.
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But you have to make the decision for yourself.
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My kids are seven, who the hell knows.
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They're going to be like 14 and in rehab.
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And they're going to be playing this clip:
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"I'm such a good mother."
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My God, this is the shortest I've ever had.
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IM: It looks good, yeah?
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A: I was going to ask you, has your hair ever been --
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ROD: No! It's all right -- go crazy.
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IM: I feel like it needs to be a little closer down here.
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A: Oh no, we're just staging,
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ROD: We're just staging it.
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IM: Are you freaking out? You look so cute.
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ROD: No, I love it. It's the new me.
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IM: Oh, it's so fabulous!
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ROD: Flock of Rosie. Wooo!
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IM: So by the way. Of all the most unboring things in the world, right.
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I mean, like making someone who's already cute look terrible like that.
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That is not boring. That is nothing if it's not boring.
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Actually, I read this great quote the other day, which was,
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"Style makes you feel great because it takes your mind off the fact that you're going to die."
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Right? And then I realized, that was on my website,
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and then it said, like, you know, the quote was attributed to me
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and I thought, oh, I said something, you know, in an interview.
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I forgot that I said that. But it's really true.
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I want to show you this last clip because it's going to be my last goodbye.
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I'll tell you that I cook a lot also. I love to cook.
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And I often look at things as though they're food.
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Like I say, oh, you know, would you serve a rotten chicken?
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Then how could you serve, you know, a beat up old dress or something.
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How could you show a beat up old dress?
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I always relate things to kitchen-ry.
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And so I think that's what it all boils down to.
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Everything boils down to that.
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So check this out.
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This is what I've been doing because I think it's the most fun thing in the world.
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It's, like, this website.
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It's got a lot of different things on it.
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It's a polymathematical website.
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We actually shoot segments like T.V. show segments.
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And it's kind of my favorite thing in the world.
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And it just began like in the beginning of February. So who knows?
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And again, I don't say it's good, I just think it's not boring, right?
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And here is the last bit.
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(Video) IM: I have to tell you, I make buttermilk pancakes or buttermilk waffles all the time.
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Chef: Do you?
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IM: Yeah, but I can never find buttermilk, ever.
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13:09
Chef: Oh.
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IM: You can't find buttermilk at Citarella; you can't find buttermilk.
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Chef: You can't?
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IM: It's always low-fat buttermilk.
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Chef: No, but that's all it is.
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IM: Is that all it is?
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Chef: Oh, you don't know? Let me tell you something.
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Let me tell you something interesting.
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IM: You know what? Stop laughing. It's not funny.
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Just because I don't know that whole -- that there's no such thing as whole buttermilk.
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Sorry, what?
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Chef: Well, here's the deal. Let me tell you the deal.
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In the old days when they used to make butter,
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you know how you make butter?
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IM: Churns?
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Chef: For cream?
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IM: Yeah, exactly.
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Chef: So you take heavy, high-fat milk, which is cream,
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and you churn it until it separates into these curds and water.
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The liquid is actually that clear liquid.
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If you've ever overbeaten your whipped cream,
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it's actually buttermilk.
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And that's what it was in the early days.
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And that's what people used for baking and all sorts of things.
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Now, the buttermilk that you get is actually low-fat or skim milk.
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IM: Excuse me, I didn't know. All right?
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Chef: The reason he thought that is because buttermilk is so wonderfully thick and delicious.
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IM: Yeah, it is, exactly.
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So who would think that it was low-fat?
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Well, that's it. Thank you very much.
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Happy TED. It's so wonderful here. I love it. I love it. I love it.
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Thanks. Bye.
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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Isaac Mizrahi - Fashion designerFashion designer Isaac Mizrahi mixes high fashion and the mass market, with a line of haute couture and a line for Target. Plus a talk show, a cabaret act, a movie, a new book ...
Why you should listen
Design-wise, Isaac Mizrahi is best known for bridging the gap between high and low -- creating gorgeous couture confections for the likes of Eartha Kitt and others, as well as a hugely popular, groundbreakingly affordable line for Target.
His design mission comes wrapped in endless charisma. He's a talk-show host, he's performed his own one-man show Off-Broadway, he was the subject of the hilarious documentary Unzipped, and he does regular cabaret nights at Joe's Pub in New York City. His new book is called How to Have Style .
Isaac Mizrahi | Speaker | TED.com