On the premiere episode of Hello Isaac, Isaac Mizrahi chats with Carson Kressley about RuPaul’s Drag Race, being bullied as a child, personal style and much more.
Follow Hello Isaac on @helloisaacpodcast on Instagram and TikTok, and catch up with Carson Kressley on Instagram @carsonkressley.
Queerye for this straight guy was so great for me. Besides, this was an amazing opportunity and gave me a career, but also in embracing one hundred percent who I was, because being on that show makes you come out to everybody in the world, like in One Fell Swoop.
So this is Hello Isaac, my podcast about the idea of success and how failure affects him. I'm Isaac Musrati, and in this episode I'll talk to style guru and TV personality Carson Presley. Let's get into it. I don't know where I met Carson Kresley. First. I think it was like some Suzanne barsh party in the late nineteen nineties or something. But then we worked together. I did a reading with him and Ben Shankman, that wonderful actor. We read three separate stories of David Sedaris, and I thought to myself, Wow, here's this unbelievably stylish guy who's hilariously funny, but he can also kind of do this dramatic reading of a story. I was automatically at that point enamored of him. I thought, he's not just another pretty face. He's deeply, deeply smart, and I think the subject of style is very well placed in his hands, and so I want to talk about that. Carson Cresley is an award winning television personality, fashion designer, celebrity stylist, and New York Times best selling author. He has a very very big reputation on TV as a talking head. I mean it started with Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, and then he had his own show called How to Look Good Naked, and now he is a regular judge on RuPaul's Drag Race America is favorite show that since twenty and fifteen. Let's talk to Carson Kresley. Carson Kresley, Oh my god, is it really you, darling? It tis I tis I great to see you, great to see you. You know, some people can think of style as a sort of a shallow thing, which is perfectly all right with me. Is it okay with you?
I think that style is something that everybody can think of whatever way they want to. I know, and you know that style is much deeper than it affects how we feel. Affects our personality, our mood, our confidence, our performance, that work, how we feel at home, our happiness. Style is something that touches us or we touch every day. And it is much deeper and much more important than the color of the lipstick that you put on, or the paint in your bedroom or the shoe that you decide on. I really think it impacts your life much more deeper than most people realize, and it also impacts other people's lives because how you present yourself in the world. I think it was Tom Ford who said that dressing well is a form of good manners, and it really is, because it's saying I care about myself, but I also care about the people I'm interacting with, and I want us all to be kind of uplifted.
And I think style is what gets that job done for so many people. I've noticed this. You can completely redo them and they look really good and then their loss.
Yeah, and we've both done tons of makeovers like in real life on TV on shows I hate it.
But possible to really do a makeover dog like you tell me on what is more of a miss? It is?
It is, And I think shows like Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and the new version of Queer Eye illustrate it really well. But sometimes you get the person totally done and you've changed their absolute physical appearance and their hair is different, and they're wearing something gorgeous, and if they're not feeling it, it's just like they're a canvas and they're not a living, breathing thing.
And you see the look in their eyes and they're like moving.
Around like they're like they're a robot, and they're like wearing a uniform that doesn't belong to them, like they're a charlatan. So I think it's about it must be personalized, and you have to do your homework when you're giving somebody a makeover or giving somebody style advice. How do they like to live, what do they love, what makes them excited? All those things. It's really very psychological, as you know, and you put all that together and if it speaks to them and it represents whether it's their home or their wardrobe, and represents them and they own it. Which I hate that phrase as well, I know, but that's when that's when it sticks, and that's when it's real, and that's when people on shows like Queer Eye or I don't know, other makeover shows, when when it clicks and it sticks, that's when it's going to work because it's authentic to that.
I have a memory about a really close friend of mine, this woman who is one of the most beautiful dancers in the entire world. And I remember she was so depressed, and I mean she had a right to be depressed. She had a heavy upbringing. Her mother was a piece of work. And I went to visit her once at her apartment and it was unbelievable. It was like the black hole. And this person had no real reason to be living in such a place. She had some money, it was okay, And I said to her, darling, what's with this place? First of all, let's move. And she literally found a new apartment that had some light and she ran, did it a light color? And I said, you know what, darling, just go ahead and pick out your favorite bedding. I'm not coming with you. You go out yourself and pick out betting that you really And she did all that, and she just like, really, I swear to you, Carson, Like she changed, right, she changed. She became like so much less sad all the time.
Right, Yeah, I mean our living space and especially like the things that we wear are so intimate to us. They surround us, they touch our bodies. It is like osmosis. It's got to affect your mood and our personality. So again super important that your environment and what you wear makes you feel good.
I know this is such a boring question, but I really want to know, like when you walk into what a restaurant or a red carpet or a met ball for instance, Like what do you think what goes wrong?
