October 26, 2023 • 23 mins
Some fashion rises above normal clothing and becomes at some point art. Laverne shares her passion for fashion and the thrill of the chase. Her vintage designer collection is not only a resource for joy but the thrill of owning seminal pieces and seeing the development of a brilliant designer over time is just fun. Then there’s SEAM RIPPING!
Please rate, review, subscribe and share The Laverne Cox Show with everyone you know. You can find Laverne on Instagram and Twitter @LaverneCox and on Facebook at @LaverneCoxForReal.
As always, stay in the love.
Links of Interest:
Behind the Fashion - Summertime: A TripHopera
Summertime: A Trip Hopera Music Video
Thierry Mugler at Brooklyn Museum
Thierry Mugler Jacket Animation (Fashion Institute of Technology)
Connie Fleming walking for Mugler - MUST SEE
George Michael - Too Funky (Official Video)
George Michael - Too Funky (Thierry Mugler Original Director's Cut)
Issey Miyaki (New York Times Obit)
André Leon Talley (New York Times Obit)
Other Episodes Mentioned or Relevant:
The Spirituality of Club Culture w/ Honey Dijon
The Legendary Life of Connie Fleming, Part I and Part II
CREDITS:
Executive Producers: Sandie Bailey, Alex Alcheh, Lauren Hohman, Tyler Klang & Gabrielle Collins
Producer & Editor: Brooke Peterson-Bell
Associate Producer: Akiya McKnight
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to The Laverne Cox Show, a production of Shondaland
Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. Welcome to the Laverne Cox Show.
My name is Laverne Cox. I started thrift store shopping
(00:21):
when I was in middle school. I remember I used
to wear lab coats. It girl. I mean, it was
probably a mess, but it was a way to express
myself creatively. And drifting in vintage shopping was something I
did through high school, college and after college because it
was affordable. And then when I got the job of
(00:45):
being Red Carpet host for E in twenty twenty one,
I was like, oh, I have to step up my
fashion pussy to paraphrase Ts Madison and also Nicki Minaj
had to step my pussy up. And I did that
in relationship to my stylist and we were like trying
to really like just up the anti in terms of fashion.
But also in twenty nineteen, well before I was a
(01:08):
Red Carpet host, I started collecting vintage Terry Muglayer. So
obsessed with Mouglayer since I saw the Two Funky video
in nineteen ninety two. If you don't know the Two
Funky video, go to YouTube and watch it, but manfree.
Terry Muglayer, the late Terry Muglair, who passed away just
a few years ago, directed that video as the George
Michael song, and all the fashions in the video are
(01:31):
Mooglayer and the Cowboy looked that Connie Fleming Waars is
from Spring nineteen ninety two a late Cowboy. Anyway, when
I became Red Carpet host, my collecting like went kind
of went through the roof. I started like collecting more
and shopping more. I guess since I've been a public figure,
(01:52):
a lot of like what I've worn, I've gone through
my stylists, like for Red Carpets, for interviews and stuff,
and I've shopped for but not a lot. So since
twenty twenty one, I've been really interested in like expanding
my own personal wardrobe and having that, like, I guess,
figuring out at this stage of my life, what my
(02:15):
fashion vision is separate from my incredible stylist right, and
so much of that has been about delving into the
archives of Terry Muglaire, the archives of Jean Galliano, his
own line and as well as what he did for
Door and for Juvon She Alexander McQueen what he did
(02:35):
during his lifetime, and some of the pieces that in
collections that Sarah Burden has done since the queen has
passed away, come to Garson and is Simiaki. Those are
the main designers I've been kind of interested in over
the past several years, and I think what many of
them have in common is all of them have avant
(02:56):
garde tendencies. Not all of their work is avant garde,
but there are moments of sort of being avant garde
that I think Gaulliano and McQueen certainly have that Mouglair
certainly has, and very clearly Issi Miaki and Comte de
Garcon are more sort of known for being a little
more avant garde. And the pieces I don't have a
lot of Miaki, but a lot of the Miyaki pieces
(03:17):
I do have are pieces that Grace Jones is worn.
I just bought a piece of auction from the late
nineties that Grace Jones wore, and there's a couple of
pieces that Grace wore back in the day. There's actually
I'm really excited about this Jean Paul Gautier sort of
pick that I found that I saw Grace wear in
(03:37):
a photo. Literally I have the whole look now, I
have this hooded isi miaki, you know, pleaded two piece,
and then I have the pick that Grace woar. So
maybe for Halloween I'll be Grace Jones again. I've done
Grace for Halloween before, living for that and come to Garson.
