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    That ‘Ziwe’ Look

    On her new Showtime series, Ziwe Fumudoh’s feminine-with-a-wink style enables her sharp comedy.In the first episode of her new variety series on Showtime, the comedian Ziwe Fumudoh asks the writer Fran Lebowitz: “What bothers you more: slow walkers or racism?”“This character is hyperbolic,” Ms. Fumudoh said a few days before the premiere of “Ziwe.” “It’s only hyperbole that somebody would ask that question. And you see that reflected in how I dress.”Ms. Fumudoh was explaining how the wardrobe for the series came together: a tornado of pink that has sucked up a few feather boas, a mountain of crystal embellishments and an assortment of fuzzy hats, plastic visors, tiny sunglasses and opera gloves. When the costume designer Pamela Shepard-Hill would add a ring to an outfit, Ms. Fumudoh would ask for six more, “and then let’s do a cuff that’s entirely made of diamonds,” she said.On “Ziwe,” whether during a confrontational interview or parody music video, Ms. Fumudoh plays an audacious, quick-witted consumerist, whose attitude and armor is inspired by an unholy marriage of Dionne from “Clueless” and Paris Hilton in “The Simple Life,” along with a few other ultrafeminine pop culture figures of the 1990s and aughts. (In a sketch about plastic surgery, she wears matching pink sweatpants and a sleeveless crop top, wordlessly making a reference to Amy Poehler’s desperate mom from “Mean Girls.”)As a comedian who became famous for making people uncomfortable with questions about race and class, Ms. Fumudoh, 29, uses fashion like a weapon, creating an air of innocence with her Delia’s catalog looks, then slicing through it with the sharp heel of a Barbie stiletto.She is also an exceptionally physical performer, writhing and jumping through her musical numbers, whether channeling a jazzy “Chicago” siren or a girl-group member, circa 1999. Extensive legs-in-the-air choreography had to be taken into consideration when planning her ensembles, Ms. Shepard-Hill said.Ms. Fumudoh, in a LaQuan Smith catsuit, rose to prominence on Instagram Live, wearing equally bold outfits and makeup.Greg Endries/Showtime“We would have fittings, and I would be like, ‘OK, do your choreography,’” she said. “Then instantly: ‘That’s inappropriate. Take that off. That’s actually not OK for Showtime.”For the music videos in particular, hyperbolic Ziwe borrows from the real Ziwe’s closet. In a song called “Stop Being Poor” (a joke, in Episode 3, about people who believe being poor is a choice), Ms. Fumudoh wears a skintight all-crystal minidress by Aidan Euan of Akna.“How absurd is it to have a dress that luxurious in a time like this?” she said. “It so encapsulates the idea of ‘Stop Being Poor’ that I got it for ‘Stop Being Poor’ before we even wrote the song ‘Stop Being Poor,’ when I just knew that it was something I wanted to do.”In the 1920s-inspired number “Lisa Called the Cops on Black People,” she wears her own off-the-shoulder black velvet-and-mesh catsuit by LaQuan Smith.When putting together a mood board for the show, Ms. Shepard-Hill included iconic — a favorite “Ziwe” adjective — models like Donyale Luna and Naomi Campbell, as well as rappers like Rico Nasty and Saweetie. She included Josephine Baker, the music-hall star and World War II spy, too.“It was a real range of women that span time but are all iconic in their visuals, iconic in their style and sensibility,” said Ms. Shepard Hill, 37, who is also a stylist and instructor at Parsons School of Design.But in creating her wardrobe, Ms. Fumudoh was also thinking about the white comedians who dominate late-night TV and how to portray herself as the opposite of the suit-wearing men she calls “Jimmy, Jimmy, John, John,” whose wood-heavy sets are “really, really masculine — all blues and blacks and sharp images.”Ms. Fumudoh credits “Legally Blonde,” Rihanna and Lindsay Lohan (among others) as influences on her character’s style.Greg Endries/Showtime“If all of late night is painted with masculinity, my show is hyper-feminine,” she said. “I wear a lot of sparkles. You would never have seen John Oliver in a choker.“When I was growing up, and especially when I first started in media, the idea was to downplay your femininity. If a woman wants to be taken seriously, she wears glasses and pants and she talks with a lower voice like she works for Theranos.”On the wall of the set where Ms. Fumudoh conducts her interviews, there’s a large photo of a young Oprah Winfrey, who deeply influenced “Ziwe,” Ms. Fumudoh said. The Meghan Markle and Prince Harry interview was broadcast the night before the team began cutting the show, and the drama of it “really shaped the way we framed every episode.” It’s not a stretch to imagine Ziwe delivering the same scene-stealing “silent or silenced” line.There’s something else about the plastered photo of Ms. Winfrey that feels tied to “Ziwe”: In it, she’s wearing pink and pearls. Early in her career, Ms. Winfrey found a way to ask tough questions while communicating her femininity.In the first episode of “Ziwe,” when Ms. Fumudoh sits across from Ms. Lebowitz, Ms. Fumudoh wears a short black blazer dress with electric pink lapels, and her own thigh-high chunky-heel leather boots. It’s not a designer piece; it’s available at AD Los Angeles for $149.Despite the opulent aesthetic of “Ziwe,” the costume budget was somewhat limited, in part because it’s a new show, Ms. Shepard-Hill said. The dream, if there’s a second season? “A whole in-house team, where everything could be custom-built from head to toe,” she said.The blazer dress outfit was originally intended for a sketch in which Ziwe, channeling a billionaire Marilyn Monroe acolyte, announces her candidacy for New York City mayor. (“Gone are the days of old white men abusing the office of the mayor to do crooked favors for their ugly friends. Because I don’t have any friends, and I only do favors for myself.”)But Ms. Fumudoh felt strongly about wearing it for the first episode instead, using it to set that subversive anti-late-night host tone for the series.“That pink lapel is such a splash accent that it really captures what the show is,” she said. “All the outfits are telling a story in, like, 19 different ways, beyond the actual text that we write and say.” More

