Dear Shaded Viewers,
After the PETA party the other night I headed over to the Hammerstein Ballroom for Richie Rich's show. I hadn't been to one of Richie's fashion shows since the Heatherette extravaganza at the Life Ball in Vienna in 2007, so I was jonesing for a massive dose of glitter-caked flesh and artfully shredded schmattas. As usual, he delivered. But I almost didn't make it into the show because when I arrived there were two massive lines up and down the street on both sides and another massive crowd in front which became the de facto "VIP waiting area." Not a clipboard-wielding PR was in sight so I was ready to leave because when it comes to NY fashion shows, I'm a jaded faggot with zero patience for waiting outside in the cold.
But then I spotted Patricia Field (above) waiting in the crowd and I thought, "Well if SHE can wait out here with the hoi polloi, so can I!" So I dove into the crush and just pretended it was 1988 and I was waiting outside Palladium or Tunnel.
After a very chaotic wait in the crowd crush, I was finally in and somehow ended up backstage where I ran into these ghoulishly painted beefcakes. They were absolutely charming because they had really thick working-class Brooklyn accents, as if Richie had plucked them from a construction site in Bensonhurst to walk in his show (he probably did) and they couldn't get over the fact that they were actually being photographed for a blog. Adorable!
I really loved this drag queen's look. She has kind of a naive, early 1960s' drag look, like maybe she was a guest at one of Rock Hudson's crossdressing pool parties who had stumbled into a time warp and emerged on W. 54th in 1978. After surveying the crowd outside of Studio 54, she ducked into a souvenir shop, bought a "Hollywood" paperweight, pinned it to her hat and was instantly whisked through the crowd by Andy Warhol.
It was fun seeing Zelda, who is often referred to as the "90-year old club kid" because she gets dressed up and goes out EVERY NIGHT. What an inspiration. I would love to hear her clubland tales from the speakeasy era.
The show, by the way, was a benefit for 2 charities: DoSomething.org and CookiesForKidsCancer.org. Tickets to the show were sold to the general population to raise money for teenagers involved in social change and pediatric cancer research.
World Figure Skating Champion Johnny Weir walked in the show. He looks like a cute little elf! Richie also used to be a professional figure skater so I'm sure they two of them have lots of gossip from the ice rinks of the world to share.
Richie Rich, right.
Ciao,
Glenn Belverio