I love the come to Garson and Mouglaire. Those designers,
(04:00):
particularly the structural, the architectural aspects of the design really
excite me. I've always been into very structured clothes, and
part of the reason I love Muglair are the shapes
and the way that Muglayer's close sort of structure the
body right that there's sort of cinched waste Moveglayer is
known for. But like just the big broad shoulders or
(04:25):
the big hips and just these beautiful structures and architectural
designs that just accentuate the body in this really beautiful way.
And some of the designs are very sort of hyper feminine.
It's really interesting reading reviews of Mooglair's work from the eighties.
He was controversial, the shows were controversial, the clothes were controversial.
(04:47):
I remember there was a critic who said, but I
don't think Muglair likes women very much. This is in
the eighties, late eighties, and you know, there's a very
kind of Muglair called this woman very empowered. The Muglair woman,
in his eyes, was a very empowered woman. But he
was incorporating things like latex and a lot of course
its and the high heels. You know, the Muglair's woman
(05:09):
is very sexy, and a lot of people found this
offensive at the time or not sort of as high
fashion as they would have liked it to be. But
I mean his suits. I mean I came to Muglair
sort of really through the two Funky video, but my
obsession with him really happened with a structured suit. I
love and I'm obsessed with the way Manfrey Terry Muglair
(05:31):
cut a suit. I have so many blazers from Muglare
that are just that I'm obsessed with, Like the workmanship
and the seeming and just the way he constructs a
jacket is just so utterly and completely exciting to me.
(05:52):
It's like I don't collect art, but I collect vintage clothes,
and there's something about vintage too, and like certain time periods,
and there was something so exciting about Galliano in the
nineties and or in the two thousands as well. What
Gallianna did for Duore in the two thousands was just
so groundbreaking and exciting, and I'm obsessed. But I'm also
(06:15):
really obsessed with nineteen nineties Galliano as well. I own
now a number of pieces of Galliano's from the late nineties.
I have a few pieces from he was at Givonci
for a year, and I have a couple of blazers
from that collection that he did two collections for Gievonci
before he was moved over to Dire And so it
(06:35):
just feels lovely to have these pieces that feel kind
of historic and part of fashion history and art history
where sort of art and fashion meet. I find also
really exciting, and I think all of these designers sort
of encompass and encapsulate like the spaces where art and
fashion meet. If you look at these beautiful pieces by
Comte de Garson that are just full on art, and
(07:00):
it's wearable art though it's art that you can sort of,
you know, put on your back. I have this beautiful
dress from Comor Garson's Blood and Roses collection from I
think it's twenty thirteen beautiful red dress. And this the
structure of it and how it's able to sit on
the body and away from the body, and the asymmetry
(07:21):
of it is just so dope and it's so cool,
and it's just like it's just the way it's able
to like sort of exist in the world. Like it's
just so exciting. It's so exciting to me. And it's
been one of these things where I like have to,
you know, sort of be critical and like, you know,
be careful about my spending because like some you know,
(07:44):
rare advantage gets, it can get really pricey, so I
have to be careful. I don't want to go into
dead because I'm buying fashion. But I don't have children,
so my advantage is this, like my kids, it's a
college fond. I'm going to the school of like intage fashion.
It's just fun to get to wear some of these pieces.
(08:05):
The music video that I just released, Summertime A Trip Opera,
it's all pieces from my personal vintage collection. There are
two pieces from Mouglayer that I wear in the video,
one from his nineteen ninety five twentieth anniversary collection, another
one from around nineteen ninety two. It was a best
of Mooglaire show and Lady Miss Kir wore this boostier.
(08:27):
I don't know if that boostie existed before that show,
but I do know that it was worn by Lady
Miss Kir. I have documentation. It's cool and it's also
fun when I love a piece and I don't know
what collection it's from, and so then I'm like researching,
you know, I'm on Pinterest, I'm on the internet, I'm
reading articles, I'm finding research or if people send me things,
(08:49):
and then I figure out what collection it's from. It's
like really exciting. I did a video for YouTube and
there was a particular jacket. I thought it was from
his Buick Winter Collection, which is a election that was
inspired by cars that mister Muglair did, and I thought,
because of the hardware is from that collection. And then
I was like just on YouTube looking at a show
and I was like, oh my god, that's my jacket,
(09:11):
you know. And That's happened a number of times. Like
it's one of those I'll list if I'm working and
I'm feeling really stressed, I'll like open Pinterest and start
looking at black ads from like the seventies or eighties,
muglaer ads from the seventies or eighties, and like I'll
see like a piece that I've owned for years and
I like didn't have documentation of it, but like I'll
(09:32):
see it in an ad. I'm like, oh my god, cool.
And those things are really cool for me. And there's
just it's interesting certain collections that I gravitate towards. I
was watching his Fall nineteen ninety three collection on YouTube
and I was like, oh my god, I have that jacket,
Oh my god, I have that dress, Oh my god,
I have this And there's so many pieces from that collection.
