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After about nine months, 30 hours of interviews, and editing down a 50,000 word manuscript, I am nervous and thrilled to share this piece with you.
It is an (incomplete) Oral History of How Fashion Handled the HIV/AIDS Pandemic. https://www.vogue.com/aids-epidemic-oral-history
It is an (incomplete) Oral History of How Fashion Handled the HIV/AIDS Pandemic. https://www.vogue.com/aids-epidemic-oral-history
When HIV/AIDS first emerged in the late '70s and early '80s, rumors swirled that the virus originated on the sands of Fire Island Pines. Media dubbed it "gay cancer." Then everyone pointed to the sex clubs. https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-one
"People thought, if you’re young and you’re healthy, and you quote live a clean life, you’re not going to get it. And then they started seeing people like [GQ model] Joe MacDonald and realized," said Michael Kors.
!["People thought, if you’re young and you’re healthy, and you quote live a clean life, you’re not going to get it. And then they started seeing people like [GQ model] Joe MacDonald and realized," said Michael Kors.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EpX32QCUwAEcxkr.jpg "\"People thought, if you’re young and you’re healthy, and you quote live a clean life, you’re not going to get it. And then they started seeing people like [GQ model] Joe MacDonald and realized,\" said Michael Kors.")
!["People thought, if you’re young and you’re healthy, and you quote live a clean life, you’re not going to get it. And then they started seeing people like [GQ model] Joe MacDonald and realized," said Michael Kors.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EpX32QCVQAAkPrm.jpg "\"People thought, if you’re young and you’re healthy, and you quote live a clean life, you’re not going to get it. And then they started seeing people like [GQ model] Joe MacDonald and realized,\" said Michael Kors.")
"In the fashion industry, people started to talk about, maybe we ought to not hire gay men anymore in fashion unless they can take the test and prove that they don’t have it, that they can get insurance policies." —Valerie Steele https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-one
Chapter Two talks about the constant wave of death that impacted New York City. It also tells the stories of many creatives — especially young designers of color — whose lives and legacies were cut short by HIV/AIDS. https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-two
Did you know that the 1st American designer to be accepted to the Chambre Syndicale of Pret-a-Porter was a gay Black man?
"Patrick Kelly! The lifestyle that he had attached to his brand? I remember I kept his shopping bag for years," says @bevysmith.
https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-two
"Patrick Kelly! The lifestyle that he had attached to his brand? I remember I kept his shopping bag for years," says @bevysmith.
https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-two
The supermodel Pat Cleveland learned her friend Antonio Lopez died right before she walked a funeral-themed runway show for Thierry Mugler. She sobbed down the runway, and editors thought she was acting.
https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-two
https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-two
And then there was the Godfather of Streetwear, Willi Smith.
"Willi Smith was one of those rare designers that I looked at as an American designer who had this spirit—it felt relevant and it felt young and so authentic and incredible," says Marc Jacobs.
"Willi Smith was one of those rare designers that I looked at as an American designer who had this spirit—it felt relevant and it felt young and so authentic and incredible," says Marc Jacobs.
The legacy of Perry Ellis is maybe more known now for Marc Jacobs' legendary firing after the Grunge Show. But Perry was Marc's mentor. He insisted to me that the clothes he made was returning Perry's brand to its original, creative spirit. https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-two
Perry Ellis, the former President of the @CFDA, took the bow at his final runway show, visibly ill. Earlier, @donnakaran urged him to help her take action on HIV/AIDS. Fearing the stigma, he declined.
https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-two
https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-two
Chapter Three of this Oral History talks about the beginnings of action. Or, as @simondoonan put it, "how incredible and protean people are."
It's the untold story of how a brief gay romance collided the worlds of @BarneysNY and @actupny. https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-three
It's the untold story of how a brief gay romance collided the worlds of @BarneysNY and @actupny. https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-three
Avram Finkelstein of ACT UP/Gran Fury:
"In the conversations about what the [SILENCE=DEATH] posters should look like, we purposefully chose pink for the pink triangle, and decided that the background of the poster should be black, because fuchsia and black were fashion colors."
"In the conversations about what the [SILENCE=DEATH] posters should look like, we purposefully chose pink for the pink triangle, and decided that the background of the poster should be black, because fuchsia and black were fashion colors."
"It was @SimonDoonan who forced me to give him the [Silence=Death] posters to mount on foam core to bring to the second ACT UP action in New York. I think that he is one of the unsung heroes of ACT UP." https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-three
. @josextravaganza reveals how Patricia Field, Susanne Bartsch, and the AIDS fundraiser The Love Ball led @Madonna to find him at a gay club where he was dancing, urging him to audition for her 'Vogue' video right on the spot.
https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-three
https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-three
. @bartscharama says she organized the Love Ball out of pain. Her address book had been crossed out. After a few phone calls, she'd raised over $100,000. By the end of the first Love Ball, over $3,000,000.
https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-three
https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-three
"You called people to help and they said sure. They didn’t say, 'Oh, I need a town car and a green room and someone to do my hair and makeup.' All that bullshit didn’t exist back then." — @simondoonan on the Fashion community of the '80s. https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-three
There's more in this chapter, including about the Basquiat-, Warhol-, Madonna- and Grace Jones-attended fashion show at Barneys for Saint Vincent's. Madonna, in particular, was such a large figure to everyone I spoke to about this moment in time. https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-three
All of this finally leads to Chapter 4, where in 1990, Vogue and the CFDA held a fundraiser known as Seventh on Sale.
"You think the Met Gala was something? I’m sorry, this event was by far anything more than you could ever imagine," says @donnakaran. https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-four
"You think the Met Gala was something? I’m sorry, this event was by far anything more than you could ever imagine," says @donnakaran. https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-four
The truth about Seventh is that it took Carolyne Roehm, the CFDA President after Perry Ellis, for it to happen. She took Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta, Ralph Lauren to lunch and said: If we're not doing something about AIDS, I'm not taking the job. https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-four
But Seventh on Sale was magical in a way that seems nearly impossible by today's standards.
"It taught us that the community together had more strength, more power, more strength. Unity really gave us that power." — @michaelkors
https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-four
"It taught us that the community together had more strength, more power, more strength. Unity really gave us that power." — @michaelkors
https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-four
"That was my first understanding of the American fashion industry doing something to advance this cause because I would watch television and there would be no mention of it. If there was a mention of it, it was a gay disease," says Joe Zee. https://www.vogue.com/article/aids-epidemic-oral-history-chapter-four
Of course, this is hardly a happy ending. The HIV/AIDS Crisis did not end in 1990. It is ongoing. And for activists like Avram Finkelstein, Seventh was great — but what about the past decade?
"If you look at the ’80s from a cultural point of view, there was music, art, fashion, hip-hop, Basquiat, Warhol. It was this creative, exuberant, flamboyant, interesting time, with a backdrop of this terrible scourge," says @simondoonan.
There are many lingering questions this Oral History poses about what the fashion industry learned from the '80s — and if those lessons were applied to this current pandemic.
More importantly, it shows that people acted without approval of Establishment, and it paid off.
More importantly, it shows that people acted without approval of Establishment, and it paid off.
I'll be releasing unedited versions of the Oral History on my newsletter in the coming days. There's some fun stuff left out here—including how a member of the Trump family came to the rescue of a now-major AIDS organization.
You can sign up at: https://fruity.substack.com/
You can sign up at: https://fruity.substack.com/
A special thanks to everyone interviewed, plus of course @voguemagazine's epic Photo and Research teams, @nnadibynature, Mark Guiducci, @mynameisjro, @RobinGivhan, and many more for their help and guidance along the way!
