Linda Evangelista and Marc Jacobs Reminisce on ’90s Fashion

Vogue

The two friends sat down for a chat at Vogue’s Forces of Fashion event.   Director: Michael Toriello Director of Photography: Andy Hoets Editors: Evan Allan, Cory Stevens Associate Director, Creative Development: Alexandra Gurvitch Technical Director: Jon Davila Video Engineer: Jose Santiago Camera Operators: Geoff Celis, Gregg Brault Robotic Cameras: Mitch Csanadi Gaffer: Anh Pham Audio Engineer: David Rosenberger Audio Technician: Bradley Timofeev Set Designers: Raul Avila, Ashley Duch Carpenter: Orwayne Price Post Production Coordinator: Jovan James Supervising Editor: Kameron Key Post Production Supervisor: Edward Taylor Entertainment Director: Sergio Kletnoy Senior Director, Programming: Linda Gittleson VP, Digital Video English: Thespena Guatieri

Transcript

00:00 - I don't understand the question.

00:01 - Yeah, okay, let's get rid of that one.

00:03 - Okay.

00:04 - It's Linda, I'm Mark, in case any of you are confused.

00:17 When did we both become aware of each other?

00:23 Do you know?

00:24 - I knew about you before I actually met you

00:28 because there was like a lot of buzz,

00:31 Mark Jacobs, Mark Jacobs, there's this Mark, Mark.

00:35 - I know where you're going with this.

00:37 I had just got a job at Perry Ellis,

00:42 which was a big design company here in New York at the time.

00:46 And I knew of you from a photograph

00:51 that you did with Steven for American Vogue.

00:54 And I have to say, you know, I love Steven's work so much

00:56 and I was just looking every single month

00:58 like for anything that Steven did and there you were.

01:01 And I got this job at Perry Ellis and I was like,

01:03 I want Linda Evangelista to be in our first campaign.

01:08 And you cut your hair, I think we were on a shoot,

01:12 I showed up, you were there, and Orbe was doing the hair,

01:16 Francois was doing the makeup,

01:18 and they poured a bucket of cold water over your head

01:22 and that was the picture.

01:25 - Where was the fashion?

01:26 - We hadn't made any clothes yet.

01:28 So we just did a t-shirt printed that said,

01:31 very Ellis instead of Perry Ellis,

01:33 and you were holding it down and they dug,

01:35 and it was before the ice bucket challenge.

01:38 Like it was the original ice bucket challenge.

01:42 - I think it was '87.

01:44 - Yeah, sounds about right, '87, '88, definitely.

01:47 - And then I did do campaigns, I did do your show.

01:53 - Yes.

01:54 - And I did meet you.

01:56 - Yeah, yeah.

01:57 - And I understood the buzz.

01:59 - Oh, thanks.

02:01 And I understood the buzz about you too,

02:03 'cause there was nobody who could go from this to that,

02:07 and just nail it every time.

02:10 You were incredible, and still are.

02:13 What were the early days of fame like for you?

02:18 - My dream was always, always, well, since the age of 12,

02:23 to be a model.

02:24 My dream was to be on the cover of Vogue.

02:27 My dream was to be shot in fashion.

02:30 My dream was to do fashion shows and to be in magazines.

02:35 Never in my mind did that include, you know,

02:41 I want to be famous.

02:44 I just wanted to be successful.

02:46 Yeah, I didn't understand there was a difference

02:51 between successful and famous.

02:53 And the famous part, that was hard to understand,

02:58 even for me.

03:00 And then, apparently I said really dumb things

03:06 like I won't get out of bed.

03:09 Stuff like that, which, you know, in your 20s,

03:13 I think, well, I'm not going to include you all,

03:16 but I want to say we all say dumb things in our 20s,

03:20 but it's not something I would say now,

03:24 but at the same time, I don't regret it

03:26 because it was said, you know, tongue in cheek.

03:31 I was trying to say I know my worth,

03:33 but I wouldn't quite phrase it that way today.

03:38 - Yeah, I always thought it was kind of a cool

03:41 and funny thing, an offhanded thing to say,

03:43 but it did also make sense.