First of all, I don't have the radar on all the time, and I'm thinking about, like I'm going to go to a restaurant tonight. I'm thinking I'm probably not even gonna I'm just gonna like hone in on the hot guys and be like, ooh, who's that. But if I'm looking at what people are wearing, I think for me, it's about if things aren't fitting. I think that it's a big like red flag. Like things that are tailored and fit your body, whether it's big or small or whatever, always look better. And having that proportion and that scale fit is so important. And even if it's expensive or cature or gorgeous or designer, if it doesn't fit right, it's just not going to look great and it's not going to make you feel good as you move through the world in it.
And then the other thing is if it's boring.
I think that's also I'm just wearing like a black sweater today, and if I don't have a bit of like accessories, I'm just like, God, I'm so boring.
It's giving me. Julie Chris, it's very when you wear a little black crew necky. Yeah. Do I need a beret on something to your hair? Ha? No, I don't. I think you look heaven And I love a bank you. Here's another place where we defer a little bit. I don't like tight clothes. I never like tight clothes, So I guess what you mean is by fitted, you mean something that isn't tight necessarily. But I like things right much better when they're big. I like oversized. Like I'm very from that era from the earli eighties to the middle nineties where everything.
Was just But that's how that is supposed to fit though, and it maybe would be with like a cropped pant or something that you know, so the big top, right, you get even more of that because the pant is skinny, and you're just like, oh, I get it.
It's highlighted.
So it's not about it being like body skimming, It's about it being how it's supposed to fit.
Does that make sense? Yes, absolutely, again going back to surprise people who do it well, who doesn't.
Yeah, we'll talk about guys because I like to work in men's style. There's an air to like the Fiat Empire. He's incredible. Lenny Kravitz, I think always looks incredible. I think they're just like, they're just clothes, look good on them, and it's interesting and you want to look at pictures of them. What about Harry Styles, Come on, Harry Starry Styles.
Yeah, yeah, Harry Styles. I think he loves clothes.
I think he has so much confidence and he's so on top of the world that like when everyone loves you, you have that freedom to choose to wear whatever you want because almost everybody's gonna say yeah, I love it, So you just get to do what you want. And I love seeing him do what he wants. It's a little bit of everything. It's men's wear, it's an androgynist, it's color, it's sparkle, and he looks so good in everything.
He has a great frame, just everything right. Yeah, he has that androgynous kind of straight body that just looks so incredible. Yeah, like a David Bowie totally. But What about when you're looking at some style icon, right, or somebody that you love and they make a mistake or is there something about who you're looking at that you go, oh, that's a stylish person. Is there something that you can identify forget about the makeup right right? Well, I'm talking about like you're looking at Daphney Guinness, so you're looking at I don't know, Tina Show right, any of those icons.
Yeah, I mean there's you know, there are style icons who are fabulous and over the top, like the Iris app FLEs and I think it's probably even Iris who said that anyone can buy their way into fashion, and some people just layer it on.
There's a couple of.
Real housewives and Beverly Hills who come to mind, and most of them are friends, but a couple maybe some aren't.
And sometimes it's just a bunch of and.
Sometimes you talk about that, you know, but sometimes it's just a bunch of labels and it's all good stuff, but for some reason, there's no ownership there and you could tell that the person has it, like selected it, and there's no authenticity. And I think when you see somebody that authentically loves style and expresses it either with how they dress or how they live. That authenticity is undeniable, and you know that and you respond to it and you love it. That's how I kind of decipher stylish people. And they can be little old ladies from Kentucky that know how to talk a scarf around their neck still, or they can be harajuku girls in the subways of Japan. When it's authentic, usually for me, yeah, darling, Usually for me, those are the most stylish people.
I don't even consider people who wear layers and layers of designer cars. I never think that rhyme is. And when I was a kid, there was this great kind of bunch of people like who didn't a skewed designer clothes except for let's say, like someone like Lulu de la Falaise. You know who that was, right, Lu de la Falaise, and or on a Piagi or something, or Tina Chow like those are the women I grew up looking at, and well, they were full of labels, but there was always this kind of element of surprise, like for me, the word surprise, wow, I did not see that coming, right, And not a surprise in terms of some mad, gigantic construction either yeah, that's easy. That's easy. But like somebody who wears a pair of socks with heels or something when they're not supposed to write this, they they know style or fashion so well that they're able to, you know, bend the rules of what we expect. And like someone like Sharon Stone who wore like a white gap T shirt to the Oscars, Like that's that's what I love and what I crave because even like, you know, the red carpet at the Oscars this year, Yeah it was good. There there were some people, but there was nobody that raised an eyebrow, either good or bad where you said, wow, you know again the unexpected, the surprise. Sharon Stone, Darling. She used to come to my collections and write me notes with criticisms like did you really think that that shoe was working on passage number? I swear she gave you notes, but that's how she gave me notes. Yes, Sharon Stone love it, and I gave her notes Darling, trying to be I gave Sharon some. I'm sure you did. I'm sure you did. Oh gosh, And what about like what about places? Because I know you also dabble, You dabble in how I do. I do? Yeah, and what about that? What's your idea of a really good room? Oh, a really good there's some good place that you think is really chic besides Versailles, Don't I know you think of that? No, but I could.
