Hats off to Isaac Mizrahi for his candid, highly personal memoir. Mizrahi is a true Renaissance Man – fashion designer, cabaret performer, talk show host, QVC presenter, director and writer, who, from childhood, worked hard to develop his talents and has succeeded across the board.
It wasn't easy for Mizrahi to grow up in the conservative, insular community of Syrian Jews in Brooklyn. He broke every norm as an artistic homosexual in an environment that was highly critical of anyone who challenged the status quo. Having lived in Brooklyn for a number of years just blocks from the Yeshivah of Flatbush, the religious day school he attended as a child, and being a mainly non-religious cultural Jew myself, I can only imagine how difficult it must have been for him from the late '60s into the '70s and beyond.
It is easy to forget just how different things were for the Gay community back in the late '80s when Mizrahi was a young man, where even in New York, rampant, systemic homophobia was everywhere. I worked in the fashion world too, and counted many Gay men among my friends, acquaintances and colleagues, and the horror that was AIDS decimated and changed that world drastically. It is sad to remember the deterioration and deaths of my neighbor just down the hall from my Manhattan apartment, then a co-worker and friend's lover, and every day the sight of so many young men who were once healthy and vibrant barely able to cross a street, and the constant obituary notices in the New York Times of both the famous and unknown (except to their partners, families and friends).
Despite that backdrop, Mizrahi has had a spectacular career, with great successes as a designer and in the theater arts. He tells all, or at least quite a lot, in this recent memoir. Listening to him read his book is both fascinating and excruciating.
It is fascinating and exhilarating to hear of his development of his many gifts from childhood onward, and his relationships and friendships with his clients and friends, who have been legion. He has known, worked for or made clothes for nearly every big name in the worlds of fashion (Perry Ellis, Halston, Richard Avedon, Anna Wintour...), entertainment (Liza Minelli, Barbra Streisand, Sandra Bernhard, Sarah Jessica Parker...), literature, dance, art and design (Mikhail Baryshnikov, Maira and Tibor Kalman). There are so many amazing anecdotes about the famous names in this book that should be for the reader/listener to discover for themselves.
The excruciating yet also enthralling part is his recitation of his painful childhood and family relationships, his struggles with depression, weight and insomnia, and his disappointments in his work, friendships and intimate relationships. It is impossible not to feel for him, especially listening to his story in his own voice. He has experienced more highs and lows than most of us would ever be willing to reveal.
For anyone with any interest in fashion, theater arts, New York life from the 60s onward, especially as seen through the eyes of a true insider, this memoir will keep you listening, or turning the pages, to learn more or perhaps to remind you of your own triumphs and struggles, whatever they may be.
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