Born On This Day- August 8th... Rudi Gernreich

Do I have your attention boys & girls? This story is important. This story is fabulous, & this story is true. A little Viennese gay baby boy- Rudi Gernreich was born on this day in 1922. Jewish Rudi fled Austria at age 16 to escape the Nazis.

Following the 1938 Anschluss, the Gernreichs, mother & son migrated to L.A.. They survived on the pastries that his mother baked & he sold door to door.

Gernreich’s first job was washing cadavers for autopsy. Gernreich: “I grew up overnight, I do smile sometimes when people tell me my clothes are so body-conscious I must have studied anatomy. You bet I studied anatomy.”

Gernreich was enamored of Martha Graham. He became a dancer with the Lester Horton company. In 1947, Gernreich danced with Bella Lewitzky, with whom he had danced in Salome 30 years before, when both were members of Horton's troupe. His remarkable costumes for the Lewitzky presentation of Inscape were part of the set & part of the plot. His "Siamese twins" were joined at the skull in stretchable hoods that kept the dancers connected both literally & figuratively. Gernreich continued to collaborate with Lewitzky, designing sets & costumes for Pas de Bach in 1977, Rituals in 1979, Changes & Choices in 1981, & Confines in 1982, all danced by by my college boyfriend & still good pal, the beautiful Walter Kennedy in his dancing prime.

Walter Kennedy in vintage Gerneich

60 years ago in LA, Gernreich, with his lover at the time- Harry Hay & others, formed the Mattachine Society, the first gay rights group in the country. Some later criticized the designer for not coming out after taking those amazingly brave early steps, but most of us now could barely imagine how difficult & dangerous it was to do so: you could lose your job, your friends & family, even your life. Gernreich did not come out until after his death, when the estate of he & his partner of 31 years- Oreste Pucciani, provided an endowment for ACLU in their names. Oreste Pucciani, chairman of the U.C.L.A. French department was instrumental in bringing Sartre to the attention of Americans.He was a pivotal figure in the gay rights movement.

Early Mattachine Society

Hay & Gernreich, are the main characters of the play The Temperamentals by Jon Marans, with Thomas Jay Ryan playing Hay & out actor Michael Urie (with whom he shares this birthday) as Gernreich; after workshop performances in 2009 the play opened to rave reviews off Broadway in spring 2010.

Rudi Gernreich was the first to use cutouts in clothes. He was the first to use vinyl & plastic in clothes. He Introduced androgyny: men's suits & hats on women. He designed the first see-through clothes. Gernreich designed the first soft transparent bra the "no bra" bra that torpedoed the torpedos. He invented body clothes based on leotards & tights. He used hardware such as zippers, & dog leash clasps as decoration. He did the first designer jeans. He designed the 1st thong bathing suit. He was the first to design men's underwear for women.

Rudi Gernreich spent most of his productive life entirely aware that clothes were ideas in material form. His innovations embraced the new concept of lifestyle & in his soft bathing suits ,thongs, body clothes & tube dresses, in his unisex looks & signature, playful witty look, celebrated the removal of restriction & conformity.

Gernreich seemed to understand that a piece of clothing could embody a larger sense of freedom and liberation. It had to have something to do with his being gay, & of course being a dancer must have informed his vision of how a dressed body should float with naked ease in & around every situation.

I love 1960s conceptualist fashion. High Art fashion. Its not just fashion; it is a way of life. Life as theatre. Today in the stereotypical gay lifestyle & queer fashion is being appropriated by straight culture. Gay S&M fashion once an underground subculture, has gone mainstream. Slings are a home decor accessory. Rudi Gernreich was cutting edge, but today would he be cutting edge? The real queens of the past: Rudi Gernreich, Quentin Crisp, Joe Orton, Jean Genet, Truman Capote, Jean Cocteau were so brilliant, they defied fashion convention, they were not subservient to it. I hope that Rudi’s friend Walter Kennedy is lounging around his digs, enjoying his coffee in a purple thong or one of those famous unitards.

Born On This Day- July 11th... Giorgio Armani

Italian designer Giorgio Armani is synonymous with sophisticated, stylish fashion. In addition to clothing his spectacularly successful business empire includes lines of jewelry, cosmetics, fragrances, eyewear, & even hotels.

The young Armani drowned out the sound of Allied bombing with movies & it was his clothing for Richard Gere in American Gigolo that made Armani a household name.