I think we're maybe there'll be a video where I
just do like I have a lot of pieces from
(09:54):
Fall nineteen ninety three. I have a lot of pieces
from Fall nineteen ninety eight. I actually have a number
of pizzas from his twentieth anniversary collection. I'm really interested
in seventies Mooglayer two. I found this this beautiful dress
that's like it's a La May dress. We're altering it
right now. It's almost done, and it's from his nineteen
seventy nine collection. It's his Brown label, and it's just
(10:18):
it's just so delicate, and it's so just to like
own pieces that are that old and that sort of
seminal in his development as a designer. And there's a
beautiful blazer that I found through this retailer on Etsy
of all places, and it's an impeccable condition. It's brown label,
(10:40):
so it was probably nineteen seventy eight, seventy nine. And
there are these this front seeming that appears a lot
in his nineteen eighty eight she Double collection. But like
he was experimenting with these structural elements in blazers in
the late seventies and really perfected them and took them
to the next level by the late eighties. And that's
(11:02):
something really exciting for me as just a student of
a Mouglaire and a fan and a collector to see
these early iterations of these design elements that would really
be realized and taken to the extreme later in these
really beautiful, amazing ways. So exciting, so exciting. This is
(11:28):
a good time to take a little break. Alrighty, we're back. Also,
the process of altering as well has been really interesting.
My tailor Morgan Foot, who I found through my stylist
(11:49):
Christina Bachell. She really created the monster. For years, I
was online and I didn't buy things because they wouldn't fit,
and Morgan was like, well, I have a client who
buys something in any side and this I also and
we make it fit. And I was like, really, we
can do that, that can be done. So then I
started like buying things and crazy sizes that didn't fit,
and then we have had to do major surgery on things,
(12:12):
and sometimes there's too much surgery that's required so they
just don't fall properly on my body after all the work.
So I'm making different decisions unless it's really rare and
like I probably will never see it again. There's a
rare suit from nineteen ninety four that I found for
so cheap on the real reel, and I was just
like I had to get it. And it's tiny, it's
(12:34):
like a thirty six, and Morgan's working on it now
and it is indeed major surgery, but it's like I'm upset.
I've been obsessed with this suit forever and now I
have it and we're working on it, and it just
makes me really excited and actually am. One of my
diaries earlier, I mentioned that I love seam ripping. So
(12:54):
so at one point Morgan gave me a seam ripper,
and like, I love seam ripping, and what it's been
so wonderful for me personally about seam ripping some of
the Mugler jackets. There's one specifically that it's the it's
the jacket that opens the twentieth anniversary collection fall in
nineteen ninety five that I wore to the opening of
(13:17):
the Mugliar retrospective Bibrooklyn Museum. And I saw that jacket
on Etsy from this Japanese retailer and it was like
equivalent to like a thirty six or even a thirty four,
tiny and it but I had never seen the jacket before.
I didn't think i'd ever see it again, and so,
and it was expensive, but I bought it, and I
was like, Morgan help. But before I gave it to Morgan,
(13:39):
I seam ripped it myself. And like sometimes I've gotten
better at seam ripping. At the beginning, I would open
the wrong seams or I would do I've gotten better
and then but the intricacies of that jacket blew me
away and scared me. When I opened it up. There
was just all these little pieces that moose to mug
(14:00):
Layer cut and put together to create the structure of
this jacket, and when you pull it apart and seam
rip it, it's like, oh my god, this is like
how do you even think to do this? You know,
It's like it's you really get into the genius of
the cut when you take it apart. And so, yeah,
(14:21):
it's been super super exciting fun stuff. Yeah. I like
sometimes them like La Burn, You're weird, but I'm not
judging it. But there's certain jackets I would never touch.
There's a jacket that was in my Muglayer video that
Kate Moss wore in the twentieth anniversary collect It's like
a gold silk jacket. The nature of the fabric was
so delicate. There was no way I was going to
(14:43):
sea rip that myself. There are certain pieces I absolutely
would never ever touch. That. Morgan absolutely has to be
the one to take it apart sometimes, you know, like
all short and sleeves on things, and so that's just
completely changing the design. But then a lot of what
we do when we alter, like we add hip pads
or we exaggerate the shape to try to sort of
(15:07):
you know, get what I dear friend of mine worked
on the retrospective that of mister Muglair's worked that was
at the Brooklyn Museum. They stuffed paper apparently in some
of the blazers to you know, exaggerate the hips or
exaggerate their shoulders. Now, all those beautiful shapes that mister
Muglair did, and so when you buy the pieces, they
(15:27):
might not have that same shape. A lot of them do.
A lot of them are constructed in such a way
where they're just the peplum stands out in just this incredible,
awesome way. But then we'll add little things to like
really honor the shape that you see on the runway
for the piece, and then honor my body. Like I
have a long torso and I'm really tall, so most
(15:48):
of the waist of Muglair jackets don't hit my waist.
