Fashion Icon Isaac Mizrahi Is Selling His Archive

Officially, it's the archive sale. So does it literally mean you're selling everything from the archive?

I'm selling most, I have to say. There's a collection that we edited, which you saw at the Jewish Museum, and that's sort of pristine. That's going to stay with us. As I go through this crazy archive, there are pieces that I am swiping a little bit here and there, even things I decided to sell. There was a twin set made in feathers in white, like a very lightweight down coat in 1994. A sleeveless top and a matching skirt. It's very pre-Moncler. I thought, I just can't. I was gonna sell it, I had it in the room. There was a red jacket that I sold and I just couldn't sell the white one. So I kept the three pieces.

I hear you. There's that famous story about Debbie Reynolds. She had collected all her Hollywood memorabilia and wanted to open a museum, and after it didn't work out, she did a big sale of it all. They were at the auction, and she was with Carrie Fisher, and she walked in the back and pulled aside outfits from every member of the Rat Pack. She said, “I can't sell them. I can't.” Are you a saver, in general, or do you like to get rid of everything? Generally speaking, I am such a hoarder.

Me too, unbelievable. I have to tell you, I was thinking about that this morning before we spoke, like I have a PAPER archive. I just kept every last scrap of PAPER that was sent to me, every last button. I saved every fucking invitation to every Susanne Bartsch party. I probably have the first issue of PAPER somewhere.

I don't regret any of the stuff I've kept. It's the stuff that I've gotten rid of that I cry over.

I have to tell you about this archive. They were closing the storage facility somewhere. I swear to you, I didn't even know it was there. Even doing the collection for the museum, someone went there mysteriously and brought back stuff that I wanted. So they said, “Do you want to come and get this? Or we're just going to pack up a truck.” So Marla, who I work with, went to look at it and she was like, “You can't get rid of it.” She showed me a few pictures. And there was a giant semi that came and brought it to my storage space in Hoboken. Then I had a talk with Maira Kalman. She's my bestie, she lives downstairs and we have coffee some mornings. She was like, “Sell it,” and I was like, “Really?” She's an artist. Artists make work and they sell it, right?

There are so many pieces that are just pants and shirts, but there are 3,000 really amazing pieces. I love doing it this way, because it's almost like I'm taking each piece and each one of them is being looked at, examined. This is damaged or maybe we could sew this bead back. Can you look for a bead this color? It's very gratifying. Then to think that Zendaya has 15 pieces and Veronica Webb now is going to have pieces, right? I considered not selling my favorite coat in the world until this friend of mine, Caroline, came in and bought it. It was like, If I know Caroline has that coat, I will be very happy. Some collectors are buying. I gave a few things to [couture collector] Sandy Schreier. I'll probably give a few pieces to The Met if they'll take them. I like this idea of placing them before I die.

We spend our whole lives amassing these collections. I have hundreds of royalty commemorative dishes from the 1870s to the 1920s and beyond, and I don't even ever want money for them. I just want someone who appreciates them to have them after I’m gone. It's like that old movie, All Mine to Give, with Glynis Johns. Glynis lives in pioneer times and has cancer, and she has to give away all her children. You just want them to find a good home.

With your vintage archive, you look back to the ’90s shows, with moments like Linda Evangelista walking to the end of the runway, taking the jacket off, turning it upside down and putting it back on. That can't just be sold on eBay. That's an important moment in fashion that needs to be owned by somebody who appreciates it. Have there been any collections that you forgot about, or that you rediscovered in a way?

Of course, there are so many. There's one that I did in the early 2000s, which was poodles and cakes. Everything was made to either look like a cake or a poodle, and I had poodles that were dyed to match the actual dresses. I also made dresses that were dyed to match poodles. So there were a lot of gorgeous, cocoa-colored dresses and gray dresses that were made to match poodles. I remember, when I had that show in 2007 it trended on Twitter, and people were really mad at me for dying poodles, except they had to understand that they were all dyed with vegetable dyes by people who actually love poodles. So it was this hilarious moment, but there are some incredible pieces from that collection.

Is this experience reaffirming your belief that you should save the things that you've saved?

I was talking to my husband last night about sustainable fashion. And we were like, “Can you please tell me what sustainable fashion is?” I think sustainable fashion is very expensive clothing that you just can't bring yourself to throw away, and that continues to look incredible and beautiful for the ages. That, to me, is sustainable fashion. And try to make it all in natural fibers that will maybe disintegrate and not be part of a giant garbage island in the Pacific at some point.

You mentioned Zendaya having 15 pieces. Sally Singer, Lynn Yeager, Chloë Sevigny and some other friends and I do something called Sale of the Century, where we clean our closets and sell things. And the first time we did it, I was thinking, Chloe is a legend to me and such an icon of style. But I thought, I don't know if the 20-year-olds know how legendary she is. Well, the 20-year-olds lined up around the block and loved the whole thing. I was so impressed to see how all of them wanted to hear the provenance of the pieces they were interested in. They were like, “Where did you get this? Where did you wear it? What's the story behind it?”

I just launched the website for the archive sale and I shot a few videos about each piece. I'm going to be doing that a lot. But I will tell you I do have the most divine dress that Chloë Sevigny wore that is going to be for sale at some point. It's a one-shoulder dress she wore on a red carpet and it's divine. She wore it in 2004. I just want to tell you the most miraculous thing that happened. You know, Amy Sherman-Palladino?

Oh, absolutely. She has some new show, Étoile, coming out. Worship her.

I was having lunch with her a little before the sale dropped. She was like, “Coach, send me in.” Those were her words. She got like 10 things and I couldn't believe they fit her. That's the miracle, things fit people. That's what I can't believe. You know the other Amy, Amy Fine Collins? By the way, if your name is Amy, you have to have three names. Amy Fine Collins came and got a number of pieces. She looked amazing in these, in a modern, kind of updated context. And that's what I'm talking about. Amy Sherman-Palladino is not nearly as tall as some of the people's clothes that she bought, like Gisele Bünchen, and she fit in the fucking clothes.

It's a miracle from the baby Jesus. It's just meant to be.

I think so too. And it's kind of nice to know that Amy Sherman-Palladino now owns a bunch of your clothes.

It'll be interesting to see how she styles them. I know she loves to wear a top hat with a ball gown.

I remember Azzedine (Alaïa) saying this to me, right? He said, “Darling, if she buys it, it doesn't matter if she wears a flower pot on her head. Be thankful that you sold something.” And I was like, “Yeah, thank you.”

The website is live, right?

The website has gone live and each month is a new drop. So there will probably be a new shipment in a week. Also, there's an Instagram page that just went live that now has five or six posts, including one of me talking about this leather paillette thing.

Fabulous, I love it

It's very difficult to go, “Hey everybody, I made this up,” so don't get in my face about it. Leather paillettes never existed before me. It's called inventing.

Your clothes are so fun, fresh and modern, but also such classic American sportswear.

By the way, you know, I sampled from Geoffrey Beene. I sampled from Calvin. I'm not a symphony unto myself.

James Aguiar has been going on camera for you for your QVC collection? What's going on with that? Are you still going on too?

Yes, of course. I'm actually on my way there tonight for a Today's Special Value. Little crop pants with 24/7 stretch, for, I think $39.

Amazing.

Darling, get ready to buy some pants.

Darling, get ready to buy some pants.

Photos courtesy of Isaac Mizrahi