Isaac Mizrahi Friday November 12th Joe’s Pub Written by Wendy R. Williams Photographed by Evan Sung
	Isaac Mizrahi

One of the best things about writing reviews for New York Cool is the opportunity to write about your icons. I have always been a big fan of Isaac Mizrahi - one of the big I's on my Icon shelf. I like his clothes, his movie (Unzipped) and his one man show (Les Mizrahi). I also love the fact that he is designing for Target and something may finally be done about the way people look at the mall in Mesquite, Texas. So I was psyched to go see Isaac at Joe's Pub.

And I was not disappointed. Isaac puts on a great show; he has an easy/sassy way of interacting with the audience (Veronica Webb was there the same night we were) and he has superb comic timing. He can also sing. Here are some examples of his repertoire: I Believe in You, I Fall in Love Too Easily, I Left My Heart in Haiti plus lots of Cole Porter. The band (Ben Waltzer and his quintet) did a great job of backing him up. This show was DeLovely.

Joe’s Pub, a super cool looking supper club at the Public Theater (www.joespub.com), is a great venue for this kind of show. You can order dinner, snacks and drinks. Joe’s is a great date place or destination for a girls-night-out.

Isaac Mizrahi

Afterwards, we met Isaac and I asked him if I could email some questions to him. He said yes, so here they are, my questions and his responses:

Wendy: If you were to make over Dame Edna, where would you start?

Isaac: I would not make Dame Edna over, I would make everyone over to look like her.

Wendy: Now that you are designing for Target, can you do anything about the way people dress on airplanes?

Isaac: I thought about creating a kind of Airplane Suit. One that would just zip up the back and be no trouble to wear and just kind of neutralize everything. I adore when people look individual, I champion that, but something about being trapped on a plane makes what people wear offensive, no matter what they wear. This suit would be mandatory when you checked in for a flight, like showing your driver's license. You'd wear it and dispose of it at the end.

Wendy: How old were you when you first realized you were special? Did you just sit up in your crib one day and say, “Hey world, I’m here - so bring it on?”

Isaac: I was very young when I knew I was somehow different. For the first twelve years of my life I felt like an alien.

Wendy: Why is there not more tap dancing, especially since tap dancers always have the best costumes?

Isaac: I guess we got bored with tap dancing. It's a shame because there isn't a parallel today, like break dancers don't really care about costumes

Wendy: The late great Stephen Sprouse always said that design talent was talent for everything – film, clothing, photography, music etc. Now that you have so successfully worked in both design and performance, do you see yourself branching off into even more artistic areas?

Isaac: I don't agree with that, I feel people have talents in areas. I feel I'm a good designer and a good performer. I wouldn't make a great musician, though I think I can put a song over. I would like to branch out into different areas of fields I'm already in. I would like to design more furniture and house wares. I'm trying to set up my movie directorial debut.

Wendy: And last, would you answer the question Ali G so unsuccessfully asked the zoologist: “Why is all giraffes gay? Cuz they sure do look gay."

Isaac: It think all Giraffes is gay cuz they had overdressed mothers and indifferent fathers.