I could think that the simplicity of like a seventeen hundred salt box house in Connecticut, like gorgeous old mill work and vintage handmade bricks on a hearth with like a modern bouclay chair and a fig tree in a pot, could be like the chicest thing ever. I like stuff like that, or you know, like those rooms you see like in Greek you know escapes where it's just everything is white plaster and there's like a rustic basket and then like a modern white sofa.
Like.
But I have so many different tastes, and I think a room needs to really relate to where it is. So like when I see people or even like a rest front and they try to make it look like Santorini, but it's in New York City, I'm just say, oh, this feels weird. Like I feel like in like a window at Bloomingdale's if they were doing like a celebration of Greece, so I like it to relate to the place. And it could be an antique you know stone house in Kentucky that's very spartan and shakery, or it could be you know, some Fifth Avenue apartment that you know is all silk velvets. I mean, it's just the whole gamut For me. I love interiors.
And there's also that thing that trap that people learn too. You were talking about this before, like the housewives thing, where it's just a bunch of labors rights right, Like a lot of times, very very very rich people have these apartments that literally look like hotel lobbies. Yes, yes, you know, yes, and they have it and it's like a hotel lobby with like the most unbelievable side Twombly painting you've ever seen in your life, and yet the rest of it looks like really really expensive West elm was something you know, yes that have.
It's a lot And here's my theory on that one. Really really rich people have many homes and they're not in them that much. And all of my houses are very like layered, like I have a lot of stuff. I'm a maximalist. I see modern apartments with like one chair and a plant, and I'm just like, oh, I would love to live like that, but I like too many different things. But I think very very rich people that have many homes don't have all those layers of personal items because they don't have as many personal items because they're spread out over all these houses. So they don't have, you know, like the piano that they learned how to play piano on, or you know, seventy five silver framed pictures of like their favorite horses over the last fifty five years. Like just because they have nineteen houses.
And also, right, they have nineteen houses and they have one decorator and he just makes it all look like the same yea. And sometimes I remember this. I remember when I first did my apartment in New York City and then we went to shoot actually we went to shoot Natalie Portman at Kitty Carlile Hart's house with Kitty, right, Kitty was in the pictures. Oh yeah. And the point is we went into this apartment and it was like, what have I done? It was just a pre war apartment, but it was so amazing. And it helps if you have George Gershwin sheet music right, like you know that George wrote by hand ye framed by the piano. You know what I mean, right, it's really something. Yeah, it's really those shades with the little crochete. It's real and it's like it's fuck you. It's sort of so grand. And I have to say, it's like the Queen of England the way she looks with a fucking kerchief and some shitty little jacket and her wellies and the dogs. And to me that's like really stylish, like you were saying earlier, like really old authentic. But the lesson is, the lesson is that it's about you. It's all you have to like sort of. I swear to God if we could teach this to people, that it's all all all about them, right, like them, Because listen, darling, you walk into a bakery, don't you know which of the things you want immediately? I know I want that absolutely and not that and not that. So people do have taste, they just don't know about it, right.
Yeah, yeah, or they're just not exposed, like if you never went to a French bakery, you might not know that you like pen to shock a lot, like you have to.
Someone has to give you a taste, except darling, if you walk into a Duncan's. You know you want the chocolate one and not the fucking whatever you know kiwi for you don't want that. I want that what you want even when you look into.
I want the glaze chocolate absolutely absolutely might live for a Duncan.
Let's talk about you for a second. How did you get started? I think you worked for it. I did. Yeah. By the way, Raffler and I have the same berth oh decades. I'm much younger October fourteenth.