They're a little bit higher, so we have to adjust
for that. So making things fit for your body is
I think so important trying to especially if you alter
things that are like sort of historic pieces, you want
to be true to them and not alter them too
much because because there's resale value and stuff that I
(16:09):
do think about, you know, I'm like if I sell this,
then it's been altered too much, you know, it changes
the value of it. They have, I guess, become investments.
The mini pieces that I started collecting before mister Muglair
passed away, I got for so cheap, and I'm seeing
them on the secondary market for like three or four
times what I paid for them. And I've had such
(16:29):
a good time on the internet lately trying to negotiate
prices down. I just negotiated this beautiful suit from the
Buick Winder collection, one of my favorite collections, Fall nineteen
eighty nine. It was okay, well, it was listed for
like four two hundred, and I like put in a
(16:52):
bid for like, I like made an offer of like
one thousand dollars and then they counter it with like
they countered it too, when I was like, oh my god,
that's wow. I didn't expect that. And then I counted
at fifteen hundred and then it took them a while
to reply, and I was like, oh, they're insulted. They
accepted it. They accepted it, girl, I'm like, oh my god,
it work. So I love finding a really good deal,
(17:17):
and like, I've found pieces that I think are insane
and incredible for like dirt Sheep from like collections that
I think are seminal, and then there's some pieces that
are clearly iconic that have been and exhibits that are
just going to be more expensive. And yeah, So I'm
at this point because I have so much muglair, I'm
(17:39):
trying to be very curated in my purchases and very
like is this iconic? Have I wanted this for a
realson on time. There's a suit that's coming today from
his nineteen Fall in nineteen ninety one. Excuse me Fall
nineteen ninety collection. It's like cabaret collection, and it's a
piece that I never thought I would own. I literally
(18:00):
saw it online the other day and I was just like,
what the f And it was like really reasonably priced,
and I obviously snapped it up. It's a forty two
in mooglair, So we'll see it's coming today, we'll see
if it fits. Hopefully we don't have to do too
much surgery. Forty and forty two, Like it's close. So
(18:20):
that was like a steal. That was one of those
moments of like, holy crap, this is iconic and I
own it. I have a number of pieces like that
of Mouglairs now that feel iconic to me personally. I
don't know if anyone else would feel that way. And
it's really about what brings you joy when it comes
to collecting, to vintage, like whatever it is you may collect,
(18:43):
it's like, does it put a smile on my face?
And these pieces, you know, I'll just like hang them
up and look at them, you know, put them on
a dress form and just look at them, or put
them on and just twirl around my apartment and play
dress up for myself. At the end of the day,
I'm buying these pieces so I can wear them, and
it's just like, ah, it's just really awesome that, like
(19:07):
I get to own some of these pieces that I've
been obsessed with for thirty years and now I they're
in my closet or they're in storage. A lot of
them are in storage. So yeah, that stuff brings me joy.
The research brings me joy. The old fashioned shows that
are so theatrical bring me joy. And just feeling like
(19:28):
a part of that in that particular time period in fashion,
something that feels historic. The fact that there are pieces
I have pieces from like the late seventies that are
in pristine condition that were so well made that obviously
the people who own them took really good care of them,
but like they're constructed in such a way that they've
(19:49):
just you know that they're timeless. Some pieces are probably
arguably dated, and I don't care because I love them.
There's some pieces from His Fall, these quilted jackets that
my brother thinks are so dated, and I don't care.
I just think they're fucking fabulous. So it's just, you know,
it's wearable art, it's art history, it's fashion history, and
(20:11):
it's just beautiful things to have in my life. So yeah,
if you can surround yourself with beauty in your life,
I think that is an incredible thing to do for yourself.
And you know, it doesn't have to be expensive. It
just something that like puts a smile on your face
that you can look at every day. That's really what
it's all about. So what else is true for me
(20:32):
today in the realm of art meeting fashion. What else
is true is that I just feel like so empowered.
I've grown so much in terms of my fashion. But
I think, like what it's been so beautiful about collecting
vintage and really like building out a collection. Is that,
(20:52):
like my own sense of style has like evolved in
a way where I just feel like more myself in
terms of what I wear and what I choose to wear.
Particularly when I style myself like I'm like, this is
just me. And so it's just really exciting to be
evolving at this stage of life, you know, having a
(21:13):
point of view that's like grounded in like history and
where fashion meets art feels so me feels so authentic. Yeah,
And in the spirit of Andrelian Talley, he began his
career working for Deanna Rieland at the Metropolitan Museum of
(21:34):
Art putting together fashion exhibits, and he ended his career
doing fashion exhibits of various kinds in Dallas and it
span a College of Art and Design, et cetera. And
so there is something so exciting to me about seeing
fashion in the context of a museum and what makes
(21:54):
it art? You know, is there something this is something
about the structure it, There's something about the materiality. It's
something about the cut what elevates it to that space
of like wearable art. That's a great topic for conversation.
