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Win a night in jail with John Waters from Provincetown Film Society

Annual winter fundraising auction underway includes dinner with Murray Bartlett

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Win a night in jail with John Waters.

To help raise money for the Provincetown Film Society, writer and filmmaker John Waters has led a tour of local sex haunts, cooked up a ā€œDinner at the Dumpā€ and hosted a ā€œSoiree at the Sewer.ā€

This year heā€™s offering four fans a chance to spend a night in jail with him.

ā€œā€˜A Night in Jail with John Watersā€™ is a once-in-a-sentence experience,ā€ the film society says in an announcement of its fourth annual winter fundraising auction, which started Feb. 2 and ends Feb. 11.

ā€œFour lucky inmates will get the chance to go behind bars to dine and spend the night in Provincetown Jail with John Waters in July 2024. After a private meal served by Chef Jacob Hetnarski, inmates can return to their cells for the night or prowl the corridors in hopes of making friends ā€“ just be up in time for 6 a.m. parole!ā€

Watersā€™s event is one of more than 120 unique items, experiences and getaways that individuals and businesses have donated to help support the film society, an anchor institution for the LGBTQ-friendly beach resort at the tip of Cape Cod.

Actor Murray Bartlett, known for his recent TV roles in ā€œThe White Lotusā€ and ā€œThe Last of Us,ā€ is hosting a private dinner for two. Actress Kathleen Turner, who starred in Watersā€™s 1994 movie ā€œSerial Mom,ā€ is offering a ā€œpersonal recorded voicemail greeting.ā€

Additional auction items include: ā€œunique to Provincetownā€ tours and dinners, including a private ā€œdune tourā€ and meals prepared by celebrity chefs; luxury rentals in Provincetown, New York and Palm Springs; a week-long stay in a Provincetown dune shack; a pickleball clinic for four; an African safari trip; gift certificates to local and regional shops and restaurants; tickets to sports events and passes to the 26th annual Provincetown International Film Festival, June 12 to 16. The website is biddingforgood.com/ptownfilm.

ā€œOnce again, the [Provincetown Film Society] auction has outdone itself with exemplary offerings that encapsulate the fun and uniqueness of Provincetown,ā€ said Executive Director Anne Hubbell, in a statement. ā€œWe appreciate the generous donations from Provincetown businesses and individuals, as well as support from the international film community.ā€

Started in 1999, the Provincetown Film Society is dedicated to showcasing new achievements in independent film and honoring the work of emerging as well as acclaimed directors, producers and actors. Known for its strong support of LGBTQ filmmakers and their work, it has three primary activities: producing the annual Provincetown International Film Festival; running a year-round theater, the Waterā€™s Edge Cinema, and overseeing the Gabrielle A. Hanna Provincetown Film Institute for film and media artist residencies and conferences.

The auction item that seems to be taking the most planning and coordination this year is Watersā€™s takeover of the local jail, an event the film society hasnā€™t offered in the past.

The writer and director of films including ā€œPink Flamingosā€ and ā€œHairspray,ā€ and author of books including ā€œShock Valueā€ and ā€œMr. Know-It-All,ā€ Waters has residences in Baltimore, New York and San Francisco, but he spends his summers on Cape Cod and is a strong supporter of the film society.

This will be Watersā€™s 60th summer in Provincetown, and for the past three years heā€™s offered some variation of a date with himself as a way to benefit the film society. Each of his past contributions was a marquee event for the auction and raised upwards of $15,000.

Every year, ā€œI try to come up with something that will be startlingā€ and different from any other bid item, Waters, 77, said in a phone interview when asked how he came up with the idea. ā€œIā€™ve taught in prison. Iā€™ve written about prison. Itā€™s hardly a surprise that I would do it.ā€

Bidding for each of the four jail dates with Waters starts at $2,500. Winning bidders will be contacted to choose a date in July thatā€™s mutually agreeable for their night in jail.

Arranging to use the town jail is whatā€™s taking more than a little coordination.