Born into a humble family, Armani attended the local public school & developed a deep love for the theatre & film. In 1957, he took a job at the Milan department store La Rinascente. He worked briefly as an assistant photographer, before accepting a promotion to its style office, where he imported products from India, Japan, & the USA.

In 1964, without any formal training, Armani designed a line of men’s wear for Nino Cerruti. In 1970, Armani was encouraged by his lover/partner, architect- Sergio Galeotti, to become a freelance fashion designer.  Galeotti, 11 years younger than Armani, moved to Milan to be with him.

In 1975 the couple founded Giorgio Armani SpA with an initial investment of $410,000, part of it provided by the sale of their VW.

Armani immediately introduced an innovation that has become a signature of his work, the "unconstructed" suit jacket, which he offered in both men's & women's collections. Armani removed the lining & padding that had previously been standard in suit jackets & created a more supple garment in soft fabric. The fluid lines created a look that was at once sophisticated & sensual, flattering to both sexes.

In 1974, Armani presented, to great acclaim, bomber jackets that treated leather as an everyday fabric. This penchant for using materials in unexpected contexts & combinations came to be known as the defining characteristic of his style.

In the 1980s, the Armani "power suit" for men & women came to represent an era of international economic boom. In 1982, Armani became the first fashion designer to appear on the cover of Time Magazine since Christian Dior in the 1940s. He was one of the first designers to approach celebrities to wear his designs, beginning with LA Lakers coach, Pat Riley, in 1988.

Armani is a lifelong movie fan, & Hollywood returned the compliment. His work has been seen in more than 100 movies, including the otherwise dreadful- De-Lovely, a messy screen biography of gay composer Cole Porter. Critics praised the costumes as the perfect reflection of the taste of the sophisticated set in the 1920s & 1930s & also as timelessly classic in design. Armani also inticed Hollywood stars to wear his designs at the Academy Awards, becoming the de facto designer for Michelle Pfeiffer, Richard Gere, Stephen Rutledge, & Jodie Foster. He has also designed theatre costumes, dressed Italian & British soccer teams & Alitalia airline flight attendants.

In 1985 Armani suffered a profound personal & professional loss: Galeotti died of HIV complications at 40 years old.

An intensely private person, Armani generally reveals little about his personal life, but did state: "Sergio helped me believe in my own work, in my energy." He has acknowledged that he considered retirement after Galeotti's death but decided instead to persevere rather than abandoning "all the hopes of Sergio."

Armani: "It is he who gives me the strength even now to continue, heis always there in the home that we shared.”

With 4+ decades in the business, Armani has enjoyed a long career as a designer. Some compare him to fashion greats Coco Chanel & Yves Saint Laurent.  Armani turns 78 years old today & he still stands as one of fashion's most distinguished designers. He seems almost presidential- wise, serene & comfortable.

A Pair Of Gay Birthdays On June 22nd

"Style is primarily a matter of instinct.”

William Ralph Blass was a very handsome man, who happened to be gay. He produced clothes for many renowned women including Jacqueline Kennedy, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Pat Buckley, Brooke Astor, Nancy Kissinger, Happy Rockefeller, Gloria Vanderbilt, Jessye Norman, Barbra Streisand, & Barbara Walters.

Bill Blass's life epitomised the Gatsby-esque American dream. Along with Oscar de la Renta, Blass was the American designer who most successfully brought together the roles of couturier & social butterfly.

At one point in my life I thought that escorting society dames to parties, lunches & events might just be the ticket for me. I had my eye on Diana Vreeland in the mid-1970s. Blass was one of the most successful 'walkers' ever. He was an indefatigable partygoer, showing up with some of the richest women in Manhattan at every party, gallery opening & hip restaurant. He not only loved the world of glamour, big money, high profile & style, but understood how to dress it, which is why his company was so successful for more than 30 years.

He was one of the founder members of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). He was the first to receive the CFDA Perignon Award for Humanitarian leadership beyond fashion. He donated the $25,000 prize to the AIDS care centre of New York Hospital. He was also a major donor to Gay Men's Health Crisis at a time when well known people were silent about AIDS. Bill Blass died of cancer aged 79.

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Pears on the left & Britten on the right.

For 40 years, Peter Pears was the lover/partner of composer Benjamin Britten, who wrote the leading roles in many of his operas & song for Pears.Their partnership is important for the vast body of music & recordings it produced, & because many homosexual subjects figured in their work. Because Opera is just not gay enough.

