The Chosen Ones is a weekly column by author and comedian Periel Aschenbrand, who interviews Jews doing fabulous things.
Gaby Basora, the designer and owner of the NYC-based clothing line Tucker, recently showed up to the same party as I did. In addition to the usual accouterments one normally brings to a party—a bottle of wine, maybe, or perhaps dessert—Gaby brought a little extra. To this party, she brought a blonde wig in case her nine-year-old son got bored with her personality and wanted to switch it up a little bit.
Some people might ask: Who brings a blonde wig to a party? But I wanted to know: Who brings a nine-year-old to a party?
As it turns out, Basora always brings a little bit extra—that’s her style. A former costume designer whose clothing line has been around for 10 years, Basora looks like a French New Wave movie star from the 1960s. I know that’s redundant, but here’s the thing: 1) She looks French, 2) She looks like a movie star, and 3) She looks like she’s from the ’60s. Given that she’s a fashion designer, all of this, again, makes perfect sense.
What makes no sense at all is how she’s also so Jewish.
Periel Aschenbrand: Are you French, Gaby?
Gaby Basora: I took the kids to shul years ago. My littlest one must have been four at the time and he said to me, “Mom, are we Jewish?” And I said, “Yes.” He said, “Jewish, Jewish, Jewish. Sounds Irish.” Then he looked around, and then back at me, and said, “If we’re Jewish, how come everyone is wearing berets?”
PA: I don’t understand what’s going on here. Did you grow up in Paris?
GB: Seattle.
PA: Don’t you speak fluent French?
GB: Yes, because my father’s best friend from medical school is French.
PA: What does that have to do with anything?
GB: Growing up, my mom had a movie theater—an arthouse cinema, like Angelika—and people like Cissy Spacek and Matt Dillon would come. My mom was really into making marionettes. For the opening of Robert et Robert in 1978, Claude Lelouch (the film’s director) came and to welcome him, she made two marionettes for Robert and Robert (Charles Denner and Jacques Villeret, who played the Roberts in the film).
PA: What are you talking about?
GB: I have to tell you this story. My studio burnt down four years ago. On June 25. My entire studio.
PA: Gaby! I’m already completely lost, you’re not directly answering any of my questions.
GB: Wait. It wasn’t until I got more into Judaism that I learned that fire is a good thing. Fire is uplifting. Fire goes up. Two years ago, we were sitting at home and I said to my (now ex) husband, James, “I smell something.” He was like, “What are you talking about?!” I grabbed the little one and told my husband to get the older kids out of the house. We were living in the West Village at the time. Virginia was living beneath us—she’s in her nineties and was this very glamorous fashion photographer. She was putting a scarf on her head as I was screaming, “Virginia, get out! Don’t you think I want to look good, too?!” Then FDNY came and they told us there was a cigarette next to the boiler, and that the entire building was about two minutes away from exploding.
After the studio burned down, I was hunted—headhunted—to be the designer for this French label, I can’t say which one. But I went to the south of France to meet with Emmanuel, the label’s attorney. He was Michael Jackson’s attorney. And I’m in his office and I’m telling him all about myself and the marionettes and he says, “Wait a second! Those marionettes are in Claude’s office across the street!”
PA: This story is going someplace, I presume?
GB: Yes, after the fire, my 99-year-old grandmother said to me, “You come from me, you can do this.” Grandma was like, “Life is hard. You can survive this blow to your ego.”
PA: I’m not sure what all this has to do with being so Jewish.
GB: I’m a believer! I started to realize that of all the things I had inside me, so many of them were rooted in Judaism. Growing up Jewish, we didn’t feel badly about being Jewish. We had a great sense of pride.
PA: There’s a lot of patriarchy and misogyny in Judaism.
GB: My sister, Vanessa, is a lawyer with The Innocence Project, a non-profit that works to exonerate the wrongly convicted through DNA testing. She met a Pakistani lawyer at the organization and they started talking and Vanessa was like, “What do you usually do in cases of rape?” The lawyer said, ‘Oh, often the woman is just killed.”
PA: Jesus.
GB: It was like a scene out of Borat.
PA: I guess it makes our misogyny seem not so bad, is that what you’re saying?
GB: Yes. But also there are many amazing things. Like, why do Jews always bequeath anonymously? I always tell my kids, you must share—and you must do it with grace. Have you seen Son of Saul? It’s excruciatingly beautiful. I watched it on Rosh Hashanah. After I said, “Thank you, Hashem. Thank you that I can go home and celebrate this with my people.”
I think I’m going to need you to let me read this interview before you print it.
PA: I don’t think so but I do have a few more questions. What’s your favorite drink?
GB: Vodka on ice with lime.
PA: How do you eat your eggs?
GB: Not so much.
PA: How do you drink your coffee?
GB: However the fuck I want to. Sometimes black, sometimes a lungo, sometimes I’ll have an espresso with sugar. And sometimes, I’ll put some of my son’s chocolate milk in it.
PA: That’s very rebellious of you.
GB: I know.
PA: What’s your favorite Jewish holiday?
GB: I mean, I love Shabbat but I don’t go to services every week. Even the Rabbi’s wife was like, it’s better to come less and have it be good. I want my kids to have positive associations with things. But I like all the holidays. I love Passover. My kids call charoset “Jewish salsa.”
PA: Did you have a bat mitzvah?
GB: No, because my parents weren’t religious.
PA: What shampoo do you use?
GB: I wash my hair a few times a month and I wash the children’s hair quarterly. I wash the floor in the apartment with laundry detergent and my hair with L’Oréal, perhaps. From the drugstore. On a good day the drug store is Zitomer.
PA: That’s the most insane answer I’ve ever gotten. Gefilte fish or lox?
GB: I have never tried gefilte fish and I first ate smoked salmon recently, in Paris, and then again with my cousin at Barney Greengrass. I now love lox.
PA: Five things in your bag right now?
GB: A beautiful silk fabric sample, my favorite lipstick from the 99 Cent store, notes to myself, a picture of my son, my wallet.
PA: Favorite pair of shoes?
GB: At the moment or ever?
PA: Either.
GB: I love heels but I have to say there is something special about my New Balance running sneakers. But I really am a girl who loves heels.
Periel Aschenbrand, a comedian at heart, is the author of On My Kneesand The Only Bush I Trust Is My Own.