Waters explained that Provincetown is building a new jail and itā€™s scheduled to open by this summer. The current jail is on Shank Painter Road. The plan calls for the dinner and sleepover to be held in the Shank Painter Road building, after the new jail has opened and all the prisoners have been relocated. The current facility has five cells. Thatā€™s why the number of ā€œinmatesā€ is limited ā€“ four winning bidders and Waters.

Waters said he intends to spend the entire night in jail. If youā€™re a winning bidder, ā€œyou spend the night with me,ā€ he said. ā€œOne of the cells is mine.ā€

Heā€™s curious to see who shows up.  

ā€œItā€™s always a very friendly night,ā€ he said. ā€œAt the Dump, they got really dressed up. They totally get it. They get into the spirit of the whole thingā€¦I hope somebody bids. Maybe they wonā€™t and Iā€™ll have to do solitary confinement.ā€

The timing of the move to the new building ā€œhad a lot to do withā€ making the event possible, he noted.

ā€œThey couldnā€™t have allowed us to do it in a working jail,ā€ he said. But ā€œbasically, it is the real jail. There will be the police represented there for the whole night. We check in, and we get paroled at 6 a.m. Each person has their private cell. You can walk around outside of it though. You have to bring pillows and your blanket with you. Thereā€™s a toilet in each cell. There are no other prisoners.ā€

The local police department is aware of the film societyā€™s past events and is fully on board with this yearā€™s event, as is the rest of the town, Waters said.  

ā€œThere are some cool policemen in Provincetown,ā€ he said. ā€œThey knew we had these other events, and they want to help raise money for the festival too.ā€

Hetnarski runs the Sweet Somethings Supper Club, ā€œa roving restaurant throughout New England.ā€ He also prepared the meals for the Dinner at the Dump and the Soiree at the Sewer. Waters said he doesnā€™t have this yearā€™s menu yet but ā€œIā€™m sure it will involve tin trays.ā€  

For those whoā€™ve always wanted a date with Waters, the filmmaker has a warning: This may be the last summer he donates an auction item.

After sex haunts, the Dump, sewage and the jail, ā€œI donā€™t really know how I can go much further,ā€ he confesses.

On second thought, ā€œI can offer myself sexually at 80,ā€ he jokes. ā€œI donā€™t think anyoneā€™s ever done that at an auction.ā€

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Queer writer reflects on assault, drug use, more in ā€˜Mean Boysā€™

An interview with Geoffrey Mak

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(Book cover image via Amazon)

Queer Chinese American writer Geoffrey Mak takes the personal essay to new, and sometimes unsettling, heights, in his book ā€œMean Boys: A Personal Historyā€ (Bloomsbury, 2024). Described as a ā€œmemoir-in-essays,ā€ Mak, the gay son of an evangelical minister, takes readers on his volatile and visceral personal journey, which includes the techno clubs of Berlin, various illicit substances, his sexual assault, and ultimately an examination of mass-murderer Elliot Rodger. Mak generously made time for an interview in advance of his November appearance at the Miami Book Fair.

BLADE: In the authorā€™s note for your book ā€œMean Boys: A Personal History,ā€ you said, ā€œI wrote most of these essays for the Internet,ā€ and that awareness of your readership extended to ā€œwhat they wanted to hear, and what they were wearing.ā€ Is that still your target audience or were you looking to expand it with the book?

GEOFFREY MAK: If I could go back in time and inspire my 26-year-old self to keep writing, I would say, ā€œBabe, in 10 years, youā€™ll get everything youā€™ve ever dreamed of, just online-only.ā€ I still see the natural habitat of the personal essay; yet the internet has a tendency for fragmentation and bubbles. When I decided to write a book at a mainstream press, I thought a lot about how a bookā€”unlike a paintingā€”is a mass-produced object, which makes it a more democratic medium, almost humble. I thought a lot about the opportunity to reach readers in Idaho or Oregon or Arkansas, and, in fact, I now get emails or Instagram DMs from readers in all those states. I wanted to explore universal themes that anyone can relate to, such as the wages of status in a high school cafeteria, or the process of forgiving oneā€™s own father.

BLADE: You also mentioned James Baldwin and Joan Didion, as well as Ed White, Hilton Als, and Alan Hollinghurst, among others. How important are these writers to you in your work?