What do you think? Let me know, thank you so
much for listening to The Laverne Cox Show. Please like, subscribe,
(22:18):
and tell everybody you know about our little podcast. You
can find me on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter slash x
at Laverne Cox and you can find me on Facebook
at Laverne Cox for Real. Until next time, stay in
the love. I could have kept going. I could have
(22:46):
kept going. The Laverne Cox Show is a production of
Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from
Shondaland Audio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to The Laverne Cox Show, a production of Shondaland
Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. Welcome to the Laverne Cox Show.
My name is Laverne Cox. I started thrift store shopping
(00:21):
when I was in middle school. I remember I used
to wear lab coats. It girl. I mean, it was
probably a mess, but it was a way to express
myself creatively. And drifting in vintage shopping was something I
did through high school, college and after college because it
was affordable. And then when I got the job of
(00:45):
being Red Carpet host for E in twenty twenty one,
I was like, oh, I have to step up my
fashion pussy to paraphrase Ts Madison and also Nicki Minaj
had to step my pussy up. And I did that
in relationship to my stylist and we were like trying
to really like just up the anti in terms of fashion.
But also in twenty nineteen, well before I was a
(01:08):
Red Carpet host, I started collecting vintage Terry Muglayer. So
obsessed with Mouglayer since I saw the Two Funky video
in nineteen ninety two. If you don't know the Two
Funky video, go to YouTube and watch it, but manfree.
Terry Muglayer, the late Terry Muglair, who passed away just
a few years ago, directed that video as the George
Michael song, and all the fashions in the video are
(01:31):
Mooglayer and the Cowboy looked that Connie Fleming Waars is
from Spring nineteen ninety two a late Cowboy. Anyway, when
I became Red Carpet host, my collecting like went kind
of went through the roof. I started like collecting more
and shopping more. I guess since I've been a public figure,
(01:52):
a lot of like what I've worn, I've gone through
my stylists, like for Red Carpets, for interviews and stuff,
and I've shopped for but not a lot. So since
twenty twenty one, I've been really interested in like expanding
my own personal wardrobe and having that, like, I guess,
figuring out at this stage of my life, what my
(02:15):
fashion vision is separate from my incredible stylist right, and
so much of that has been about delving into the
archives of Terry Muglaire, the archives of Jean Galliano, his
own line and as well as what he did for
Door and for Juvon She Alexander McQueen what he did
(02:35):
during his lifetime, and some of the pieces that in
collections that Sarah Burden has done since the queen has
passed away, come to Garson and is Simiaki. Those are
the main designers I've been kind of interested in over
the past several years, and I think what many of
them have in common is all of them have avant
(02:56):
garde tendencies. Not all of their work is avant garde,
but there are moments of sort of being avant garde
that I think Gaulliano and McQueen certainly have that Mouglair
certainly has, and very clearly Issi Miaki and Comte de
Garcon are more sort of known for being a little
more avant garde. And the pieces I don't have a
lot of Miaki, but a lot of the Miyaki pieces
(03:17):
I do have are pieces that Grace Jones is worn.
I just bought a piece of auction from the late
nineties that Grace Jones wore, and there's a couple of
pieces that Grace wore back in the day. There's actually
I'm really excited about this Jean Paul Gautier sort of
pick that I found that I saw Grace wear in
(03:37):
a photo. Literally I have the whole look now, I
have this hooded isi miaki, you know, pleaded two piece,
and then I have the pick that Grace woar. So
maybe for Halloween I'll be Grace Jones again. I've done
Grace for Halloween before, living for that and come to Garson.
I love the come to Garson and Mouglaire. Those designers,
(04:00):
particularly the structural, the architectural aspects of the design really
excite me. I've always been into very structured clothes, and
part of the reason I love Muglair are the shapes
and the way that Muglayer's close sort of structure the
body right that there's sort of cinched waste Moveglayer is
known for. But like just the big broad shoulders or
(04:25):
the big hips and just these beautiful structures and architectural
designs that just accentuate the body in this really beautiful way.
And some of the designs are very sort of hyper feminine.
It's really interesting reading reviews of Mooglair's work from the eighties.
He was controversial, the shows were controversial, the clothes were controversial.
