Isaac Mizrahi On Fashion Today

We talk to the irrepressible designer Isaac Mizrahi about fashion today and what it tells us about ourselves, our time. Plus: an investigative look at those surprisingly cheap dress ads on Facebook.

Isaac Mizrahi hit fashion design like a force of nature in the 1990’s, and he just keeps rolling. Bold colors, and daring design that draws from high themes and popular culture. High couture and street style. He is the opposite of a fashion snob. He’s designed for elite runways and for Target. Says skinny models are so passe. His ideal?  Lena Dunham. This hour On Point, fashion Designer Isaac Mizrahi on the meaning, power, and future of fashion.
-- Tom Ashbrook

Isaac Mizrahi, fashion designer, TV presenter and creative director of Xcel Brands. Subject of a new exhibit at the Jewish Museum, "Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History." (@IsaacMizrahi)

New York Times: Isaac Mizrahi Unbound at the Jewish Museum — "You get the feeling that Mr. Mizrahi is always daring people to criticize him just so he can prove them wrong. Besides 'Desert Storm,' other pieces in the exhibition also seem to willfully court controversy — even more so today than when they debuted. From a 1991 collection called the 'Tee Pee' series, for example, there’s 'Totem Pole Gown,' a strapless, form-fitting sheath of yellow wool embroidered with imagery mimicking the faces and patterns of Native American totem poles from the Pacific Northwest."

New Yorker: Home-Town Boy — "The show, with its fifty-odd mannequins, is installed in what were once the principal reception rooms of the Warburg mansion, a stately residence built by the banking scion and philanthropist Felix M. Warburg. His widow, Frieda Schiff Warburg, donated the building in 1944. Today’s wealthiest New Yorkers could not emulate the Warburg gift even if they wanted to, Mizrahi noted."

Vogue: Catching Up With Isaac Mizrahi Ahead of His First Major Museum Show -- "Asked how he’s faring on the eve of the opening of the first major museum exhibit devoted to his career, Isaac Mizrahi doesn’t pull any punches: 'I’m very emotional, darling. I can’t stop breaking down into tears every five minutes.' It’s not the stress of the impending show, he suspects, but the revisiting, on a large scale, of his creations dating back to 1987, and stretching up to present day.

Sapna Maheshwari, business reporter for BuzzFeed News. (@sapna)

BuzzFeed News:Say No To The Dress -- "While Facebook is aware of the many complaints, its method of responding to them often fails to catch the specifics of the problem. Facebook’s systems look for ad language violations, whether ads misdirect users to external sites, and obvious signs of counterfeiting. But unhappiness with the actual product isn’t something it looks for, even if thousands of people feel like they got the wrong item, the company said. That is not technically a violation of Facebook’s guidelines, and the social network says it doesn’t really have a way to police that behavior anyway since it’s not facilitating the actual transactions."