MAK: I love that you called him Ed, because he is Ed. Each of those writers gave me something that is a part of me. Baldwin: conviction. Didion: cadence. White: self-mythology. Als: voice. Hollinghurst: sex.

BLADE: Another writer, Wesley Yang, is featured prominently in the ā€œIdentity Despite Itselfā€ essay. Do you know if heā€™s aware of being the essayā€™s subject? If so, has he told you how he feels about it?

MAK: Marco Roth, a friend, was one of the founding editors of n+1, and commissioned and edited Wesley Yangā€™s remarkable essay, ā€œThe Face of Seung-Hui Choā€ when it came out in 2008. After Marco read my book, he sent it to him. In Marcoā€™s view, I had at last given Yang his due: taking him as seriously as he deserved, which is something any writer should be flattered by. And I did take him seriously, calling him into account for his internalized Asian racism and transphobia. As to what Yang actually thinks, I have no idea. Can you believe it: Not a single person I wrote about in the book has reached out to me about it?

BLADE: In ā€œMy Father, The Minister,ā€ you address religion, not only as the son of a religious leader but also as a gay man. Religion continues to make headlines, whether itā€™s the role itā€™s playing in the 2024 election, the ongoing sexual abuse scandals in the various churches, or the war in Gaza. What role, if any, does religion play in your life at present?

MAK: I pay close attention to the religious life of this country. Two-thirds consider themselves religious. A lot of what I read disturbs me, nothing is surprising to me. I was heartened when, earlier this year, the United Methodist Church rescinded a ban on gay clergy. It was a rare victory because sexual difference remains the greatest divisive factor in American churches today. The articulation of the queer, Christian subject might be my highest priority as a writer today. (Out of all my essays, I consider ā€œCalifornia Gothicā€ my greatest work.) I donā€™t participate in organized religion, but I still study the Bible and read queer theology, particularly the work of Marcella Althaus-Reid and Linn Tonstad, major influences of mine. I count theologians as some of my closest friends. I was actually just emailing with the writer Garth Greenwell about how 4th-century apophatic theology has parallels with queer theory today. Iā€™m currently writing a novel about a trans-femme protagonist who finds her way to God. Iā€™m quite serious. Sometimes, I dream that if this whole writer career doesnā€™t pan out, I might go to Divinity School.

BLADE: You also write honestly about your drug usage in ā€œMean Boys.ā€ Thereā€™s a line in the ā€œCalifornia Gothicā€ essay that reads: ā€œAfter psychosis, and after addiction, I knew that whether I would recover came down to a single test: Could I find grace in the ordinary?ā€ Where are you now on that journey?

MAK: I happen to be sober now, but I have cycled through periods of limited drug use and sobriety since I finished that essay. I belong to a harm reduction community that keeps me accountable to my self-stated goals. For several years, I have had a buddy system, which differs from a sponsor relationship because itā€™s non-hierarchical, with a friend Iā€™m extremely close withā€”we regularly check in with cravings, take stock of our weekly stressors, talk about books. If we ever call the other, we know to drop whatever weā€™re doing and pick up, because itā€™s an emergency. One night, he called me when he relapsed on meth, and I ran straight to his apartment, we flushed out the syringes, and cried in each otherā€™s arms until the sleeping pills kicked in. Since then, heā€™s been sober for almost two years. Recently, Iā€™ve been talking to him about ā€œjunk time,ā€ which are the late-night brain rot hours when I canā€™t read and crave drugs the most. I need to start finding grace in the ordinariness of junk time. Thanks for the reminder.

BLADE: What was involved in your decision to write about the aftermath of your sexual assault in the essay ā€œIn Arcadia Ego?ā€

MAK: OK, so the first section of that essay originated as a Facebook post. People reached out with caring words, although the writing partly explored my reaching a limit with caring words. The material was so raw that I put it down for at least a few years. After I had some distance from my own assault, I picked up the essay again and suddenly realized I was bored of my own pain. It wasnā€™t going to teach me anything, because suffering isnā€™t a university. I wanted to party, so I wrote about that. Nothing about this was virtuous or wholesome or dignified. I got fucked up and screamed with my gays on the dance floor like sorority girls at a bachelorette party. In a previous era, you had a party to commemorate an occasion. My friends and I partied for no reason; the party justified itself. Life is like this, too. You never need a reason.

