Isaac Mizrahi on a Love of Old Things, and Surviving the Nightmare of the Present

Paul Holdengraber talks to Isaac Mizrahi about storytelling, looking back at life, and the joys of art.

Isaac Mizrahi on a taste for old things…
New things can be old. I prefer old things because they are endowed with a kind of truth at that point. That’s why they’re still in the world.

Isaac Mizrahi on shaping story…
It doesn’t necessarily have to be so meaningful, or so clever, or so intellectual. It just has to be fun and engaging to me so that I want to finish telling the story. Sometimes the best stories are the dumbest stories. 

Isaac Mizrahi on the nightmare of the present…
When I look back at my life, I think about what a wonderful, happy, satisfying life I’ve had. It’s so funny. It’s like living through things is a nightmare. The present of things is a nightmare—the not being gratified by things in the moment is a nightmare. But then when you look back at the decades of your life, like in your twenties, or your thirties, or your forties, you go, “Wow, it was so great living through that and gosh I got so much out of that, and gosh this and gosh that.” And yet living through it is never as satisfying.

Isaac Mizrahi on art…
Art is a very big motivating factor in my life. It’s sort of what I hope I do. I hope I make art. I really mean that.