I grew up in Pennsylvania on a farm, a horse farm, and I'm a very like horsey person with a Horsey family. And I went to a small liberal arts college called Gettysburg College, also in Pennsylvania, and I knew I wanted to I didn't know what I wanted to do. It was the early nineties, and the economy was kind of terrible in nineteen ninety one, and I just knew I wanted to live in New York City. And I got a job, a temporary job, just to like barely pay the rent of a one bedroom that I shared with two girls from college, and I just walked around the city. I mean, it was before the internet. We didn't even have asked Jeeves. I would walk around New York and I was like, Oh, there's a sign on Seventh Avenue for MGM. I didn't know they had an office in New York. I could work there, or Oh, I like fashion, so why don't I try interviewing at Calvin Klein or Ralph Lauren. Although I was not a Calvin Klein person, but you adapt. But I was very much aligned with the Ralph Lauren brand. I mean I knew the whole, the theater of it all, and I was already like a horse person. So I was like, I'll just and I already you know, I already had the clothes. So I went in and I had an interview and they were like, what do you think this job was all about? I said, part of it is like great clothes and amazing quality and details, but the rest is kind of like theater and like creating whatever dream you want to be that day. And this woman who hired me, her name was Christian Dubuke, will not forget it. And I became an assistant to Ralph Lauren, his brother Jerry Lauren John Barvados, who worked there at the time, and the other major part of their men's team was a woman named Bobby Ranallis, and I did their schedule and I got their lunch, and I went to every design meeting and I would take notes, you know, put things rigs up.
On the wall.
And it was just a tremendous education. And I got to, you know, interact with Ralph and I worked there for seven years. And when you're an assistant to somebody who's like at the highest level of the company, I always say it was like Devilware's praduct. But everyone was very nice and preppy. And but when you're an assistant, you're kind of a gatekeeper for so many people. So I met the people that you know, Sapphlo that made the eye wear and the shoe licensee and the hot socks people and all these different Was there.
A person there is that you was there like a person, a one person there who who like who you who mentored you or who helped you or something, or who you learn, yes, a huge amount from without them even knowing who who It was Jerry Lauren, who is Ralph's brother, and we just had a good relationship and he liked me and I liked him, and we just you know, got along.
So I would try to absorb absolutely everything. And after doing that job for a couple of years, you know, you don't want to be an assistant forever. I was like, you know, I would love to like work in design. I would you know, keep my eyes open for when jobs were opening in the different departments. And then Jerry, you know, gave me his blessing. Is like, listen, you can do whatever you want here. We love you and you're like so dependable and you're smart, and you're on it and you present well and like, oh so he just gave me the seal of approval. So I started working in golf and tennis design with James Fairchild.
These are all people that you know.
And then I worked in men's sportswear with John Barvados and Kenny Thomas and and then my favorite job was working in advertising and for the Ralph Floren brand. I mean, advertising is like a huge part of that company. They created the most iconic images and it was just such a part of that culture and an opportunity came available to Back in the nineties, there were many many department stores, as you know, there was May Company, and there was Federated and there was oh yes, Violins and Parisians and bird Eyes, and every region had their major department store, and I worked with all of those department stores to select the merchandise that would be featured in their catalog. We would pay a parsh a portion of production costs, and I would go on location with the models and the Samoyed puppies and the stacks of Kashmir Cablenet sweaters, and I would make sure that they had the right model and the right location and for all those departments. I can't tell you, darling, I am so thrilled to be talking to you about this because I really respect.
You, and I know you have an eye, and I know you have a lot of good tastes. And by the way, it explains your whole like sort of horsey Instagram present right right, Yeah, I didn't realize that that was a family thing. But wait a second, but darling, like I think of you not necessarily. Of course, you're a design person and you're a style expert, but I think of you almost more as like a talking head, like someone who expresses themselves right, well, a wit, A wit, Darling, You're funny and so and so, darling, Darling, So where did that? Where did that part of this whole? Like when did that start taking? Like? Where did that? Yeah?
I mean I think we're very similar because we love to be entertainers and one part Paul l Yeah, one part Charles Nils.
Maybe two parts, but google po exactly. You know. I think it's one of those uh.
Blessings in disguise that I developed a sense of humor and a quick wit because growing up gay in rural Pennsylvania where you're practically Amish and it's very like my high school was very hunting and wrestling and football, and I was, you know, wearing Calvin Klein jeans in the fourth grade because I just, you know, I just saw them on Channel five. I was like, I need those, you know, it's the designer gene era. So I was always, you know, very.
Into clothes and but picked on for that.
You know, So by seventh or eighth grade, when you're like literally dry heaving every morning in the bathroom because you're so terrified that you're going to be you know, bullied or physically beaten up at school that day, and you're not telling your parents or anybody because you don't want them to know the reason why you developed some sort of defense mechanism. And for me it was such a blessing because I realized if I could be the class clown, or if I could be the one in the back of the bus that was telling a joke real quick or deflecting by calling somebody else out or making something funny, then I would be safe.
I love that you refer to that as a blessing, you know, because that's a big thing, right, that's a big thing when you think about people being bullied and people having difficult pasts. A lot of us don't. A lot of people don't think of that as a blessing. You know. Yeah, that's a smart thing. I have to say.