BLADE: Was the lengthy, titular essay that closes out the book, the first essay written for the book, and therefore the inspiration?

MAK: It was the last essay I finished. In fact, we delayed the release date of the book because I couldnā€™t finish it. Itā€™s my most original writing and original thinking. Itā€™s also not for everyone.

BLADE: In the ā€œMean Boysā€ essay, you write about the ultimate mean boy ā€“ mass-murderer Elliot Rodger. Did that essay begin as being about Rodger or did that come later?

MAK: This was one of the first essays I wrote where I didnā€™t outline it or know where it was ending up in advance. I started with an imageā€”the Lacoste polo with the popped collarā€”and just kept writing. Itā€™s meandering, because thatā€™s how I wrote it, working through the innate turbulence of each paragraph until a door appeared into the next paragraph. I eventually found my way to Rodger. There was a time I thought I could write the essay without reading the manifesto, until I realized, cā€™mon, I was being chicken, I had to read the manifesto. Once I finished it, I knew I had to rewrite the entire essay.

BLADE: Have you started writing or thinking about your next book project?

MAK: Iā€™m working on a novel about degenerate ravers in Berlin. While the UK and Germany have novels about raving, America curiously doesnā€™t have one. So, I decided to write one.

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ā€˜Funā€™ farewell: an interview with Cyndi Lauper

Pop icon reflects on career as final tour kicks off

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Cyndi Lauper plays D.C.ā€™s Capital One Arena on Sunday, Oct. 27. (Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

When I did the tally, I realized that, including this one, Iā€™ve had the pleasure of interviewing Cyndi Lauper nine times since 1997. Of course, that doesnā€™t match the number of times Iā€™ve been fortunate to see her perform live ā€“ that would be 12, beginning in 1984. 

And now, as I prepare to see her for a 13th time, itā€™s with a touch of sadness as Lauper is embarking on her farewell tour. One of the best friends the LGBTQ community has ever had, Lauperā€™s multi-artist True Colors Tours, which ran from 2007-2010 and raised funds for the Matthew Shepard Foundation, PFLAG, and HRC, and the subsequent founding of True Colors United in 2008, which continues to help homeless LGBTQ youth, are just a couple of examples of her activism. Additionally, Lauper is a lifetime musical trendsetter. For instance, she recorded a duet with the late Tony Bennett, more than 10 years before Lady Gaga did, as well as released dance-oriented and country music albums, 14 and 8 years, respectively, before BeyoncĆ©. When it comes to her legendary personal style, social media fashion critic Nicky Campbell recently declared Lauper an icon in his review of the 2024 VMA fashions. Now, as we prepare to say farewell to Lauper on the concert tour circuit, she was generous enough to make time for an interview before hitting the road. 

Lauper plays D.C.ā€™s Capital One Arena on Sunday, Oct. 27.

BLADE: In preparing for this interview, in which weā€™re talking about your farewell tour, I pulled out my 12 ticket stubs from your concerts Iā€™ve attended since 1984, beginning with two that year in Boston. Do you remember what that first, headlining tour as a solo artist felt like for you?

CYNDI LAUPER: I just wanted to make sure I had places to go. I wanted the sound to be really great. I don’t know if I accomplished that, but I did have those big speakers that I used to run up on. That’s me! I loved that. Because I saw all those wonderful English groups, the ska bands.

BLADE: You mean Madness and The English Beat and The Specials?

LAUPER: The Specials! I thought they were extraordinary. The singer (Neville Staple), I don’t know where his family was from, I guess he could have been Jamaican English. He was so fierce, singing so great, and he climbed up on top of the speaker and put up his fist and he’s singing his guts out. I’m thinking, ā€œIt’s Mighty Mouse!ā€ When I was a kid that was kind of my favorite show, I don’t know why [laughs]. But it always influenced me, and I remember in ā€™84, ā€˜85 I was still free. When ā€˜86 came then I became a prisoner of the system.

BLADE : Being on a major record label, and all that.