Pears became a leading lyric tenor of the Sadler's Wells Opera, where he developed an extensive repertoire, but Pears's greatest triumph in this company, was his creation of the title role of the tortured & homosexual outcast in Britten's Peter Grimes (1945).

For the next 30+ years, Pears created many operatic roles that Britten wrote for him, including the title role in Albert Herring (1947), Captain Vere in Billy Budd (1951), Essex in Gloriana (1953), Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw (1954), Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960), the Madwoman in Curlew River (1964), Nebuchadnezzar in The Burning Fiery Furnace (1966), the Tempter in The Prodigal Son (1968), Sir Philip Wingrave in Owen Wingrave (1971), & Aschenbach in Death in Venice (1973).

In 1974, Pears made, at last, his debut at the Metropolitan Opera Company in NYC, in the first American performance of Death in Venice. I wonder if my friend Will, the esteemed theatre & opera designer was in the house?

Even after Britten's death in 1976, Pears continued his singing career until nearly the age of 70. He spent the remainder of his life teaching & administering the Britten-Pears School. Pears was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1977, & died on April 3, 1986. He is buried next to Britten.

Mr. Perfect

During his day, Gary Cooper’s reputation as a snappy dresser was such that he was named in Irving Berlin’s 1930 song- Puttin’ on the Ritz. His appeal lay not just in his enviable machismo, but in how he dressed appropriately for every occasion, from hunting with his camping buddy Ernest Hemingway to lounging on a yacht. Copper is a true Style Icon.

Different types who wear a daycoat, pants with stripes

& cut away coat, perfect fits,

Puttin' on the Ritz.

Dressed up like a million dollar trouper

Trying hard to look like Gary Cooper

Super Duper

Come let's mix where Rockefellers walk with sticks

Or umbrellas in their mitts

Puttin' on the Ritz

Gaultier & Epperson Share A Gay Birthday

John Epperson: “Tolerance isn't enough. Acceptance isn't enough. Understanding may be enough. But I don't know if you can understand unless you're inside a person's skin. What could be enough is just to somehow shed the fear & loathing, but the only way that can be done is if all the people who hate homosexuals realize there's a potential homosexual lurking in them. Sexuality is a transitory thing that could shift at any moment. It's bigger than all of us”.

After leaving his native Mississippi, young John Epperson moved to NYC & landed a job as the rehearsal pianist for the American Ballet Theater. He also began doing drag performances at nightspots Club 57 & the Pyramid Club. Epperson quit his job with the American Ballet Theater in 1991 in order to perform full-time as Lypsinka. He has since returned to his position at American Ballet Theater. Last year he had a non-drag role as the rehearsal pianist in the Film- Black Swan. What a stretch. It would have been more thrilling if Lypsinka had played the role, not to disparage Epperson's estimable talents.

Fueled by the early 1980s avant-garde, pop culture art scene in NYC, Epperson let flow his creative pluck into one of the more distinctive personas to emerge in contemporary performing arts: Lypsinka.


For the past 2 decades, Epperson's performances as Lypsinka have met with international acclaim for elevating drag & lip-synching to a beguiling world where Lypsinka speaks only through intricately interlaced bits of dialogue drawn from the considerable catalogue of American entertainment. Epperson turns 56 today.

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Starting out as Pierre Cardin’s assistant in 1970, Jean Paul Gaultier showed his first collection in 1976 at the urging of his boyfriend- Francis Menuge, who was his partner in business & life, until he died of AIDS complications in 1990. Gaultier’s collections have always been influenced by street culture & the media & he’s known for twisting gender roles in his designs, often overshadowing the elaborate design & construction of his work. Gaultier has literally made a career for himself out of nothing but sheer determination & dedication. With no formal training, he has managed to create a self-made empire with no indication of slowing down. He is a magical master of the theatrical in his runway shows, displays & advertising.

An unconventional designer, Gaultier claims to finds inspiration in everyday life, drawing from what he says, “is the truth of an object”. His shows are fabulous events, & he uses every shape & size of model. Fearless & passionate in any endeavor he takes on, whether it is the biggest pop star of all time & her sold out world tour, or blockbuster sci-fi thriller movies, Gaultier is one the best. The bad boy of fashion turns 60 today.

Born On This Day- April 23rd... Halston

Roy Halston Frowick, or Halston was an iconic clothing designer of the 1970s & 1980s & a friend to Jackie O, Bianca Jagger, Liza Minnelli, Anjelica Huston, Lauren Bacall & Elizabeth Taylor, but he always ignored me at Studio 54.