I just I had to make lemons into lemonade, but thank god I figured out how to do it, and it was it was a positive thing that gave me a.
Really good job skill.
And you know, and I brought that to Ralph Lauren too, Like we would be shooting with Bruce Weber and I would have like I would have to, I got you know, when you're the young person, I was the one styling like the mountain of like Kashmir socks, or like the lame like set of towels, you know, and I was like, let's hang it over this spot, Ralph fence, or let's do that, and like, no, just do a stack. But I would be, you know, on set with like ninety five Kashmir socks, and Bruce Weber would be there and a bunch of executives and I'd be traped thing across the field at the Warhall estate in man talk and I would pratt, I would pratt fall and all the socks would go flying, and they thought it was so funny. So I was like the court gesture on set and I did it well minimally, so I didn't get fired, but I had fun. And that's where I was like, oh, I have an audience.
I like this. I never worked for Ralph Lauren. I think that's why I still adore, you know, I adore him, and I adore the whole thing. Is I work right there. I did work at Calvin Klein, who I also adore, and I worked there for four years or three years, and I remember, you know, humor was not the most accepted thing in that design room because we were like in the design room working on this collection and it was so serious and at one point I remember I was doing my Elizabeth Taylor impersonation in the fitting room and Calvin walked in and there was this terrifying moment. You know. I remember one other time when I made a joke. I was in the fitting and I just couldn't stand it anymore, and I was like, you know what that lace, Starling, it looks like the inside of a wig. You know, I just said right, right, and and no, and it was like a complete utter side. You know. They didn't love my, my, my describing laces the inside of a wig, and so you didn't come up you didn't come up against that in the fashion business, where like Bruce Weber, you know, on those sittings sometimes it was like, you know, religious, they were religiously devoted to something.
Yes, and you make a joke, I think in the design room and I would be in there like taking notes or whatever. There was no joking happening then, and you were trying to stay as under the radar as possible because the design director and Ralph and like Buffy and like two people were like talking and now that's Buffy, right, That's the only thing that was a loud Buffy. When I was on set and we were on location, it was much more breathable. And that's where you know, I could make Bruce laugh or my boss laugh or we could just have a good time. And I think when you're styling those photos and you're like having a great time and you're out, you know, you're in a beautiful location, you're like the most gorgeous man on the earth, and you're putting on beautiful.
Like you know, cashmere sweaters. Lease, we had a great time. It was heaven. Well, let me tell you something. When I was very young, when I was eighteen or nineteen, I worked to Perry Us and I would go on these rights as the scalalist, which meant I had to press things yes, and I used to get We would flown and buy one of those CPOs to Perry's house and Water Island with a model with and when those days, it was like a sock, a boot, a skirt, a pair of pants under the stripe, a belt, another belt, a sweater, another sweater, a scarf, two scarves, a hat. That was the look. So it was like this and if I forgot one of those things, they couldn't shoot. So it was my and I would spoke about dry even right I used to out those mornings before I would take off in those planes, Darling. And then the whole stress of being on a fucking seaplane right with fifteen people and bags full of shit. It was a nightmare, trust me. That wow, but so cool for me. It was the opposite. It was the opposite. It was cool, but it was opposite. Okay, I have a question for you. You're talking now about this fantastic sort of assent. You went from this fantastic job where you learned so much. Was there, ever, I'm asking this about a lot of the people that I'm interviewing. Was there ever like a setback that you remember that you learned a lot? Like it? Really you really thought this is the end? Darling?
Yeah, I was lucky. My career at Ralph Lauren was wonderful. I still love the company. I go back and I talked to like their whole company for Pride Week last year, like fifty thousand people across the globe, and I love and adore everyone there. And then it went right into Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, which was like a big hit right out of the gate, and we won like an Emmy right away.
The second year.
I think, Wow, so everything was moving along very smoothly, and I was like, you know, I didn't even expect that.
Who would and then setbacks? Then that all ends.
Every TV show comes to an end, and I'm that's where I didn't have any experience or knowledge of, like, well I did all these things in succession and they all went so well, and now like this thing is ending, Now what.
Do I do? Did you have an agent?
I did, Yeah, you know, when queer Ie was poppin' and so popular, like agents were like courting me and like, oh, would you like a Rolex And I'm like, of course, I would sure bring it on. But there was probably like a year where I was just like, oh my god, nobody told me that now I don't have a real job and I don't have a TV job, And I remember it was just very hard to figure out. Like I had always worked a lot, even growing up, like we had horses at home, you'd like take care of them.
You're always working.
I never went on vacations at Rolf Lauren because a lot of the jobs kind of like felt like vacations.