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    Tom Ford on Wearing the Same Ripped Jeans and Allowing Himself to ‘Be Unproductive’

    #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }At HomeBake: Maximalist BrowniesListen: To Pink SweatsGrow: RosesUnwind: With Ambience VideosAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyTom Ford on Wearing the Same Ripped Jeans and Allowing Himself to ‘Be Unproductive’As New York Fashion Week ends, the designer and film director explains why his show was postponed and how he has been affected by the pandemic.Tom Ford on the runway at his show in Los Angeles last year.Credit…Calla Kessler/The New York TimesFeb. 20, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ETUntil last week, Tom Ford — designer, film director and chairman of the Council of Fashion Designers of America — had never done an Instagram Live interview. In fact, he said, he exists on Instagram under a secret name, known only to close friends, to protect his privacy and see what people are doing. (His corporate account is run by an employee.) But he agreed to talk to The New York Times for a special fashion week series, speaking from his empty atelier in Los Angeles. This interview has been edited and condensed.Vanessa Friedman New York Fashion Week just ended, even if many people may not have realized it began! You were supposed to close out the collections, but the digital reveal was postponed a week. What happened?Tom Ford We had a Covid outbreak in our L.A. atelier. Two people. They’re OK, but we all had to quarantine. The collection’s not finished, even though we were supposed to post all of our lookbook images today. Hopefully we’ll do it next week. I won’t complain. Everyone’s in the same situation, but it’s been hard.VF Wait, the collection is not finished? Do you always design so close to the wire?TF Often, five or six days before a show, I just cut everything up and move it all around. You work until the last minute because if you think of a good idea, and it’s two days before a show, you can’t not use it. You can’t say, “Oh, I’ll save that until next season” because you won’t want it next season.VF So you think we going to get dressed up again?TF Of course. I’ve been wearing these same dirty jeans with holes in them and this same dirty jean shirt for, it seems like, months. As soon as we can go out again, we’ll want to dress up. It’s only natural.VF What about shows? Is that whole circus coming back?TF There is something about seeing a show live: the electricity in the room, something that can’t be captured on film. It used to be about presenting your clothes to press and to buyers. Now it’s about an Instagrammable moment. You need a lot of people Instagramming, Instagramming, Instagramming because it’s a way to get images of your clothes out into the world. For that, live shows that happen on a schedule where everyone comes into town are effective. It’s like the Oscars in L.A.Looks from Mr. Ford’s spring 2021 collection.Credit…via Tom FordVF Speaking of the Oscars, how does your career as a film director relate to your work as a designer?TF Being a fashion designer is dictatorial. It’s: “This is what all men should look like, this is what all women should look like. This is how you should do your hair. This is what you should wear.” But film, as a director, is the closest thing to being God.VF You’re God?TF You’re not God of the world, but you are God of that film. You decide what people say, what they do, where they go, whether they die, whether they live. You create something, and it’s very permanent. Fashion is not, sadly, as permanent.You know, you can look at a beautiful dress from a different period, and you can admire it and say “Wow,” and you can look at the pictures, but you will never have the feeling that person at the dinner party felt when this woman walked into the room, or that man walked into the room, and what you saw for the first time was new and fresh and beautiful, and it just took your breath away.Whereas in film, forever and ever and ever, if it’s well-made and it ages well, you’ll start crying when you’re supposed to cry. You’ll laugh when you’re supposed to laugh. It’s a very permanent thing, and I find that incredibly appealing.VF You say fashion is not permanent, and over the summer people talked a lot about seizing the moment for change. But now there’s talk among big brands about going right back to the old system once things open up.TF We probably will because the system is driven by the consumer. Last season I did not do pre-collections, and the CFDA in combination with the British Fashion Council, issued a letter that we really wanted to return to two collections a year. But you lose business if you don’t have pre-collections. We have trained the consumer to think there’s something new every few months.On the other hand, we have found that we don’t need to travel as much as we thought.VF Less travel would also help with fashion’s environmental footprint, which is pretty dire.TF Personally, I don’t do fur anymore. I became vegan a few years ago. I remember watching a talk show with Adrian Grenier, who was talking about straws and plastic, and I thought, “Plastic straws, how’s that going to change the world?” I did a little research — it actually does change the world. I switched to metal straws. What I design is not meant to be thrown away.VF Aside from sustainability, the other pressing issue facing fashion is the question of social justice. Do you believe the industry will change?TF One of the very first things I did at the CFDA was to change the board to make sure it was more balanced racially, and balanced in terms of men and women. The CFDA is starting an in-house — I can’t legally call it a talent agency — but that is what it is. Fashion has taken so much from Black culture throughout history, so we owe a lot to the Black community.I like to think of myself as colorblind, but I recognize, of course, that I’m not. I live in this world. I know I will never understand what it feels like to be a Black man or woman in our culture today, but we have to keep having the conversation.VF What about another film?TF I have two things I’m working on: an adaptation and an original screenplay. To be honest, I thought that during Covid I would have time to work on these. I’m so lucky, I have everything in the world, but I think everyone has felt a certain depression. It’s been a very turbulent year. And I have a child at home who hasn’t been to school in a year. So, unfortunately, I have not felt as creative as I thought I was going to feel.VF What do you do in that situation?TF I go to bed. Maybe I drink some coffee and lie in the bathtub and probably watch way too much CNN and MSNBC and just make myself even more agitated. I try to get some sleep, which I never get. I just lie in bed and stare at the ceiling.AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More