LAUPER: I wasnā€™t allowed to touch anybody. I wasnā€™t allowed to go out to them (in the audience) or have them come to me. It was totally different, and I totally hated it.

BLADE: Did you ever imagine that 40 years later you would be embarking on a farewell tour?

LAUPER: Well, at some point, sure. I think that for me this is the perfect time. Because it’s a kind of bucket list of what I always wanted to do. In the beginning, it was roughneck style. Whatever I could jimmy-rig, I did. When I got to a certain point like we were doing the (live) ā€œMoney Changes Everythingā€ video. I had fantasies of a cherry-picker. Because of our budget, everyone said, ā€œWell, you can’t get a cherry-picker but weā€™ll give you a garbage pail and a pulley system. I thought to myself, ā€œOh no, like Oscar the Grouch?ā€ I had a friend who was a great interviewer, and she used to interview everybody from a garbage pail. So, of course, thatā€™s what my people gave me to go up in the crowd. I thought it was a pulley system. The pulley system was actually 10 men with rope holding it. When I started to shake (while singing), I started to slip out of their hands. They brought me right in. That could have been the reason that the lawyer made me sign my will before I left.

BLADE: Are you planning to sing songs from each of your albums?

LAUPER: I’m really trying. I didn’t get anything from the blues album (2010ā€™s ā€œMemphis Bluesā€) in there because there’s too many songs. I usually get to the point where (I say), ā€œHey, guys, if the visuals look good for this, can we switch the songs?ā€ What I did was I wanted to do visuals (on the tour). I wanted to do performance art. That means you have to be on a click. Like when I went out on the (Rod) Stewart tour and we used the lyric video of ā€œSally’s Pigeons.ā€ You can’t do that and not be on a click, because the guy running visual has to be on the click. If nobody’s together, it’s like, ā€œHey, what the hell now the words are thereā€¦no they’re not.ā€

BLADE: It’s like a badly dubbed movie.

LAUPER: Yeah. But this time I got this wonderful visual director, Brian Burke, who worked for years with the creative director of Cirque Du Soleil, and not having people flying through the air. In the beginning of all that, that was my fantasy! I wanted to fly through the air, and all I got was a cherry-picker ā€” not a cherry-picker, but a garbage pail. It wasn’t going to happen for me. Now, I’m 71! I’m not gonna go flying through the air. It’s a mixture of collabs with artists and art. Art and music. The whole thing is an artist collective, any time you go out on tour. It’s not just you. You’re with other dance artists if you’re a dancer, or you’re with musicians. Or youā€™re with lighting designers, thatā€™s art, too. We did these collabs and I’m excited to present a show like this because it’s something I always wanted to do. Fingers crossed that it all works out. I’m even going to do costume changes this time, which you know I never do because it’s so bothersome. But I can do it in a way now that I’m comfortable with. I just want to be able to do this as a gift to all the people that followed me through all my crazy twists and turns. I did all those twists and turns because I kept hitting brick walls. You keep hitting the gatekeeper, you gotta find your way around that gatekeeper.

BLADE: Earlier this year, ā€œLet The Canary Sing,ā€ Alison Ellwoodā€™s documentary about you received a theatrical release. After having your memoir published in 2012, did it feel to you like the documentary was the next logical step, a continuation of sorts?

LAUPER: Well, not for me. I didn’t want to have a documentary. It was the pandemic, and everyone was saying, ā€œEverybody’s doing documentaries now, Cyn! Come on, what are you doing?ā€ I was like, ā€œIā€™m not dead!ā€ Then I started watching documentaries on the streaming services and I saw ā€œLaurel Canyon.ā€ I felt it was an extraordinarily captivating documentary for me because it was the history of music. All of the people and players in that story were very much influential for me as a growing artist, especially in the ā€˜70s. I looked and saw who directed itā€¦

BLADE: Alison Ellwood!

LAUPER: When they came at me again, I said, ā€œI want a film, not a TV special. So, how about Alison Ellwood? She makes films.ā€ She wanted to do it! I think she did a good job. It’s not your typical story. I don’t think anybody’s story is typical. Right? We think we know people but I guess we donā€™t. You think, ā€œIt’s typical! You start a band.ā€ Which is always my theory! If something’s wrong, start a band, start playing out, you’ll feel a lot better!ā€ [Laughs] It doesn’t always go that way.