03:46 You know, like you basically were like,

03:48 if I have a job to do, I'll get out of bed to do it,

03:51 but this is what a job is to me right now.

03:53 What are your memories of the 90s like?

03:57 - So hard to describe.

03:59 It was one thing and the next thing,

04:01 you changed it up and made it like all grungy.

04:04 And I was so confused.

04:07 - You were so confused.

04:09 - I was like, how do I fit in here?

04:11 - Well, but that's, I'm really glad you brought that up

04:13 because, you know, one thing, I don't know how it came up,

04:16 but I was thinking about like all those incredible images.

04:20 You were it.

04:21 It's like, it was the funniest thing.

04:22 - No, I wasn't Kate Moss was.

04:25 - No, Kate I get because she was like the Korean thing,

04:28 but what was funny to me on the outside was like,

04:31 there were those photographers and they were like,

04:34 well, Linda works.

04:36 - I had the body type because I was never then curvaceous.

04:42 I always had kind of that, you know, felt body.

04:47 So I could adapt in that way.

04:50 And then yes, they worked with me.

04:55 So they all gave me a chance.

04:58 And I remember there was like all this talk

05:01 about the demise of the supermodel and we were over

05:05 and we were finished.

05:06 And I was like, we are?

05:07 I was working every day.

05:10 And I mean, in 93 was the year they said it was over,

05:15 it was over for us.

05:16 And I was on September, 1993 American Vogue cover.

05:21 So not really.

05:24 - Yeah, not really.

05:26 - I fit in and I liked it.

05:29 And I actually enjoyed dressing that way.

05:33 It was very exciting.

05:36 It was an exciting period.

05:39 And necessary 'cause it was going in such a bedazzled,

05:44 opulent, more is more and more is better way.

05:50 - I think there were a lot of things going on.

05:53 I mean, for something like that to affect all kind

05:57 of creativity, it happens on the level of art

06:02 and fashion and film.

06:04 Yeah, like culture.

06:07 But you managed, and that's the genius of you.

06:11 You managed to do it in a luxurious way.

06:13 Like the fabrics were so beautiful.

06:17 And the textures and the sweaters,

06:19 they were just so beautiful.

06:22 - I think for me at the time, it was the idea

06:25 of like appreciating and celebrating something beautiful

06:29 that was never considered beautiful.

06:32 So like it may feel beautiful, et cetera, or luxurious.

06:36 But I think it was also just looking at things

06:40 in a very, very different way.

06:43 I mean, I remember looking at a skirt length

06:46 that two years prior would have been considered dowdy

06:51 and wrong, and it's like, yeah,

06:53 that's what's so nice about it.

06:54 - Yeah.

06:55 - You know?

06:56 - Yeah.

06:57 - So do you have like an archive of like clothes?

06:58 - I do, I do.

07:00 So in my mother's home, I claimed that I was a designer.

07:06 I claimed the bottom floor, one might call it a basement,

07:10 but it has windows, so I don't think it's a basement.

07:14 But there's a room in there with all of my work,

07:19 like the actual magazines, catalogs, brochures.

07:24 - Wow.

07:26 So the full magazine.

07:28 - Yes, it's all in there.

07:29 Like 90% nicely organized.

07:34 And then there's the cedar closets that I had made

07:37 in France that move around on wheels,

07:40 and they have the most beautiful clothes in them,

07:45 some azidines and chanels,

07:47 and nice things that don't fit me.

07:51 Instead of sitting there, they really need a home,

07:53 and that's a project that I would like to get to.

07:57 And then I have my awards.

07:59 My mom has all my awards, like in a curio cabinet,

08:03 and I mean, there's not that many.

08:07 - Well, I'm sure it's a few.

08:10 - There's a VH one, there's one from Gorbachev.

08:15 There's like a few awards.

08:18 - Nice.

08:19 - How about you?

08:21 - As a company, we keep most of the collections

08:25 that I've done recently in an archive.

08:28 And I think Michael, who does the press,

08:30 kept like all the press books, tear sheets,

08:33 I think is what we used to call them.

