Isaac Mizrahi’s ‘Endlessly Inventive’ Career On Display at the Jewish Museum

“I’m transitioning!” screamed Isaac Mizrahi from the bima at The Jewish Museum in Manhattan at the press preview of his show on March 15. “I’m a minstrel singer trapped in the body of a fashion designer.”

And he wasn’t kidding.

Isaac Mizrahi does it all: acting, directing, drawing, set and costume design, writing, and cabaret performance. Just thinking about the sheer breadth and depth of the scope of his work is exhausting, so it’s with great appreciation that the folks at the Jewish Museum have packaged it all together with a wonderful new exhibit called Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History, opening today through August 7.

Said Mizrahi, who is adamantly opposed to calling it a retrospective, “Aren’t retrospectives mostly for dead artists? This is a mid-career survey.”

Here’s a bit of Mizrahi’s vast resume: He directed and designed costumes for Matthew Barney’s Cremaster 1 and Mozart’s Magic Flute for the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis; since 2007 he has narrated Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf at the Guggenheim; in 2013, he directed and designed the production casting artist Maira Kalman as an “NPR-listening, PBS-watching school teachery kind of duck”; and in 2003, he was the first major designer to collaborate with a big box store with IM for Target. It was a risky move, but as the title of the show at the Jewish Museum suggests, Mizrahi is nothing if not a disruptor, a trailblazer.

That said, you don’t need me to tell you all this; you have Google for that. What you do need me for, is to tell you this: don’t walk, RUN to see this exhibit. It is as exquisite as McQueen’s show at the Met.

Really. Here’s a description of the show, from the Jewish Museum:

Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History is organized thematically, exploring key trends in Mizrahi’s work —from the use of color and prints, to witty designs that touch on issues of race, religion, class, and politics. The core of the exhibition features iconic designs from the Isaac Mizrahi New York clothing label (1987 – 1998), the “semi-couture” collections (2003 – 2011), and the trailblazing line for Target (2002 – 2008). The show is comprised of 42 “looks” that include clothing, hats, jewelry, shoes, accessories, and costumes for the theater, the opera, and the Mark Morris Dance Group. Also featured are the designer’s original drawings, performance stills, and behind-the-scenes photographs. A bespoke multi-screen video installation showcases a variety of content drawn from film and television cameos and runway shows, as well as from the award-winning documentary Unzipped; the television program The Isaac Mizrahi Show; scenes from the cabaret LES MIZrahi; appearances on Project Runway; and the current QVC network show IsaacMizrahiLive!.

And it’s everything an exhibit of this magnitude should be and more, because Mizrahi, who is brilliant, is so much more than a designer. So, in the spirit of not regurgitating the past, which would be boring (and for Mizrahi, there is nothing worse than boring), here are a few fun facts about Isaac Mizrahi:

Tibor Kalman designed his Isaac Mizrahi New York logo.

The man does not sleep.

He gave a TED Talk in 2008.

Mark Morris is his best friend.

He’s obsessed with Tarot card readings and once a fortune teller told him the man of his dreams would be named Eric so for about a year, he humped every guy he could find named Eric.

He speaks Hebrew but has never been to Israel.

He detests mannequins.

He hates flying.

He drinks his coffee dark with half and half.

He is as funny as he is talented and maintains that it is his ability to laugh at himself that sets him apart.

He ADORES Violet Chacki (and didn’t hate my sentiment that RuPaul is the James Baldwin of our generation).

His father made his Bar Mitzvah suit, a powder blue chantug suit, white shirt, colorful tie with white patent leather Pierre Cardin shoes with a gold ‘PC’ on them and sheer white socks. And a Jew ‘fro.

The difference, perhaps between Mizrahi and most “artists,” who are notorious for being solitary beings, is that Mizrahi is a team player, a collaborator. As Chee Pearlman, the guest curator of the Jewish Museum exhibit told me: “Working on a project with Isaac Mizrahi is a happy, hilarious, high octane adventure. He is the best collaborator an author and curator could ask for.”

And it seems to come through in all of his work. He has said that he does not want his clothes to describe the women who are wearing them; rather, he wants the women who are wearing them to describe themselves with his clothing. This is a radical thing for a fashion designer to say. He’s a true feminist at heart. And true to that, he likes a little meat on his girls.

And he is warm. My guess is that a lot of this heart and soul comes from his well-documented relationship with his mother, who taught him not only about love but also about what it means to be stylish. Indeed, she was his first muse and first model. He designed his first skirt for her, when he was 13, and she wore it for the High Holidays. Of his mother, Mizrahi says: “She was the textbook definition of the word (stylish). She was very good at manipulating things to look more expensive than they were. She altered things, wore them back-to-front. Wore men’s pyjamas on the beach. Found gorgeous things at Loehmann’s. So for the most part, when I was growing up, the idea of being truly stylish was somehow more akin to scavenging, reinventing, than it was to luxury and spending loads of money. I think the most stylish person is a kind of scavenger who doesn’t rely on expensive clothes. Someone who gets things here and there and puts it all together. And I will never give that up. Never.”

And so it makes sense when he says he always had real women in mind when he designed and that “something that is really beautiful is something that’s real.” And it also follows that it’s obviously part of the reason he has had such success across so many platforms. Because Isaac is real.

Perhaps he is best summed up by Mx Justin Vivian Bond’s description in the exhibit’s catalogue: “The brilliance of Isaac Mizrahi is that he brings such luster to a wide range of disciplines. From high brow to low and every station in between, whether it is music, fashion, costume design or as a raconteur, his star power shines through. He is endlessly inventive, charming and most importantly, fun. If I had to use one word to describe Isaac Mizrahi it would be joyous not to be confused with goyish, which is another kettle of gefilte fish.”

Periel Aschenbrand, a comedian at heart, is the author of On My Kneesand The Only Bush I Trust Is My Own.