BLADE: With the end of touring in sight, is there a possibility that you might do more film work for a potential Oscar to complete your EGOT status?

LAUPER: Listen, I happen to love independent films. For that I would write. I wrote ā€œUnhook The Starsā€ for ā€”

BLADE: ā€” the Gena Rowlands movie.

LAUPER: Right! Usually, I like an independent movie because then you get to talk to the director and then you have to understand what their vision is. That’s interesting, because each director is a different personality and a different kind of artist. You have to listen and see what story they’re trying to tell and then have a couple of different suggestions. When we first wrote ā€œWho Let In the Rain,ā€ I wrote it with Allee Willis.

BLADE: Oh, the late Allee Willis.

LAUPER: Allee Willis was a great songwriter.

BLADE: Did you see that documentary?

LAUPER: No, I wish I did because I miss her so much. I guess I was talking to the director, and we didn’t have a band, so I just sang (sings) ā€œThey fall like rain,ā€ and, in between, her dog, Orbit would bark. I was like, ā€œOK, the dog is musical,ā€ and everyone laughed. Then, I described it to the director as ā€œChinese Motown.ā€ That would scare most people. To me, I hear influences of every culture in American music. That’s how I make my music: with different influences. Like cooking, like spices. I feel grateful that I was brought up in New York City because I was exposed to so many different cultures.

BLADE: On a final serious note, when I saw you perform in Boca Raton in 2016 in support of your ā€œDetourā€ album, you asked for a moment of silence to honor Christina Grimmie who had been shot and killed in Orlando the night before. The next morning, after your concert, many of us woke up to the news of the shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. With those tragedies in mind, and this upcoming election, which is so terribly important, especially for women and LGBTQ folks, is there anything youā€™d like to say to your fans?

LAUPER: Absolutely! There is an organization called Vote411.org. Taylor Swift recently, finally put that up. You go online and you find out all the questions and all the people that are running and what they voted for so that you can make an intelligent decision on who is going to represent you, not them. This war against women has been going on since the ā€˜60s, it’s just been going and going, and we need to stop it because we are half the population. 

As far as the LGBTQ people, you have to vote. You have to be informed. Every time you have to vote, you vote! Don’t say, ā€œOh, it doesn’t matter for this one.ā€ It matters! Because they put laws in there. There are community people that represent you and you need to start on a community level, a grassroots level to ensure that there are people that are going to speak for you as a human being. We are all human beings here. 

As I said, women are half the population and LGBTQ, I venture to bet are a pretty large part, too. This country was founded on the separation of church and state. Separation! I don’t want anybody to have ownership over my body. They say they want local communities in charge but yet they have SCOTUS making federal laws about what you do in your bedroom and what you do with your body and who you are and nullifying families. Oh, I have a lot to say about that. You need to vote! You vote on every voting occasion. You can’t just lie down and get rolled over. This is our country, too. 

And always share your stories. Because people who work with you, that you’re friends with, sometimes they don’t understand. They don’t know. What’s really interesting now, from when we started with True Colors United, I think that people do not understand gender identity, which is a whole different thing. If you want people to listen to you, youā€™ve got to listen to them. Just because they’re different from you, doesn’t mean that you have to be like them. You have to learn on both sides of the fence. Knock the fence down, because we’re all human beings; just everybody’s different, that’s all.

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Christian Siriano on new book, red carpet fashion ā€” and dressing Kamala

Celebrated designer showcases iconic designs for worldā€™s biggest stars

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Christian Sirianoā€™s new book, ā€˜The New Red Carpet.ā€™

After 15 years in the fashion business, Christian Siriano has dressed everyone from Oprah to Gaga and heā€™s celebrating all those memorable years of success in his book, ā€œThe New Red Carpet,ā€ which features photos of his many iconic designs along with anecdotes about the stars who made them famous. 