Halston on far left... at Studio 54 with some of our friends

A Midwesterner, he began his career as a milliner, designing the pillbox hat Jacqueline Kennedy to the1961 Presidential inauguration. Halston then moved to designing women's wear. Newsweek named Halston “the premier fashion designer of the USA”. Halston was the first international fashion superstar & possibly the best designer America has ever had.

He was the first American designer to perceive the potential of licensing himself. His influence went beyond style to reshape the business of fashion. Through his licensing agreement with USA retailer JC Penney, his designs were accessible to women at a variety of income levels. Although this practice is common today, it was a controversial move at the time & cost him couture customers.

Although he enjoyed enormous success, his drug use deepened, & a failure to meet deadline undermined his progress & profit. In 1984 he was fired from his own company & lost the right to design & sell clothes under his own name.

Halston was diagnosed with HIV in 1988. He died of AIDS-related lung cancer in San Francisco, California on March 26, 1990.

In the Sister Sledge disco hit- He's The Greatest Dancer, Halston is memorably mentioned in a description of a well-dressed man: “Halston, Gucci, Fiorucci - he looks like a still, the man is dressed to kill'. Halston has been mentioned in other songs, films & TV shows - usually as the criterion for a certain kind of cultured, cosmopolitan style.

Born On This Day- Designer Marc Jacobs

Marc Jacobs was born on this day in 1963, the son of a pair of theatrical agents. His father died when he was only 7 years old. He went to live with his grandmother, who taught him how to knit.

Jacobs spent his formative years shuttling between school & Studio 54, the Manhattan Disco After his graduation at the High School of Art & Design, he entered Parsons School of Design, & in his senior year he created a collection of hand knit sweaters (made by his grandmother) which won him the Perry Ellis Golden Thimble award.

After graduating, he designed under his own label creating irreverent homage to 1960's hippie clothing. Now he designs smart clothing using rich materials for very rich people.

While studying, Marc Jacobs won Design Student of the Year 1984. Since those early years Jacobs has one awards, awards & more awards: Perry Ellis Award for New Fashion Talent, the highest tribute possible in the American fashion world & Women’s Wear Designer of the Year by the CFDA.

Marc Jacobs lives in Paris & NYC. His Paris studio is just steps away from the Louvre & Notre Dame.

At 47 years old, the designer revealed his dramatic transformation by going from schlump to hottie. I could look like Jacobs if I followed his example of consuming only vegan food & working out with a trainer for 2 hours a day, 7 days a week. Again proving my theory that it is easier to be beautiful when you are very rich. In addition, that wealth allows you to date porn stars. Jacobs turns 49 today. I can only imagine how he will celebrate.

Born On This Day- January 21st... Christian Dior

What is with the tortured lives of the great fashion designers?  Design SuperTalent = personal misfortune?

Christian Dior was one of the most influential fashion designers of the 20th century. He was born in Normandy, France, heir to a fertilizer fortune. Dior attended a Catholic school, after which he established his main fashion house in 1946 with the backing of a textile magnate. Within 12 years he expanded his business to 15 countries & employed over 2,000 people. He had 3 children & was married 4 times.

Christian Dior is known mainly for the look which employed narrow shoulders, a constricted waist, an emphasized bust, & a long, wide skirt, all in striking contrast to the severity of wartime fashions. His designs represented consistent classic elegance. The New Look revolutionized women's dress & reestablished Paris as the center of the fashion world after World War II. Dior spread his fashions around the world when he & his partner, Jacques Rouet, started franchises in the fashion industry. In 1953, Yves Saint-Laurent became Dior's assistant & was destined to be his successor but was reluctantly forced to leave when the time came for his military service.

Towards the end of his life Dior's life was a hectic round of injections to wake up in the morning, injections for his appetite, & further injections to sleep. His niece, who had once been his favorite relative, openly blamed Christian's Jewish manager who procured his medications, along with a collection of young men, of being part of a Jewish plot forcing him towards his death. Dior would eventulally disinherit all his family.

Dior's last companion was Jacques Benita, a young Algerian singer, who he met in 1956 & who, from that time, had to be included in all Christian's social activities. After the September collection in 1957, Dior was desperate for a rest & decided to take Benita to Montecatinia Italy, despite the warnings of his astrologer, who was against the trip. He was so infatuated with Benita that he decided to diet to try to make himself more attractive, even though Benita said this really was not necessary. Dior was a drug addict who probably died, at age 56, from a heart attack or overdose. It has never been certain. At the time of his death, Dior salons had been opened in 24 countries.The Dior firm, successively led by designers Yves Saint Laurent, Marc Bohan, continued to be a fashion leader & is now associated with a much wider range of merchandise: mens' wear, household linens, & fragrances.