(04:47):
I remember there was a critic who said, but I
don't think Muglair likes women very much. This is in
the eighties, late eighties, and you know, there's a very
kind of Muglair called this woman very empowered. The Muglair woman,
in his eyes, was a very empowered woman. But he
was incorporating things like latex and a lot of course
its and the high heels. You know, the Muglair's woman
(05:09):
is very sexy, and a lot of people found this
offensive at the time or not sort of as high
fashion as they would have liked it to be. But
I mean his suits. I mean I came to Muglair
sort of really through the two Funky video, but my
obsession with him really happened with a structured suit. I
love and I'm obsessed with the way Manfrey Terry Muglair
(05:31):
cut a suit. I have so many blazers from Muglare
that are just that I'm obsessed with, Like the workmanship
and the seeming and just the way he constructs a
jacket is just so utterly and completely exciting to me.
(05:52):
It's like I don't collect art, but I collect vintage clothes,
and there's something about vintage too, and like certain time periods,
and there was something so exciting about Galliano in the
nineties and or in the two thousands as well. What
Gallianna did for Duore in the two thousands was just
so groundbreaking and exciting, and I'm obsessed. But I'm also
(06:15):
really obsessed with nineteen nineties Galliano as well. I own
now a number of pieces of Galliano's from the late nineties.
I have a few pieces from he was at Givonci
for a year, and I have a couple of blazers
from that collection that he did two collections for Gievonci
before he was moved over to Dire And so it
(06:35):
just feels lovely to have these pieces that feel kind
of historic and part of fashion history and art history
where sort of art and fashion meet. I find also
really exciting, and I think all of these designers sort
of encompass and encapsulate like the spaces where art and
fashion meet. If you look at these beautiful pieces by
Comte de Garson that are just full on art, and
(07:00):
it's wearable art though it's art that you can sort of,
you know, put on your back. I have this beautiful
dress from Comor Garson's Blood and Roses collection from I
think it's twenty thirteen beautiful red dress. And this the
structure of it and how it's able to sit on
the body and away from the body, and the asymmetry
(07:21):
of it is just so dope and it's so cool,
and it's just like it's just the way it's able
to like sort of exist in the world. Like it's
just so exciting. It's so exciting to me. And it's
been one of these things where I like have to,
you know, sort of be critical and like, you know,
be careful about my spending because like some you know,
(07:44):
rare advantage gets, it can get really pricey, so I
have to be careful. I don't want to go into
dead because I'm buying fashion. But I don't have children,
so my advantage is this, like my kids, it's a
college fond. I'm going to the school of like intage fashion.
It's just fun to get to wear some of these pieces.
(08:05):
The music video that I just released, Summertime A Trip Opera,
it's all pieces from my personal vintage collection. There are
two pieces from Mouglayer that I wear in the video,
one from his nineteen ninety five twentieth anniversary collection, another
one from around nineteen ninety two. It was a best
of Mooglaire show and Lady Miss Kir wore this boostier.
(08:27):
I don't know if that boostie existed before that show,
but I do know that it was worn by Lady
Miss Kir. I have documentation. It's cool and it's also
fun when I love a piece and I don't know
what collection it's from, and so then I'm like researching,
you know, I'm on Pinterest, I'm on the internet, I'm
reading articles, I'm finding research or if people send me things,
(08:49):
and then I figure out what collection it's from. It's
like really exciting. I did a video for YouTube and
there was a particular jacket. I thought it was from
his Buick Winter Collection, which is a election that was
inspired by cars that mister Muglair did, and I thought,
because of the hardware is from that collection. And then
I was like just on YouTube looking at a show
and I was like, oh my god, that's my jacket,
(09:11):
you know. And That's happened a number of times. Like
it's one of those I'll list if I'm working and
I'm feeling really stressed, I'll like open Pinterest and start
looking at black ads from like the seventies or eighties,
muglaer ads from the seventies or eighties, and like I'll
see like a piece that I've owned for years and
I like didn't have documentation of it, but like I'll
(09:32):
see it in an ad. I'm like, oh my god, cool.
And those things are really cool for me. And there's
just it's interesting certain collections that I gravitate towards. I
was watching his Fall nineteen ninety three collection on YouTube
and I was like, oh my god, I have that jacket,
Oh my god, I have that dress, Oh my god,
I have this And there's so many pieces from that collection.
I think we're maybe there'll be a video where I
just do like I have a lot of pieces from
(09:54):
Fall nineteen ninety three. I have a lot of pieces
from Fall nineteen ninety eight. I actually have a number
of pizzas from his twentieth anniversary collection. I'm really interested
in seventies Mooglayer two. I found this this beautiful dress
that's like it's a La May dress. We're altering it
right now. It's almost done, and it's from his nineteen
seventy nine collection. It's his Brown label, and it's just
(10:18):
it's just so delicate, and it's so just to like
own pieces that are that old and that sort of
seminal in his development as a designer. And there's a
beautiful blazer that I found through this retailer on Etsy
of all places, and it's an impeccable condition. It's brown label,
(10:40):
so it was probably nineteen seventy eight, seventy nine. And
there are these this front seeming that appears a lot
in his nineteen eighty eight she Double collection. But like
he was experimenting with these structural elements in blazers in
the late seventies and really perfected them and took them
to the next level by the late eighties. And that's
(11:02):
something really exciting for me as just a student of
a Mouglaire and a fan and a collector to see
these early iterations of these design elements that would really
be realized and taken to the extreme later in these
really beautiful, amazing ways. So exciting, so exciting. This is
(11:28):
a good time to take a little break. Alrighty, we're back. Also,
the process of altering as well has been really interesting.
