Dream On

Last night was the opening for Lonette McKee's show Can't Help Lovin' at the Algonquin Hotel.  My family and I took our seats in The Oak Room around 8 p.m. and I began to get giddy with excitement.    It was really happening.  I'd designed an outfit for Patti LaBelle years ago, but I never got a chance to see her wear it.  This was going to be the first time that I would witness a celebrity actually wearing one of my looks.  It was almost surreal.

Before the show was about to begin, I excused myself from the table to go to the restroom. And I was hoping to see if Lonette was waiting in the wings.  Then I saw her, standing in the hotel lobby preparing to enter the show space to begin her set.  She asked, "Oh Wilbur, did you come out here to check on me?"  "Absolutely," I lied only partially.  She confessed that she'd had difficulty weaving the grosgrain ribbon through the button holes on her french cuffed shirt.  I immediately went to work threading the cuffs with the ribbon.  It took about 15 minutes before I had the perfect bow!  And then I had to return to my table because the show was about to begin.  Oh well, my bathroom break would have to come after the show!  It didn't matter.  My bladder issues took a backseat to Lonette's stage presence and the way she carried me and the rest of her audience on a journey through song of some of her greatest moments in show business.  Songs from her films "Sparkle", "Round Midnight", and "Cotton Club" were pitch perfect fabulous and a couple of Billie Holliday faves were arranged in such a way that breathed new life into them.  She also sang a few songs that she had written over the years and when her musical director Bette Sussman joined her at the piano for one selection it was an awe-inspiring moment that I will never forget.  I never would have thought as a little boy of 9 years old that I would grow up and work with this woman from the silver screen whose beauty I dreamed about for so many nights.  This was a wish fulfilled.  And I hope there are many more dreams that turn into reality to come my way.

Peace & Fashion!

Literary and Fashion Adventures

Maybe a month or so ago, I finished reading a book that my mother bought decades earlier and has held onto all these years.  Its paperback cover is battered and mended with thick clear tape and the pages are yellowed and whisper thin.  Five Smooth Stones was published in 1966 and the story takes place during the turbulent Civil Rights Era.

It was my sister who first pulled the novel from my mother's "library" and began reading.  Each time we were together she would expound on the book's virtues stressing how it was a must read and that I would be reading it next.  I love my baby sister probably more than any brother should, but she can be pushy at times.  Yet in this case, as in most, her strong hand was greatly appreciated.  Five Smooth Stones is a triumphant tale of how love can overcome the worst odds, but I was stunned and completely thrown off-guard at the book's conclusion.   In fact, the night that I finished the book I found it difficult to fall asleep.  I had been drawn into the narrative and had come to know the characters like they were my friends.  Feeling their pain, my mind was crowded with their tribulations and disappointments.  The book candidly holds a mirror up to the history of our country exposing some of the ugliness of years past.  In fact, the author's true identity has been carefully guarded even to this day because the publisher feared she would suffer almost certain retaliation.  It is not "light" reading, but it certainly deserves a closer look.

Tomorrow evening is my final fitting with the legendary Lonette McKee before her almost month-long run at the historic Algonquin Hotel begins next Tuesday, April 5.  I am psyched and excited for her.  I am positive that she will not only be putting on a great show, but she'll be looking great doing it. And you know when music & fashion converge, magic happens.  Make sure you come out and watch the magic happen.

Peace & Fashion!

The BIG Reveal

Poster for "Sparkle"

Over the last few weeks, I have been writing about the amazing opportunity that I've been given to design a look for a legendary entertainer/actress/singer.  She is staging a comeback of sorts since being absent from the public eye for a few years.  She caught my eye as a little boy of 9 when I saw her on the silver screen playing a beautiful and sexy, yet tragic character in an all girl singing group.  That film was Sparkle and the actress whose beauty hypnotized me was Lonette McKee.

Lonette McKee in "Sparkle" mesmerizes

Gregory Hines & Lonette McKee in "The Cotton Club"

I've followed Lonette's career since then watching her stellar performances in the Oprah Winfrey produced television miniseries The Women Of Brewster Place, Spike Lee's Jungle Fever, Alex Haley's Queen television miniseries where she co-starred with Halle Berry, and in the Francis Ford Coppola directed The Cotton Club among many others.  So I am honored to now become a part of her history as she takes her rightful place in the spotlight again at The Algonquin Hotel for what is sure to be a fantastic evening.  Performances in the Oak Room begin April 5 and run through April 30.  There you will witness this very down-to-earth woman belt out some classic songs and command the room like the seasoned showbiz veteran that she is while you get a very good look at my creation.  It's an event you really should NOT miss.

Peace & Fashion!