He was a classic designer & a star. His life was filled of parties, exquisite things, pretty boys, & cool substances... all the things that only famous people eat, feel, & have.

Style Icon Cary Grant

“I Think That Making Love Is The Best Form Of Exercise”

This man knew how to wear a sweater

This man knew what to wear at the beach

How to wear a suit 101

He can even pull off submarine casual chic... not many chances to see Grant bare chested. I think he pulls it off.

Tom Ford Turns 50

“I don’t think of myself as gay. That doesn’t mean that I’m not gay. I just don’t define myself by my sexuality.”

Not only am I inspired by people who, along with tremendous talent, are able to "brand" themselves, but I also want to follow in their footsteps. I have provided past posts that include: Martha Stewart, Andy Warhol & Keith Haring.

I would like to have my own line of products: nipple clamps made from re-purposed office supplies, cocktail mixers, & a magazine- Post Apocalyptic Bohemian Lifestyle. There would be a STEVE! TV network, which would only show films & series re-runs that I appear in, or that I love, or that feature : Steve Allen, Steve Buscemi, Steve Reeves, Steve Carell, or Steve McQueen. I want my own fragrance- Douche by Stephen: nutmeg, whiskey, dirt & a hint of desperation.

Tom Ford has not only made himself a part of his own product, but he is his own muse.

Each time I have come upon a print ad for Tom Ford, a man who has the right stuff & designs beautiful clothing; I have earmarked the magazine ad & said to the Husband- "wow, can you believe how beautiful he is? Plus... the clothing & accessories are gifts from a genius". The Husband concurred.

Ford: "I think I detach the physical from the spiritual. It’s my business to make a woman or a man beautiful, & I’m working with a model in a fitting, & I’ve objectified them to the point that they become an object."

"They’re something that I’m modeling or shaping or sculpting, but I’m very aware that even though I make them physically beautiful, their soul & personality & character is somewhat detached from that. It’s great when you have a combination of the two- that’s what makes a true beauty. Some people are physically beautiful but yet they’re completely uninteresting, & thus they’re not beautiful. I detach the two. ... That’s why I think gay men make better designers."

Today is Tom Ford's 50th birthday. I would be very pleased to be snowed-in at a mountain cabin for a few days with Tom Ford. I would try my best to leave him inspired. He is Daniel Craig's designer of choice, & that is all the endorsement I need. I love you, Tom Ford.... but alas, he has has been with journalist Richard Buckley (14 years his senior) for 25 years. At least he is into a daddy types.

Buckley was the former Editor in Chief of Vogue Hommes International. He was diagnosed with cancer in 1989 & after his recovery the couple moved from NYC to Italy.

The couple have smooth fox terriers. Their first dog- John, lived 14 years with Ford & Buckley, & appeared on the runway & in photo shoots. Currently, they have Angus & India, who are 6 & 4 years old. These terriers appeared in Ford's film A Single Man. I am grateful to Mr. Ford for his 1st film- A Single Man. It was, for me, a masterful directorial debut & a deeply moving film.

Happy Birthday, Thomas Carlyle Ford, have your people call my people.

Born On This Day- August 8th... Rudi Gernreich

Do I have your attention boys & girls? This story is important. This story is fabulous, & this story is true. A little Viennese gay baby boy- Rudi Gernreich was born on this day in 1922. Jewish Rudi fled Austria at age 16 to escape the Nazis.

Following the 1938 Anschluss, the Gernreichs, mother & son migrated to L.A.. They survived on the pastries that his mother baked & he sold door to door.

Gernreich’s first job was washing cadavers for autopsy. Gernreich: “I grew up overnight, I do smile sometimes when people tell me my clothes are so body-conscious I must have studied anatomy. You bet I studied anatomy.”

Gernreich was enamored of Martha Graham. He became a dancer with the Lester Horton company. In 1974, Gernreich danced with Bella Lewitzky, with whom he had danced in Salome 30 years before, when both were members of Horton's troupe. His remarkable costumes for the Lewitzky presentation of Inscape were part of the set & part of the plot. His "Siamese twins" were joined at the skull in stretchable hoods that kept the dancers connected both literally & figuratively. Gernreich continued to collaborate with Lewitzky, designing sets & costumes for Pas de Bach in 1977, Rituals in 1979, Changes & Choices in 1981, & Confines in 1982, all danced by by my college boyfriend & still good pal, the beautiful Walter Kennedy in his dancing prime.