My tailor Morgan Foot, who I found through my stylist
(11:49):
Christina Bachell. She really created the monster. For years, I
was online and I didn't buy things because they wouldn't fit,
and Morgan was like, well, I have a client who
buys something in any side and this I also and
we make it fit. And I was like, really, we
can do that, that can be done. So then I
started like buying things and crazy sizes that didn't fit,
and then we have had to do major surgery on things,
(12:12):
and sometimes there's too much surgery that's required so they
just don't fall properly on my body after all the work.
So I'm making different decisions unless it's really rare and
like I probably will never see it again. There's a
rare suit from nineteen ninety four that I found for
so cheap on the real reel, and I was just
like I had to get it. And it's tiny, it's
(12:34):
like a thirty six, and Morgan's working on it now
and it is indeed major surgery, but it's like I'm upset.
I've been obsessed with this suit forever and now I
have it and we're working on it, and it just
makes me really excited and actually am. One of my
diaries earlier, I mentioned that I love seam ripping. So
(12:54):
so at one point Morgan gave me a seam ripper,
and like, I love seam ripping, and what it's been
so wonderful for me personally about seam ripping some of
the Mugler jackets. There's one specifically that it's the it's
the jacket that opens the twentieth anniversary collection fall in
nineteen ninety five that I wore to the opening of
(13:17):
the Mugliar retrospective Bibrooklyn Museum. And I saw that jacket
on Etsy from this Japanese retailer and it was like
equivalent to like a thirty six or even a thirty four,
tiny and it but I had never seen the jacket before.
I didn't think i'd ever see it again, and so,
and it was expensive, but I bought it, and I
was like, Morgan help. But before I gave it to Morgan,
(13:39):
I seam ripped it myself. And like sometimes I've gotten
better at seam ripping. At the beginning, I would open
the wrong seams or I would do I've gotten better
and then but the intricacies of that jacket blew me
away and scared me. When I opened it up. There
was just all these little pieces that moose to mug
(14:00):
Layer cut and put together to create the structure of
this jacket, and when you pull it apart and seam
rip it, it's like, oh my god, this is like
how do you even think to do this? You know,
It's like it's you really get into the genius of
the cut when you take it apart. And so, yeah,
(14:21):
it's been super super exciting fun stuff. Yeah. I like
sometimes them like La Burn, You're weird, but I'm not
judging it. But there's certain jackets I would never touch.
There's a jacket that was in my Muglayer video that
Kate Moss wore in the twentieth anniversary collect It's like
a gold silk jacket. The nature of the fabric was
so delicate. There was no way I was going to
(14:43):
sea rip that myself. There are certain pieces I absolutely
would never ever touch. That. Morgan absolutely has to be
the one to take it apart sometimes, you know, like
all short and sleeves on things, and so that's just
completely changing the design. But then a lot of what
we do when we alter, like we add hip pads
or we exaggerate the shape to try to sort of
(15:07):
you know, get what I dear friend of mine worked
on the retrospective that of mister Muglair's worked that was
at the Brooklyn Museum. They stuffed paper apparently in some
of the blazers to you know, exaggerate the hips or
exaggerate their shoulders. Now, all those beautiful shapes that mister
Muglair did, and so when you buy the pieces, they
(15:27):
might not have that same shape. A lot of them do.
A lot of them are constructed in such a way
where they're just the peplum stands out in just this incredible,
awesome way. But then we'll add little things to like
really honor the shape that you see on the runway
for the piece, and then honor my body. Like I
have a long torso and I'm really tall, so most
(15:48):
of the waist of Muglair jackets don't hit my waist.
They're a little bit higher, so we have to adjust
for that. So making things fit for your body is
I think so important trying to especially if you alter
things that are like sort of historic pieces, you want
to be true to them and not alter them too
much because because there's resale value and stuff that I
(16:09):
do think about, you know, I'm like if I sell this,
then it's been altered too much, you know, it changes
the value of it. They have, I guess, become investments.