Thereā€™s Halle Berry, Alicia Silverstone (a Siriano muse), Billy Porter, Laverne Cox, Lizzo, Jennifer Lopez, and dozens more. One of his favorites to dress is Janet Jackson. Siriano designed some of the costumes for Jacksonā€™s recent ā€œTogether Againā€ world tour, noting he ā€œbegged her for colorā€ and designed a bright orange jumpsuit so the audience sitting in the back could see her on stage. 

ā€œSheā€™s the best,ā€ he says of Jackson. ā€œI love her dearly weā€™re good friends. My first meeting was surreal and magical but sheā€™s so gracious and lovely and one of the easiest people to work with. We have a blast together.ā€

Jacksonā€™s look featured in the book is from her appearance at the 2022 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony for which she and Siriano recreated her iconic style from the 1986 ā€œControlā€ album featuring a black pantsuit.

ā€œShe likes to be comfortable,ā€ Siriano said. ā€œI had to make this feel modern but also something that felt of the time, streamlined, and chic.ā€

The bookā€™s title refers to Sirianoā€™s efforts to diversify the red carpet and heā€™s known for dressing full-figured stars, non-binary performers, and others who have been shunned by other designers.

ā€œThis is what I think the new world of the red carpet should be ā€” it feels new and fresh and exciting. Itā€™s not exciting to see the same girl on the red carpet in the same dress. The younger generation gets that as well.ā€

Thereā€™s a pop culture debate right now about the role of luck in advancing the careers of huge stars, thanks in part to the new memoir by Ina Garten, ā€œBe Ready When the Luck Happens.ā€ Garten tells a story of being scolded by Oprah for saying she was lucky in her career; Oprah famously dismisses the idea of luck and says what really happens for big stars is that opportunity meets preparation. When asked what role luck plays in his blockbuster career, Siriano cites his own ā€œbad luck.ā€

ā€œI have a lot of bad luck and crazy things have happened to me and my business over the years that are unbelievable,ā€ he said. ā€œMy team talks about my bad luck. I think that what happens to me is not luck; itā€™s taking opportunities that Iā€™m not afraid of. I go after things that other people donā€™t see as interesting. ā€¦ Billy Porter is a good example ā€“ wearing a gown at the Oscars.ā€ 

After 15 years of A-list success, whatā€™s left for the Annapolis, Md., native to achieve professionally?

ā€œI made a list of people I was obsessed with and wanted to dress and Iā€™ve checked all those off,ā€ he said. ā€œA new singer or actress is always exciting, though.ā€

Today itā€™s more about keeping the business going and taking on projects that are exciting and creative. Siriano has been designing more tour costumes lately, including the looks for Cyndi Lauperā€™s new tour that kicks off this week.

ā€œI would love to do a big ballet,ā€ he adds, ā€œeven if it was no money at all.ā€ 

Siriano has been open about his sexual orientation since he debuted on ā€œProject Runwayā€ back in 2008 and stresses the importance of embracing your identity at work.

ā€œYou have to be yourself,ā€ he said. ā€œI think you cannot do your best work without being yourself. When youā€™re hiding something about yourself you canā€™t do your best work.ā€

And what we Americans are wearing to work has improved, Siriano says, since our COVID-era sweatpants addiction ended.

ā€œWeā€™re in a good place ā€¦ Iā€™ve noticed people are wanting to go out and get dressed up more now. Clothes are emotional for people; you put on a great jacket and it improves your confidence.ā€ 

Siriano is coming to Washington, D.C., on Monday, Oct. 21 at 6 p.m. for a book talk at Sixth & I (600 I St., N.W.). Tickets start at $25 for the in-person event or $12 for virtual access. Go to sixthandi.org for more information. 

Heā€™s comfortable in D.C., having dressed politicos in addition to Hollywood stars. Siriano dressed Vice President Kamala Harris for last yearā€™s State of the Union address ā€” ā€œa beautiful burgundy suitā€ that sheā€™s worn again. Heā€™s excited about the upcoming election.

ā€œI think itā€™s really exciting for Kamala being a powerful woman, it would change so much. Iā€™ve loved dressing her. Itā€™s a historic moment. I hope we get to make more for her.ā€ 

Christian Siriano will be in D.C. on Monday, Oct. 21. (Photo by DFree/Bigstock)
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