Walter Kennedy in Gerneich

60 years ago in L.A., Gernreich, with his lover at the time- Harry Hay & others, formed the Mattachine Society, the first gay rights group in the country. Some later criticized the designer for not coming out after taking those amazingly brave early steps, but most of us now could barely imagine how difficult & dangerous it was to do so: you could lose your job, your friends & family, even your life. Gernreich did not come out until after his death, when the estate of he & his partner of 31 years- Oreste Pucciani, provided an endowment for ACLU in their names. Oreste Pucciani, chairman of the U.C.L.A. French department was instrumental in bringing Sartre to the attention of Americans.He was a pivotal figure in the gay rights movement.

Early Mattachine Society

Hay & Gernreich, are the main characters of the play The Temperamentals by Jon Marans, with Thomas Jay Ryan playing Hay & out & proud actor Michael Urie (with whom he shares this birthday) as Gernreich; after workshop performances in 2009 the play opened to rave reviews off Broadway in spring 2010.

Rudi Gernreich was the first to use cutouts in clothes. He was the first to use vinyl & plastic in clothes. He Introduced androgyny: men's suits & hats on women. He designed the first see-through clothes. Gernreich designed the first soft transparent bra the "no bra" bra that torpedoed the torpedos. He invented body clothes based on leotards & tights. He used hardware such as zippers, & dog leash clasps as decoration. He did the first designer jeans. He designed the 1st thong bathing suit. He was the first to design men's underwear for women.

Rudi Gernreich spent most of his productive life entirely aware that clothes were ideas in material form. His innovations embraced the new concept of lifestyle & in his soft bathing suits ,thongs, body clothes & tube dresses, in his unisex looks & signature, playful witty look, celebrated the removal of restriction & conformity.

Gernreich seemed to understand that a piece of clothing could embody a larger sense of freedom and liberation. It had to have something to do with his being gay, & of course being a dancer must have informed his vision of how a dressed body should float with naked ease in & around every situation.

I love 1960s conceptualist fashion. High Art fashion. Its not just fashion; it is a way of life. Life as theatre. Today in the stereotypical gay lifestyle & queer fashion is being appropriated by straight culture. Gay S&M fashion once an underground subculture, has gone mainstream. Slings are a home decor accessory. Rudi Gernreich was cutting edge, but today would he be cutting edge? The real queens of the past: Rudi Gernreich, Quentin Crisp, Joe Orton, Jean Genet, Truman Capote, Jean Cocteau were so brilliant, they defied fashion convention, they were not subservient to it. I hope that Rudi’s friend Walter kennedy is lounging around his digs, enjoying his coffee in a purple thong or one of those famous unitards.

Born On This Day- August 1st... Designer Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Lauren was born in Algeria & raised in France. He was bullied at school, but found solace at home in his drawing & painting & designing of dresses for his mother & sisters.

When he was 17 & studying in Paris, Saint Lauren won 1st prize in a dress design competition sponsored by the International Wool Secretariat.

When Christian Dior saw Saint Laurent's designs, he was so impressed that he offered the young man a job as an assistant & & referred to Saint Laurent as the 'dauphin'. When Dior died in 1957, Saint Laurent took over the house of Dior. His first collection for Dior in 1958 was greeted enthusiastically & his 1960 collection for Dior appropriated the Left Bank style, with black leather jackets, knitted turtlenecks, & crocodile jackets. The fashion world watched with fascination as street fashion was redesigned at the hands of a couturier.

In the same year Saint Laurent was called up to fight in the Algerian war. When he was discharged several months later, he discovered that he had been replaced as head designer at Dior. He then simply created his own company.

Under his own name, Saint Laurent continued to produce elegant wearable clothes that drew on a huge range of influences & he successfully tapped into the vogue for androgynous dressing that spread throughout Europe & the USA in the mid-1960s.

In 1993, Yves Saint Laurent , which was by now also a major perfume house, was sold to a major company & has changed hands a number of times since, becoming part of Gucci in 1999 with Tom Ford as designer & creative director.

In 1958, Saint Laurent met Pierre Bergé, who was at the time the manager & lover of the Parisian painter Bernard Buffet. In a scene out of A Little Night Music, at a weekend party Buffet met his future wife, & Saint Laurent & Bergé roused a romance that lasted until 1976. After their breakup Bergé continued to serve as Saint Laurent's business manager & remained living in their home until 1986.

