Being daring with clothing is really a bit of thrill seeking. There's that slight element of fear—that when I know I'm wearing something daring, it's a bit of a tightrope walk between something that is either fashion fabulous or a true fashion faux pas.
I avoid making "looking pretty", in a typical sense, one of the first things I think about in regards to how I present myself. A lot of women make that a priority. Sometimes I want it to be playful, sometimes I want it to be sculptural. I am willing to try on different personas. The biggest things to keep in mind when attempting to be more daring: own it, have fun, and remember it is just an outfit and one moment in time.
SPECIAL EVENT
I happened to receive a last-minute invite to the 2006 Met Gala when the theme was Anglomania. At this event you have women wearing the best of the best: couture and amazing designer clothes. But I take those moments to hand-make something and do something crazy with my hair. Now this is daring, because it's a very public moment— but it's those moments when I want to take those fashion risks, because I feel like, if not now, then when? In order to earn our stripes in fashion, you have to have some fun. You have to shake your habits a bit.
I had made a huge ball gown skirt out of a union jack with silk taffeta patchwork, with all the seams on the outside. Then I gathered it up and took all these safety pins and pinched it here and there, I had embroidered letters all through the main graphic of the flag that said: "God Save the Queen". Since I have this clean bob, and everybody knows me with this sharp hair, a girl I work with helped me coif a mohawk bouffant.
In 2013 I attended the Met Gala again for the Punk: Chaos to Couture theme. I went to the East Village and I worked with a woman, who was a dominatrix, in a latex shop called DeMask, and we worked on my dress together. It was a little bit like Mrs Scissorhands; it had a dripping cross made of chains and pearls that one of the artists in the display department at Bergdorfs helped with. I finished it off with another one of my kooky bouffants and I had barbed wire in my hair.
The most interesting thing, the night I wore the Anglomania outfit I had a whole different cast of characters that followed me around all night. Jonny Rotten kept trying to get my attention. The year I did the punk look, Miley Cyrus kept asking me if I wanted to come have a cigarette with her—you have this different persona, you're attracting different people.
ON A DATE
I don't know about other women but I definitely ponder, Okay this is kind of a first date, they're picking me up at my apartment, what should I be wearing when I open the door?
You have to think about the context, is this Sunday afternoon? Is this Thursday evening? Each one of those have a different vibe to it. When I had a first date with someone I ended up dating for a couple years and I went through that process of what I should wear when I open the door— I definitely will admit it, I wanted to wear something kind of sexy. But I didn't want to be overt about it, so I had an Audrey Hepburn-esque little black dress, really clean, it happened to have no back on it but the front looked very normal. At the last second, before we went out, I threw on this beautiful chantilly lace, half mask, with rabbit ears by Maison Michele. It's kind of like a veiled mask. His reaction was important to me because if he was like, "That's really weird," I would have been like, "You know what, this isn't going to work," because I like to have fun with my clothes. Sometimes you're going to pick me up and I'm going to be going for it. So it's a little bit of a test.
AT THE OFFICE
I think you'd rather be recognized for your work than for what you're going to wear. I don't think it's right to have people go, What she going to walk in wearing today? It's not the best place to spread your daring wings but if you work in the creative field or in the fashion field, if you work for the theater, or even marketing and advertising, you should push it a little bit—but daring might be a little too far. You need to look interesting and you always have to look in the game, which for some people it comes easy, but for me, it takes some effort. During a normal workweek my effort is really going into the work. I don't want to sit and spend too much time thinking, What am I wearing today?
JOB INTERVIEW
Proceed at your own risk when it comes to an interview. That could be either a fashion fab or a faux pas. The interviewer conceivably could get really turned off and think, This person is a bit of a showboater. I'd prefer someone just look really good, really cool and I like a person who has a sense of appropriateness because that is so important for anybody to have. If we were doing a go-see for acting and I was trying out for a role, that's fine. But not when were trying out for the role of working in the fashion office. I just find it a little bit inappropriate.
