NEW YORK — Todd Oldham is a multidisciplinary creative who believes in working smart and frequently rather than working hard. He demonstrated this on Thursday night.
After blazing through the world of fashion in the ’80s and ’90s, Oldham, a 1991 Perry Ellis award winner from the CFDA, continues to exercise his dexterity in a myriad of projects. Oldham spoke calmly with Fern Mallis, The 92nd Street Y. “I knew that I was unemployable. I don’t mean that I was a bad employee. I knew that I was better served executing my own ideas.”
In 1982, his mother and he made all of the patterns, samples and other items. Tony Longoria was later added to the business and the couple moved into a walk-up fourth-floor East Village apartment. Simon Doonan decorated it with black-and-white lines drawings. “It was like being in a crazy fun house. It felt as if the outside was just as important as what it contained. The streets were crowded with screaming children. This was a magical spot. Susanne was truly amazing. She would bring a lot of the English designers over and have wild parties.”
Oldham was candid about his “a-ha” moment to stop doing collections, cursing at how he always sounds when recalling the breaking point. The moment involved a four-ply duchesse satin dress that “required a nut-job amount of effort.” Fabrics were woven in the Far East, the dyeing was done in Italy and he hand-painted dogwood branches and buds on acetate that was later turned into full-size screens and hand-screened by professionals. His sculptor mother handmade dogwood petals from fresh water pearls that were appliquéd to the dress. At a certain point, Oldham decided, “What am I doing? The process involved so many countries, so many people, so much time. Cindy Crawford [whom he appeared on the TV show ‘House of Style’ with],” he said.
“The machine was smoking at that point but something just turned for me at this moment,” Oldham said. The recurring comment from consumers of “I love what you do. I could never afford it” was also “painful” for Oldham to hear routinely, he said.
His quest for affordable design evolved on “House of Style,” which included such lazy-guy tips as self-done haircuts, which he still does himself. Kool Aid’s at-home dyeing instructions went horribly wrong. The final recommendation of using toothpaste for removing the color was not intended to be edited. The joint belief that “ideas were important and money wasn’t” rang throughout the show. Oldham said, “I could interview John Galliano one moment and then get a rock and tie copper around it to show how to make a button. It was all about creativity.”
The program’s popularity was due to Crawford, “who is still as lovely as can be. Crawford was like a living earthquake back then. They would just fall over. If they were closer to her they’d just fall down. [practically] You will pass out. She’s the only model who looks like herself when she shows up. It’s necessary to paint the model. And that’s fine, they look great. But she looks like herself.”
Unabashed about how a “Three Stooges” episode he had seen as a child inspired his memorable “interiors” collection, Oldham said, “It’s this one called ‘Slippery Silks.’ The Three Stooges are plumbers, but when they show up at this house, the woman thinks they are fashion designers. The two put on an actual fashion show. It was the first time I could relate to something so well. It burned in my brain and it was my permission slip.”
He rediscovered his passion for design and began to work in interiors and books. But the self-described “serious pack rat” has kept highly orderly archives for his “immaculately made” clothes, including some styles made with a 400-year-old beading company in India. “We never had sample sales. Every thing we did was important to me. We had every sample, every shoe, every accessory,” Oldham said.
His decision to shut down fashion resulted in all of the company’s partners, including a Japanese company, getting “real mad,” he admitted. “They just didn’t understand. However, I was able to understand them. They were interested in getting the business’ sales up and I was just like, ‘OK, bye.’”
After an exhibition at the Rhode Island School of Design’s Museum, Oldham has de-acquisitioned pieces there, as well as to the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute and an archive in Texas. Oldham, who has published more than twenty books on the subject, is currently working with Phaidon to create one about Alexander Girard. “I love immersing myself trying to learn every single thing about something. If you’re doing a book on someone, you have to learn about and honor their Rosetta Stone. You can’t decorate or assert yourself. You’re in service.”
Oldham uses equal care in creating arts-related materials for children, including the newly launched Smarts & Crafts at Walmart stores. By going “hyper mass,” Oldham strives to reach people in tinier towns where access to such products are not always readily available. Mallis encouraged attendees to visit Todd Oldham Studio to view the wide range of designs and toys, as well as the gem-shaped crayons.
His own parents — one a sculptor and the other an early computer whiz — encouraged him to be innovative in his thinking. He was an avid traveler as a child and lived once in Iran as a preteen. Among the first to use digital printing in his fashion, Oldham isn’t fully out of that picture. The Todd Oldham Maker Shop sells items from recycled styles. On March 31, Oldham will be releasing reissued Pantone pattern from many years ago online.
Oldham, who was one of the original designers to collaborate with Target in 2000, said that he had designed over 2000 products within two years. This included dorm rooms essentials as well as all types of decor. Still in disbelief about the volume he produced at that time for everything that is needed when one leaves home for the first time, he said, “Can you imagine what a challenging time that is? It’s scary. I didn’t have that experience. I barely graduated from high school but that’s got to be a really intense thing.”
He went on to say, “I liked the truly mundane things. It was so much fun to get all excited and try to solve problems. The sponge was amazing. It was bowed a bit and then printed in beautiful patterns. Getting to do things in the public domain, you can make everything a little bit lovelier.”
His interior portfolio also included furniture, rugs and lamps for La-Z-Boy; such “borderline taste level” projects with iconic brands really charmed him. “There was an edge to it that I loved. The people they were able to trust and be kind to others turned out to have a great heart. Nobody ever blinks at anything we have done. I bet they did in private meetings but not to me.”
Jones New York partnered with Todd Oldham Jeans to form another alliance. Oldham said he relates to Rei Kawakubo’s quote on kicking the machine. Noting how Jones New York was selling the-then coveted Gloria Vanderbilt jeans, the designer said he persuaded the company “to turn things on their ear and work with acid-wash, which nobody wanted. It was horrible and old. We just built it and built it and it turned into this giant thing.”
However, this success led to conflict with Target. “We got in so much trouble with Target. We had been there a long time too soon. This shook every business that we were involved in. I knew it was the future, but it did stop a lot of opportunities for us for sure.”
Asked for advice for aspiring designers, he said, “You should do it. Don’t listen to me or to too many people. You need someone who has a different perspective and an alternative idea. Take historical information and use it to create something new. The goal is to create something for the benefit of all people. We don’t need more. Nothing is more important than the next person. If you’re going to do something, thrill us. Make it count.”