Leila’s Reviews > The Chiffon Trenches > Status Update

“Butterflies in my stomach, not from nerves, but from the immense excitement I had witnessed. I was part of fashion history, working for a company that wanted my point of view and my opinion… My heart was beating in continued acceleration. This was what I had dreamed of, but I had never dared to believe I would be in this exalted position so young, so naive, so innocent”

“Halston used to have me over for dinner… and he would serve a baked potato with caviar and sour cream. For dessert, a small mountain of high class cocaine served in an Elsa Peretti sterling silver bowl”

“Most of the fashion elite, including the top tier designers… were working, loving, and living on a regular diet of cocaine. Then the drug du jour. Everyone was high on coke and cock” obsessed w his manner of speaking

“‘Fashion is fun, and you can’t really take it too seriously. Frivolity must be an integral form’ Karl said to me”

Fashion illustrator Antonio Lopez

“The clothes were surreal and sophisticated but, most important, they were youthful and inspired. This was represented in Karl’s approach to the Chloe fashion shows. They purposefully didn’t have an assigned lineup of models and outfits. Backstage, Karl would tell the models to pick whatever they wanted to wear from the rack… after the show, he’d tell the models to keep what they’d worn”

“Pret a porter aka ready to wear was taking off, and Karl always had a knack for delivering bizarrely innovative clothes that were acclaimed by retailers and press alike… His jewelry could be big, plastic, red roosters or chickens, or plastic magic marker colored tulips on a necklace over a luxurious foundation”

Spending his stipend from Brown on YSL

“I hope you find my glorious and somehow triumphant crawls through the chiffon trenches to be fierce and fearless… Physically, I am a huge galleon slowly sailing into harbor. Broken from so many battles, but still I rise and continue to express myself with articulation, eloquence, and respect. I bow down to no one and find my way through the memory of what has been good in this life, which is not yet finished”