The mini pieces that I started collecting before mister Muglair
passed away, I got for so cheap, and I'm seeing
them on the secondary market for like three or four
times what I paid for them. And I've had such
(16:29):
a good time on the internet lately trying to negotiate
prices down. I just negotiated this beautiful suit from the
Buick Winder collection, one of my favorite collections, Fall nineteen
eighty nine. It was okay, well, it was listed for
like four two hundred, and I like put in a
(16:52):
bid for like, I like made an offer of like
one thousand dollars and then they counter it with like
they countered it too, when I was like, oh my god,
that's wow. I didn't expect that. And then I counted
at fifteen hundred and then it took them a while
to reply, and I was like, oh, they're insulted. They
accepted it. They accepted it, girl, I'm like, oh my god,
it work. So I love finding a really good deal,
(17:17):
and like, I've found pieces that I think are insane
and incredible for like dirt Sheep from like collections that
I think are seminal, and then there's some pieces that
are clearly iconic that have been and exhibits that are
just going to be more expensive. And yeah, So I'm
at this point because I have so much muglair, I'm
(17:39):
trying to be very curated in my purchases and very
like is this iconic? Have I wanted this for a
realson on time. There's a suit that's coming today from
his nineteen Fall in nineteen ninety one. Excuse me Fall
nineteen ninety collection. It's like cabaret collection, and it's a
piece that I never thought I would own. I literally
(18:00):
saw it online the other day and I was just like,
what the f And it was like really reasonably priced,
and I obviously snapped it up. It's a forty two
in mooglair, So we'll see it's coming today, we'll see
if it fits. Hopefully we don't have to do too
much surgery. Forty and forty two, Like it's close. So
(18:20):
that was like a steal. That was one of those
moments of like, holy crap, this is iconic and I
own it. I have a number of pieces like that
of Mouglairs now that feel iconic to me personally. I
don't know if anyone else would feel that way. And
it's really about what brings you joy when it comes
to collecting, to vintage, like whatever it is you may collect,
(18:43):
it's like, does it put a smile on my face?
And these pieces, you know, I'll just like hang them
up and look at them, you know, put them on
a dress form and just look at them, or put
them on and just twirl around my apartment and play
dress up for myself. At the end of the day,
I'm buying these pieces so I can wear them, and
it's just like, ah, it's just really awesome that, like
(19:07):
I get to own some of these pieces that I've
been obsessed with for thirty years and now I they're
in my closet or they're in storage. A lot of
them are in storage. So yeah, that stuff brings me joy.
The research brings me joy. The old fashioned shows that
are so theatrical bring me joy. And just feeling like
(19:28):
a part of that in that particular time period in fashion,
something that feels historic. The fact that there are pieces
I have pieces from like the late seventies that are
in pristine condition that were so well made that obviously
the people who own them took really good care of them,
but like they're constructed in such a way that they've
(19:49):
just you know that they're timeless. Some pieces are probably
arguably dated, and I don't care because I love them.
There's some pieces from His Fall, these quilted jackets that
my brother thinks are so dated, and I don't care.
I just think they're fucking fabulous. So it's just, you know,
it's wearable art, it's art history, it's fashion history, and
(20:11):
it's just beautiful things to have in my life. So yeah,
if you can surround yourself with beauty in your life,
I think that is an incredible thing to do for yourself.
And you know, it doesn't have to be expensive. It
just something that like puts a smile on your face
that you can look at every day. That's really what
it's all about. So what else is true for me
(20:32):
today in the realm of art meeting fashion. What else
is true is that I just feel like so empowered.
I've grown so much in terms of my fashion. But
I think, like what it's been so beautiful about collecting
vintage and really like building out a collection. Is that,
(20:52):
like my own sense of style has like evolved in
a way where I just feel like more myself in
terms of what I wear and what I choose to wear.
Particularly when I style myself like I'm like, this is
just me. And so it's just really exciting to be
evolving at this stage of life, you know, having a
(21:13):
point of view that's like grounded in like history and
where fashion meets art feels so me feels so authentic. Yeah,
And in the spirit of Andrelian Talley, he began his
career working for Deanna Rieland at the Metropolitan Museum of
(21:34):
Art putting together fashion exhibits, and he ended his career
doing fashion exhibits of various kinds in Dallas and it
span a College of Art and Design, et cetera. And
so there is something so exciting to me about seeing
fashion in the context of a museum and what makes
(21:54):
it art? You know, is there something this is something
about the structure it, There's something about the materiality. It's
something about the cut what elevates it to that space
of like wearable art. That's a great topic for conversation.
What do you think? Let me know, thank you so
much for listening to The Laverne Cox Show. Please like, subscribe,
(22:18):
and tell everybody you know about our little podcast. You
can find me on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter slash x
at Laverne Cox and you can find me on Facebook
at Laverne Cox for Real. Until next time, stay in
the love. I could have kept going. I could have
(22:46):
kept going. The Laverne Cox Show is a production of
Shondaland Audio in partnership with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from
Shondaland Audio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Host
Laverne Cox
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