We went to great places.
And then I worked in TV, Like the first year it was like we worked every week for a year, and then all of a sudden, it was just like the brakes were slammed on, and I was like, Okay, what do I do? And I was trying to like fill my days in New York and I would go to like fashion shows. I remember Fashion Week would be twice a year, and you try to fill your day. But I was just really I struggled at knowing how to navigate not having a steady job and the freedom of it is wonderful, but I wasn't confident in that to embrace that. So I had to learn how to like have faith.
I guess describe what happened after that year, like, what was the first thing you did after Queer Eye for the stoke? How did you then?
I did this lesson basically you just have to keep calm and carry on. And I was like, oh my gosh, do I need to apply for fashion jobs again? Do I need to go back to Ralph Lauren? Which would have been just fine. But I was lucky enough that I did get how to look good naked.
And that was a couple more years.
So then after that happens a couple of times you think, well, if I just keep working and I keep my nose to the grindstone. Oh and the big thing that I learned also, and this is great for anybody listening. And I think in show bus especially, but I think also in the fashion business and probably any industry. You must never burn bridges. Maybe like somebody ran a network and they didn't think your show was any good, and you're like, well, they have terrible taste.
And you kind of, you know, run whatever.
Five seconds later, you're going for a meeting in La at a different network and you sit down and they come in and you're like, oh my god, you work here. So people are constantly moving around, and I'm sure it's the same. I mean, I was only in the fashion business for like ten years, but I'm sure it's the same way. Like the HR director at Perry Ellis moved to Calvin Klein, and then from Calvin they went to Johnny Cars.
Are you kidding? Absolutely one thing I will say about progression of Carson Kresley, if you were looking at it, if you were okay right As I loved Queer Eye. I watched every single episode, and then How to Look Good Naked, it felt like a like even more of a kind of gift or something to humankind where you were as funny, sometimes as vicious, sometimes as cuttingly observant and say, but also there was a kindness about you. There was like a loving side to you that we didn't necessarily always see on Queer Eye. I thought it was like a deepening of this character whoever you were right right this Carson Kresley. And by the way, is it a character? Is it different from who you really are, this person that you are out there portraying. I mean that, well, thank you.
I loved doing Queer Eye and that was such a fun, amazing, like what a gift. And then your absolute right queer for the straight guy was so great for me. Besides, this was an amazing opportunity and gave me a career. But also in embracing one hundred percent who I was. Oh, being on that show makes you come out to everybody in the world, like in One Fell Swoop. So I didn't have any awkward moments with Aunt Betty Jane saying why are you going to meet a nice girl from Connecticut? That I didn't have to do that because luck at you it was done. I never liked on Queer Ie when it was like emotional and people like would cry and they're like holding each other. Was like, can we just put them in cute out It's like, I'm uncomfortable with the muschiness. It was, and there was a lot of important stories and more as the show went on, of people who were dealing with challenges in their life and how we would help them with a makeover but also just overcome something maybe that was not great, that was going on in their life.
How to look good naked allowed me to.
Like tap into those feelings and be a little bit more empathetic and be able to share that on TV, which I wasn't comfortable with.
I think on Queer, maybe you learned, maybe you learned how to look at people and actually listen to people a little bit. And also you learned that that's the payoff, Darling. Oh, that's what we're there for. We're certainly not there to give a shit about clothes or anything. I'm serious. It's like that's the backdrop. This thing that we're watching is the story and the unfolding in the Cocoon and the Butterfly, which absolutely absolutely story. Let's go back for a second, because you're talking about something that I really resonate with, which is this thing you were saying you were out on television, and I remember, I'm a little older than you, a little older than from me, a little older, which sucks. It sucks, It sucks, Okay, But anyway, the point is that when I was coming up in the world, it was everybody was just so closet. It was so hot, hard, and also kind of great. There were great things about it. So I don't want to make this into a complaint, but I remember when I came out with my first collection in nineteen eighty seven, right New York magazine did this cover story and they and I remember going to the Psychic two years in Advantage. She's like, Darling, you better start thinking about what you're going to say publicly because you're going to be in the public eye released it and I was like, yeah, right, but it started me thinking, and I made the conscious decision not to kind of lie or cover up or do anything. I made a decision like, Okay, if they ask, I'm going to say I'm gay. And they did ask, and I said I was gay, and I remember like there was this kind of hush that fell over like seventh three. It was like I swear, Carson, I swear. And I saw this friend of mine at a cocktail and it was like, oh, Darling, I'm so sorry they outed you in New York magazine and I thought, no, Darling, they did not out me. I made the decision, but you know, falling on deaf ears right, falling on deaf ears two years later, I'm not kidding even too measly years later, they had Kadi Lang on the cover of New York magazine and the headline was Lesbian chic, and I remember seeing this friend of mine and saying, Darling, I was. I was. I was lesbian two years before Kate's right, But I remember thinking, Okay, my aunt now knows I'm gay. My aunt Celia knows I'm gay. It was not easy, and it was you're saying that it was easy going to Thanksgiving and seeing your aunt, who now knows that was easy? Can you know what?
