The designer Zaldy is best known for creating florid costumes for high-octane performers, including Lady Gaga for her Monster Ball tour, Britney Spears for her Femme Fatale tour and numerous outfits for RuPaul, for which he’s won three Emmys for Outstanding Costume Design. Beyoncé, Katy Perry, Cher, and Cardi B have shimmied into his frocks or bodysuits, and he’s designed for everyone from Gwen Stefani’s L.A.M.B. line to Victoria’s Secret, and Willy Chavarria.
In a career that exhaustive (and, one imagines, exhausting), it's impressive that he still has any surprises up his sleeve. And yet surprise he did last night at the Chelsea Hotel, where he lived and worked for some 20 years. There, Zaldy showed his debut menswear collectsion, titled Boys Like Me, in front of a crowd of decked out downtown legends, a ragtags crew with whom he is not just deeply familiar, he’s a card-carrying member (mother of nightlife Susanne Bartsch produced the show while famed publicist Kelly Cutrone was on hand to corral models and guests).
“I was like, this is my way of doing menswear,” the designer said backstage, amid a chaotic scene of half-dressed models in leather underwear and pleated culottes. “I wasn't trying to please anybody or think about the market. These are the clothes that I want to see. I hope people love it as much as I do, but I was willing to take that risk.”
“I have so many different moods,” he added. “I love tailoring, so I need suits, but I love glamour, and I love day wear. I need all these items in my wardrobe.” Inspiration ran the gamut from Leigh Bowery to the Victorian era, Armani to Ralph Lauren, women’s couture and American Gigolo, but all funneled through his showman-like lens.
Despite this being his foray into menswear, the designer found the transition quite easy. “When it’s this personal, it feels so natural,” he said. “I wanted things that I wasn’t seeing out at stores.”
In just 26 looks Zaldy showed a wide range of styles, something for traditionalists and eccentrics alike. There were body-hugging leather jackets and low-riding leather pants with zippers that could be opened from front to back; cropped blazers shown with voluminous pleated trousers; sheer tuxedo shirts and backless leather dickies, a fringed vest made from mossy green goat suede; a handsome houndstooth carcoat with broad shoulders made from coated cotton; hand-crocheted, open weave sweaters, and oversized men’s shirting worn off the shoulder, looking like a breezy cape. His deft use of fabrics, in particular, was impressive—buttery lambskin, nubby panne velvet, silk tweeds, hand crocheted tulle. Cheeky accessories included bow tie garters, biker caps and slim belts. All the outfits, he said, were meant to be “broken down and combined to present your own changing mood to the world.”
Backstage, Zaldy reflected on showing at the Chelsea Hotel, his former stomping grounds where he would paint fabrics in the hall or summon Karen Elson and Raquel Zimmerman for fittings. “It’s just been this creative home for me,” he said. “When I decided that I wanted to do another collectsion, it just had to be here.” And how did it feel to be back? “It feels like the most comfortable place,” he said. “It feels like I’m doing this in my house.”