Although his sexuality was hardly a secret in the fashion world, Saint Laurent did not publicly acknowledge his homosexuality until 1991, in an interview in the French daily newspaper Le Figaro.

As his depression deepened Saint Laurent was joyful only twice a year, on the days a new collection was shown, usually to wild acclaim & within 24 hours that joy would evaporated. Saint Laurent was so attached to his favorite designs, that to part with even one of them would leave a black hole in his life, according to Bergé.

Almost any other leading designer will cite him as their idol. Marc Jacobs refers to him as god. Tom Ford & Jean-Paul Gaultier name him as their mentor.

In 2002, with years of poor health, drug abuse, depression, alcoholism, criticisms of YSL designs, Saint Laurent was forced to face the indignity of having Gucci close the illustrious couture house of YSL.

After his retirement, Saint Laurent became increasingly reclusive & spent the last years of his life at his house in Marrakech, Morocco. He died in June 2008 after a long illness. He was 71 years old.

Pears & Blass... A Pair Of Birthdays On June 22nd

"Style is primarily a matter of instinct.”

William Ralph Blass was a very handsome man, who happened to be gay. He produced clothes for many renowned women including Jacqueline Kennedy, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, Pat Buckley, Brooke Astor, Nancy Kissinger, Happy Rockefeller, Gloria Vanderbilt, Jessye Norman, Barbra Streisand, & Barbara Walters.

Bill Blass's life epitomised the Gatsby-esque American dream. Along with Oscar de la Renta, Blass was the American designer who most successfully brought together the roles of couturier & social butterfly.

At one point in my life I thought that escorting society dames to parties, lunches & events might just be the ticket for me. I had my eye on Diana Vreeland in the mid-1970s. Blass was one of the most successful 'walkers' ever. He was an indefatigable partygoer, showing up with some of the richest women in Manhattan at every party, gallery opening & hip restaurant. He not only loved the world of glamour, big money, high profile & style, but understood how to dress it, which is why his company was so successful for more than 30 years.

He was one of the founder members of the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA). He was the first to receive the CFDA Perignon Award for Humanitarian leadership beyond fashion. He donated the $25,000 prize to the AIDS care centre of New York Hospital. He was also a major donor to Gay Men's Health Crisis at a time when well known people were silent about AIDS. Bill Blass died of cancer aged 79.

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Pears on the left & Britten on the right.

For 40 years, Peter Pears was the lover/partner of composer Benjamin Britten, who wrote the leading roles in many of his operas & song for Pears.Their partnership is important for the vast body of music & recordings it produced, & because many homosexual subjects figured in their work. Because Opera is just not gay enough.

Pears became a leading lyric tenor of the Sadler's Wells Opera, where he developed an extensive repertoire, but Pears's greatest triumph in this company, was his creation of the title role of the tortured & homosexual outcast in Britten's Peter Grimes (1945).

For the next 30+ years, Pears created many operatic roles that Britten wrote for him, including the title role in Albert Herring (1947), Captain Vere in Billy Budd (1951), Essex in Gloriana (1953), Peter Quint in The Turn of the Screw (1954), Flute in A Midsummer Night's Dream (1960), the Madwoman in Curlew River (1964), Nebuchadnezzar in The Burning Fiery Furnace (1966), the Tempter in The Prodigal Son (1968), Sir Philip Wingrave in Owen Wingrave (1971), & Aschenbach in Death in Venice (1973).

In 1974, Pears made, at last, his debut at the Metropolitan Opera Company, New York, in the 1st American performance of Death in Venice. I wonder if my friend Will, the esteemed theatre & opera designer was in the house?

Even after Britten's death in 1976, Pears continued his singing career until nearly the age of 70. He spent the remainder of his life teaching & administering the Britten-Pears School. Pears was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1977, & died on April 3, 1986. He is buried next to Britten.

Born On This Day- May 11th... Fashion Icon- Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani

I have had a hard time getting around the notion of why it would be difficult to come out if you were a successful fashion designer. It is similar to being a closeted chorus boy or proffesional figure skater. Really?

It's no surprise that of all the great gay fashion designers to have chosen to be open about their gayness in recent years: Versace, Tom Ford, Dolce & Gabbana, Giorgio Armani, Valentino should be the last to come out, because being out on the leading edge has never been the style of the designer who burst on to the fashion scene in 1959 & quickly established himself as the favorite of the ladies who lunch.