In my situation, I was such like a feminine kid, and I loved All's and my Grandma would buy me tea sets, and you know, that's the things I was asking for. So it was just now confirmed, I think. So for me, it actually did make it easier because I never had to actually have the conversation and be like uncomfortable and awkward. It was just now out there, which was confirming what everybody knew. I was just like, Okay, let's eat some mashed potatoes. Just was very smooth, darling, lucky.
Not only was I feminine, I was doing female impersonations when I was eight. I was doing stry sand and surely fassy. Okay. It was not unclear to these people either, and somehow they convinced themselves that I would go on to marry a woman and that I would take you know over in my father's company when he talked about what they thought, I don't know what the denial, what the factor of denial was. Okay, I don't know what it was, but it was something I want to move into another little segment. I want to talk about. Yeah for a minute, Carson Kresley, the man, the man? Are you dating? Yeah? Is that off limits to should we? No? No, not at all? Are one person? Several people? What is your take on what's going on? Tell us everything? I am.
I am casually dating, so that means I am dating. There are a couple contenders. I'm not sleeping with all of them yet. Yeah, because I'm not a slot, but I am. I do have some fun.
I have some good for you. I have some fun and interesting date. Is it hard for you to date? Like, do you think it's hard to find men who are interested in you? I'm not kidding. What is it like to be such a recognizable celebrity and have a personal life. It's a double edged sword, and I always say it's still a blessing. And people are like, oh, you know, like when somebody like comes up to you somewhere and like it doesn't that get annoying? I'm like no, because I also everybody thinks they're your friend, and that's very helpful. Like if you're in a foreign city and like you get a flat tire and they're like, oh my god, I know you here, jump in my car. I'll take you to I don't get in strangers cars.
But true, everybody thinks they know you and you're kind of a friend of the family. So even like restaurants and when you need it to work, it usually doesn't work, but usually you can get a good table and things are good because of it.
But this is trading.
Yes, everybody knows who you are, and I think that makes it first, in some ways it makes it easier to get a date. And now Instagram is like such a meat market and I love it.
Now, wait a second, do people like slide into your deck? I slide there that shit. Yeah, someimes you have to be the one during the finer do it? Do interesting? I seem happily married, so I'm not supposed to be. Oh well, then you can't be sliding. You can just have to look. I can't see.
But here's where it gets tricky. Everybody knows you, or a lot of people know you, and they have preconceived notions about you too, So it depends how they know you. If they know you from queer and they think you're one thing. If they see you on RuPaul's drag race, they're like shocked. When you don't show up wearing at that looks like a casino carpet, they think you're that. I'm like, no, you have to I operate the wardrobe and the personality is dictated by what is the venue?
What are we doing?
So if we're, you know, at a drag extravaganza and my job is to critique drag looks, I'm going to look appropriate for that world. So I think sometimes they have to get to know the real you, you know, and they only know you from TV. Maybe, Well, I mean, let's talk about Drag Race because it is everybody's favorite show. It is America's and the world's favorite show. Yes, and there you are so incredibly recognizable. What do we talk about first, Carson?
Do we talk about like the difference between drag and clothes and is that kind of merging right now? Is it blurring about that? For a second?
Drag style, I think is so fluid. It goes back and forth. It's like street style. Like when I worked at Ralph LA in the nineties. Ralph would come in and say, oh, I saw this kid on the street and he was wearing this, and he was getting inspired by how kids were wearing stuff that he would see on the street, and that was filtering into collections that he was designing.
It's always going back and forth.
And I think drag is influencing fashion, and then I think fashion influences dreg You know, if there's bits and pieces of Faye Dunaway as Mommy Deariest in the nineteen seventies in some kind of gown that they're wearing for a ball or a runway challenge. They've been influenced by pop culture, and then in turn it can go back and go the other way where designers could watch the show. I don't know Jeremy Scott or Mark Jacobs, they're all fans of the show. They might see something that somebody does and say, oh my gosh, I think I want to do. That's inspiring to me. Because of media, it's very back and.
