Isaac Mizrahi and Shalom Harlow in Isaac Mizrahi’s Spring 1998 ad campaign. Photo: Dewey Nicks. Image: Instagram.
Unzipped, the groundbreaking fashion film, is 25 this month.
The 1995 documentary made Isaac Mizrahi a household name. (Read more at Vogue.com.) To celebrate, here’s a look at Mizrahi’s vintage Vogue patterns.
Isaac Mizrahi formal wear on the cover of Vogue, September 1995. Models: Shalom Harlow and Amber Valetta. Photo: Steven Meisel. Editor: Camilla Nickerson. Image: Pinterest.Isaac Mizrahi label designed by Tibor Kalman. Image: Yale University Press.
Born in Brooklyn, Isaac Mizrahi (b. 1961) started licensing patterns not long after showing his first solo collection. Vogue Patterns Magazine welcomed him to the Vogue Individualist line for Holiday ’88 with two patterns shown in sorbetto brights.
“New Comer Isaac Mizrahi,” Vogue Patterns, November/December 1988. (Vogue 2218 and 2219) Image: Etsy.
Even before Mizrahi received backing from Chanel, both Vogue and Vogue Patterns were champions of his work. This crisp Mizrahi shirtdress made the cover of the summer retail catalogue.
Vogue 2495 by Isaac Mizrahi on the cover of the Vogue Patterns retail catalogue, July/August 1990. Image: eBay.
Vogue included a Mizrahi jacket pattern in the spring 1991 budget-dressing editorial, “Fit to Print.” The jacket was made in a double-faced wool plaid from New York’s Felsen Fabrics.
Vogue 2626 by Isaac Mizrahi (with V7733 leggings) in Vogue, March 1991. Model: Marielle Macville. Photo: Isabel Snyder. Editor: Elizabeth Saltzman. Image: Vogue Archive.
For Holiday ’94 — essentially the Fall-Winter ’94–95 season documented in Unzipped — Mizrahi designed what Vogue called a “mini-collection created especially for Vogue Patterns.” Several of these pieces were featured on the cover of the counter catalogue.
Vogue published a two-page article on the new Mizrahi patterns. The magazine had everything made up in silk lamé, wool jersey, and vinyl from B&J Fabrics.
“Cut it out!,” Vogue, December 1994. Photos: Richard J. Burbridge, Ellen von Unwerth. Image: Vogue Archive.“Cut it out!,” Vogue, December 1994. Models: Bridget Hall, Linda Evangelista, Karen Mulder. Photos: Richard J. Burbridge, Albert Watson, Ellen von Unwerth. Image: Vogue Archive.Patterns – In This Issue, Vogue, December 1994. Image: Vogue Archive.
Isaac Mizrahi patterns were available through Vogue Attitudes until the later 1990s. Mizrahi graduated to Vogue’s regular designer line in 1998 — the year he shuttered his label.
Vogue 1963 by Isaac Mizrahi (1997) Model: Maggie Giotta. Image: eBay.Vogue 2207 by Isaac Mizrahi (1998) Image: eBay.Vogue 2230 by Isaac Mizrahi (1998) Image: Etsy.
Yet the mid-teens saw another comeback for the designer, with both a return to Vogue Patterns and a retrospective exhibition at the Jewish Museum, New York, entitled Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History.
Detail, Colorfield (Fall 2004). Chee Pearlman, with Lynn Yaeger, Kelly Taxter, and Ulrich Lehmann, Isaac Mizrahi (Yale University Press, 2016) Book design: J. Abbott Miller, Andrew Walters, Yoon-Young Chai, Pentagram. Image: Yale University Press.“The American Style of Isaac Mizrahi.” Maggie Giotta in V1794, Vogue Patterns retail catalogue, June 1996. Image: eBay.
Christy Turlington wears handmade dress Vogue 8293 (with Jil Sander coat), Vogue, August 1993. Photo: Ellen von Unwerth. Editor: Grace Coddington. Image: Vogue Archive.
Do you remember Grace Coddington’s Amish editorial? From late summer, 1993, “The Great Plain” looks forward to Schitt’s Creek and today’s back-to-the-land trend. It also features two Vogue Sport dress patterns.
Christy Turlington in Vogue 8293 dress (Jil Sander coat), Vogue, August 1993. Photo: Ellen von Unwerth. Editor: Grace Coddington. Image: Vogue Archive.
The Vogue team travelled to rural Pennsylvania for the shoot. In the opening spread and barnyard square-dancing sequence, Christy Turlington wears simple dresses, made up in cotton broadcloth from Sutter Textiles.
Christy Turlington in Vogue 8315, Vogue, August 1993. Photo: Ellen von Unwerth. Editor: Grace Coddington. Image: Vogue Archive.
Technical drawing for patterns seen in “The Great Plain,” 1993.David Rose (Dan Levy) returning to nature in CBC’s Schitt’s Creek, Season 2. Image: Vogue / PopTV.