The "secret that is not a secret", is what Valentino's partner in business & in life for 50 years- Giancarlo Giammetti called it, in an feature on the designer in an issue of Vanity Fair in 2004.


Giammetti has run the business side of Valentino's fashion house until their retirment in 2008. Giammetti: "Ours was not a story of money or fashion. It was a story of love. There has never been an article about us in this sense. I think the world has changed a lot, and that once it would have been embarrassing to read but it's not any more."

Valentino: "Giancarlo & I understand each other, but his character is the opposite of mine. There are only 3 things that I know how to do: make a dress, decorate a house & receive guests ..."


Giammetti: “We were lovers for 22 years. Now it's a fraternal love, a relationship with nothing sexual in it. Yet a great love remains, ancient, surviving."


Their affectionate but testy relationship began when the pair met at a cafe in Rome in 1960. Giammetti claims if you added up the days they have spent apart since meeting, it amounts to only 2 months.


Altough they are open about being gay, Valentino & Giammetti are prudish in their perceptions. Bruce Hoeksema, Valentino's assistant for the past 15 years: "When Giancarlo sees male couple kissing in a restaurant he says, 'Disgusting!'. If he sees 2 men holding hands on the street, 'Queers!'."


The Husband & I caught the documentary- Valentino: The Last Emperor on Logo one Saturday morning. Watching the diminutive, majestically coiffed, hidden-eyed, orange-tinted, ill-tempered, impatient absolute monarch- Valentino was like enjoying chocolate & Champagne until that queasy moment arrives when you realize you’ve consumed far too much.


He travels exclusively on his own jets & yachts with a full entourage.

One of the very few things we have in common,Valentino adores dogs. He named a second line of clothing after his late pug Oliver. Today Valentino has pugs: the mother, Molly; her sons, Milton & Monty; & her daughters, Margot, Maude & Maggie. When traveling on his 14-seat jet, 3 cars are needed to move Valentino & his group to the airport: one to move Valentino & Giammetti, another for the luggage & the staff, & one to transport 5 pugs, Maude, the 6th canine, always travels with Valentino.

Epperson & Gaultier

John Epperson: “Tolerance isn't enough. Acceptance isn't enough. Understanding may be enough. But I don't know if you can understand unless you're inside a person's skin. What could be enough is just to somehow shed the fear & loathing, but the only way that can be done is if all the people who hate homosexuals realize there's a potential homosexual lurking in them. Sexuality is a transitory thing that could shift at any moment. It's bigger than all of us”.

After leaving his native Mississippi, young John Epperson moved to NYC & landed a job as the rehearsal pianist for the American Ballet Theater. He also began doing drag performances at nightspots Club 57 & the Pyramid Club. Epperson quit his job with the American Ballet Theater in 1991 in order to perform full-time as Lypsinka. He has since returned to his position at American Ballet Theater. Last year he had a non-drag role as the rehearsal pianist in the Film- Black Swan. What a stretch. It would have been more thrilling if Lypsinka had played the role, not to disparage Epperson's estimable talents.

Fueled by the early 1980s avant-garde, pop culture art scene in NYC, Epperson let flow his creative pluck into one of the more distinctive personas to emerge in contemporary performing arts: Lypsinka.


For the past 2 decades, Epperson's performances as Lypsinka have met with international acclaim for elevating drag & lip-synching to a beguiling world where Lypsinka speaks only through intricately interlaced bits of dialogue drawn from the considerable catalogue of American entertainment. Epperson turns 55 today.

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Starting out as Pierre Cardin’s assistant in 1970, Jean Paul Gaultier showed his first collection in 1976 at the urging of his boyfriend- Francis Menuge, who was his partner in business & life, until he died of AIDS complications in 1990. Gaultier’s collections have always been influenced by street culture & the media & he’s known for twisting gender roles in his designs, often overshadowing the elaborate design & construction of his work. Gaultier has literally made a career for himself out of nothing but sheer determination & dedication. With no formal training, he has managed to create a self-made empire with no indication of slowing down. He is a magical master of the theatrical in his runway shows, displays & advertising.

An unconventional designer, Gaultier claims to finds inspiration in everyday life, drawing from what he says, “is the truth of an object”. His shows are fabulous events, & he uses every shape & size of model. Fearless & passionate in any endeavor he takes on, whether it is the biggest pop star of all time & her sold out world tour, or blockbuster sci-fi thriller movies, Gaultier is one the best. The bad boy of fashion turns 59 today.