08:35 Tear sheets.

08:36 And I think we have old VHS copies of fashion shows

08:39 that have never been transferred.

08:40 - You better hurry up and get those transferred

08:42 because there's like--

08:44 - They'll dissolve.

08:45 - Probably one company left that will.

08:48 I know that coming out of a documentary.

08:50 - Oh, I was gonna say, when my Perrie Ellis career

08:55 was over after the grunge collection,

08:57 and they were like, bye, see ya.

09:01 I started doing, I had like, we started up our own company

09:05 and you did that first show.

09:07 In fact, Christie came in and she was like,

09:10 I'm not doing Runway ever again,

09:11 but for you, when you're ready, I'll come back.

09:13 - How many times did she say that?

09:15 - Well, that was the first time she actually--

09:16 - The first time she said that, yes.

09:18 - Yeah, she said it a few times.

09:20 Like she came back for me recently, whatever.

09:23 - Thank God.

09:24 - But I was gonna say is that early on

09:26 in my career post Perrie Ellis,

09:30 I couldn't afford to pay anybody,

09:31 so I gave you and the others clothes.

09:34 - Thank God.

09:35 - No, but that was, so I didn't save anything.

09:38 So there's no archive of that period.

09:41 - I can give you back those pieces.

09:42 (audience laughing)

09:45 - If you've got anything.

09:46 - I think I have the yellow rubber coat.

09:48 - Do you?

09:50 - I think I do.

09:51 - It's probably like, dissolved, like I don't know how.

09:53 - I don't know, it's in the cedar closet.

09:55 - Well, if you find it, I wonder if cedar and rubber really--

09:58 - It's hard to control.

10:00 - But if you come across it and you've got nothing--

10:03 - Whatever state it's in, it'll be good.

10:05 - Might be melted.

10:07 - Not in Canada, it's in Canada.

10:10 - Oh.

10:10 - It didn't melt. - It's cold?

10:11 - Yeah. - Cold, okay.

10:13 So, all right, I skipped this question,

10:16 but I'm gonna ask it anyway.

10:17 What does it mean to have a friendship

10:19 like ours in this business?

10:22 - It's precious.

10:24 It's precious.

10:28 I mean, I turned to you during COVID

10:32 when we initially all got into lockdown.

10:37 It was so scary.

10:39 We've lost so many people in our industry.

10:44 I mean, going through the 80s,

10:47 I was around for like 85 on,

10:51 and that was a scary time.

10:55 I lost my first booking agent to AIDS,

10:58 and I don't know, we just lost so many people.

11:03 And we've lost, how many designers have we lost?

11:07 And hairdressers and makeup artists and photographers.

11:11 And I don't know, as time goes by,

11:15 I just try to hold on as much as I can to my real friends.

11:21 And it's hard to make real friends in this business.

11:25 And a lot of it's fleeting,

11:28 and we don't live in the same place,

11:30 and we're all moving around and flying and jet setting

11:34 and crossing paths.

11:36 And it takes a real commitment to remain friends.

11:41 But what's great is when you do make a real friend,

11:44 even if you don't see each other for a while,

11:46 when you reconnect,

11:50 nothing is lost.

11:52 - Yeah, yeah, I agree with you completely.

11:54 I remember very well during the pandemic,

11:56 and we were in that like group chat conversation,

11:58 and it was really special, I thought,

12:03 to kind of reconnect with you,

12:06 because I hadn't seen you or spoken to you

12:08 or heard from you in a while.

12:09 And I always remembered your Christmas parties.

12:11 And so there was like that whole,

12:13 I think during that period

12:16 where it just went back in time and think,

12:18 oh, I miss this and I miss that and I miss this.

12:20 - Yeah, okay, well, that was a really beautiful answer,

12:23 Linda.

12:24 - And this is why I love him.

12:26 (audience applauding)

12:29 - Thank you, everybody.

12:32 Thank you.

12:33 (upbeat music)

12:35 (upbeat music)

12:38 (upbeat music)

12:41 (upbeat music)

12:43 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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