Forth, absolutely and no shade at all. But looking at the pictures from the Met Ball, I go, wait a minute, those queens on RuPaul Drag Risk going oh, I aspire to the met bawl, And I think to myself so many times, a lot of that red carpet like where people just go insane, A lot of that aspires to the drag queen, and the drag queen does it so much better. And it's such a better context to do it in, right, like a drag pageant or a drag ball. I think it's a better context to do it in because it doesn't have the political kind of weight it used to have when a freak would show up in some kind of gorgeous, fabulous thing. Right, have that way because everybody does it now you know what I mean. So they have to figure out I'm telling you, darlings, they have to figure something out, right, Like the COGNIZENTI have to figure something. Gorgeous. People have to figure something in.
Yes, my thing with the met gallon, I didn't look at tons of pictures, but in some ways it's very commercial and a lot of the celebrities that are wearing certain designers have relationships with them, commercial relationships. They might have a fragrance or a cosmetic steel, so they're kind of locked into wearing that particular designer. And I feel like they're wearing costumes and it doesn't really reflect who they are or their.
Style, if that makes sense.
So I saw a lot of like really cool stuff, but no one seemed like they were not that many seemed like they were owning it right or it was authentic.
Okay, I have a final question for you, Carson. Here's the question that I'm asking a lot of people because and especially it's such an interesting question to ask you because you are everything. What is your bit headline? Darn the New York Times, a bit that has a trace around the front page of some kind I'm going to steal this actually It's a sad story about somebody who died in the nineties during the AIDS epidemic, and there's this amazing Instagram page called like the AIDS Memorial something. And this person has such a great sense of humor. He was like from Palm Beach and a real like stylish New Yorker, just a gad about who was phenomenal.
And his oh bit literally said man's best friend, which I thought was so funny, but also like kind of dease.
Right, is there a meaning that you want your like what do you want your oh bit to mean? Outside the headline? I do love amazing.
The epitaph is so unimportant, like who's actually like coming to your grave? And I'm probably not even gonna have when I'm going to be cremated, but I would have a link on my headstone that just said google me, here's all the stuff I did.
And you you just you decide that is amazing.
Yeah, do we start that trend lake with bio Yeah? Or it could be one of those QR codes and it could have a message from the beyond.
Yes, Kean, And it's like.
You pop up like a like a Disney and you tell the people like about your life. But I like to go to old cemeteries and see where my like ancient relatives were buried, and you see all these like crazy like Jedediah Spraak, and you I just always wonder like who were they and were they hot?
What did they do?
And they were like thirty three when they died, like during the Revolutionary War, and I wish we had QR codes on them so we could like see their picture and what their life story was.
We'll have to work on that. Like only fan pages you want, Like, only fan pages for your really hot dead relatives is what you want? Right? Oh, well that's for eight dollars you get even more pictures. Yeah.
Yeah, that's maybe getting a little weird. Okay, maybe that's not a good idea.
Oh I don't know, that's where that's where I went. Sorry, Darling, now getting weird. I'm getting weird. I love that. Okay, Well, is there something you want to promote? Oh? On the show?
People can always follow me on social media at Carson Kresley and they can watch the new season of Barbecue Brawl on Food Network this June and a new season of RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars eight on paramount plus.
That's some great stuff, Darling. Congratulations, Thanks, I love it. I love you. I love you, I mean it, I love you. Let's do this again.
This is the most interesting and fun because you know, you don't ask the same old question.
I could have done that all day too, and tell them to book me on RuPaul drag Races as a five judge. What the hell is this? I've only been on once. Hello, I need to write it absolutely, email their bucks today can be seriously, I'm going to and we can do a QVC design challenge because you know ru is obsessed with QVC totally. Oh, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. So I thought I do everything about Carson. I mean, we've been friends for so long, and I got to tell you that was eye opening what we just found out. You know, just this idea of the fact that he had this difficult childhood. Someone's so sunny, you don't understand that they could perhaps have had a really difficult child and he was bullied, etc. All this idea about working in the fashion business, which I never knew. I just thought he emerged as a TV personality. But boy was I wrong. You know, I don't know the whole thing about the equestrian mystery that was totally unveiled. In this episode, you get to know a really, really nice guy. Not only is he hilariously funny and acerbic and urbane and witty, he's also just nice. So anyway, this is Isaac Mizrah. He's saying thank you, I love you, and I never thought I'd say this, but goodbye Isaac. Hello Isaac is produced by Imagine Audio, Awfully Nice and I AM Entertainment for iHeartMedia. The series is hosted by me Isaac Musrahi. Hello Isaac is produced by Robin Gelfenbein. The senior producers are Jesse Burton and John Assanti. It is executive produced by Ron Howard, Brian Grazerkarra Welker, and Nathan Cloke at Imagine Audio. Production management from Katie Hodges, Sound design and mixing by Cedric Wilson. Original music composed by Ben Waltzon. A special thanks to Neil Phelps and Sarah Katanak at im Entertainment