FF:  Right, exactly. And did you pick these lovely sort of blues and turquoises for her?

William Ivey Long:  I picked them all for her colors, for her coloring.

FF:  I loved those.

William Ivey Long:  I picked all the primary colors. I mean look at that.

FF:  I know, it’s just gorgeous.

William Ivey Long:  Did she stand out or what?

FF: Absolutely.

William Ivey Long:  And there she is in the big chicken.

And I just -- oh madness. How did we get by with this and not be arrested? And I’ll never forget going in to Peter Gallagher. If you know Peter, he has curly hair. And I had never met him before, and I’d just seen him in movies with curly hair. And I took in this hair stuff and I said, you know Peter, for the dress rehearsal tonight, because this is the first dress, can you try some of this stuff?

And he says, well, what is it? I said well they tell me it’s this -- it’s like -- sort of stuff. I said just try it; put it in your hair. Let’s read the instructions.

So he read the instructions -- it’s as simple as I’m telling you. And we read the instructions, and he said oh, so maybe I should wet my hair first and towel it, then put it in. I said well that’s what it says: wet hair like after a shower. And he said, well what do I do? I said well just -- just comb it back. I said just try combing it back. Honest to God this is how it happened.

And this is the result; he had never done that. And he walks out on stage, and you’ve got this Sky Masterson movie star. Of course he is a movie star. But it’s fun when you’re young and starting out and doing goofy things like that, and you go, well just try this stuff. Let’s read the instructions. It’s just as simple as that.

And I only mention that because he became -- I mean this is a legendary look.

FF:  Right, exactly.

William Ivey Long:  You know, this is not just a nice look; this is a legendary look.

When I do what I like to refer to as a previously owned musical, I try my very best not to look at the movie or pictures of the original. And I sort of do a lot of these revivals; Chicago, Cabaret, Guys and Dolls ...

FF:  Annie Get Your ...

William Ivey Long:  Annie Get Your Gun. I’m getting ready to do The Music Man.

FF: Oh really!

William Ivey Long: So I have two observations -- I come at this from the way I’ve explained it to you. The color scheme was all about Tony Walton’s Runyanland, and how to find Nathan Lane, whose story it is. So I put him in black with white with black stripes, and I put him on stage, and after we’re in previews someone brings me the original production’s Playbill. Damned if I didn’t put him in the same suit that Alvin Colt put Nathan Detroit in in the original. Same exact. I was coming from a different place. I didn’t look and there it is. How about that?

Then, the Bushel and a Peck number. I knew, because it said in the script, that the Hot Box girls were farm girls. Chris Chadman, the choreographer, had me come and look at what they were doing. I said, Chris, what if I -- okay I’ve got it. And right then and there I said what if I give you fans to work with. And what if the fans -- I’m getting it -- what if they’re chickens? And they pluck themselves? And play with the fans?

Well lo and behold that’s what happened. Seriously, it was just like that, just as silly as that. Because -- and then Miss Adelaide I dressed like Lillian Russell, because you’ve got the va va va voom going, and who’s one of the biggest va va va vooms of yesteryear but Lillian Russell. And so it just worked out very nicely.

And then they took their fans out of their behinds which had been previously, you know, their chicken feathers. But we left one little feather in there.

FF:  And when did you move to New York?

William Ivey Long:  I moved to New York City after graduating from Yale Drama School, I moved to the Chelsea Hotel which is a stone’s throw from where we are right now. Because I really wanted to work with the great and legendary couturier Charles James.

FF:  Oh sure.

William Ivey Long:  And I did. And I lived there for five years, at which time I worked with him. I was the slave, you know. But in homage to that great time, for the Take Back Your Mink number, I designed Charles James gowns that break away. And no one, if you’ve already seen Guys and Dolls, could tell how they were supposed to come off. So that was great to be able to do a Charles James homage.

And, of course, late Forties, Charles James land. And of course there’s a double meaning here, because he designed personal clothes for Gypsy Rose Lee.

FF:  Is that right? I didn’t know that.

William Ivey Long:  He absolutely did. One of his favorite clients. One of his absolute favorite clients. Because that’s what he was about. People who appreciated high style. So he was extremely fond of her.

And so, not that I did a Charles James Gypsy Rose Lee dress, but it just adds to the mix.

FF:  Yes.

William Ivey Long: So the lovely Hot Box ensemble ladies were the Jane Fonda workout girls. I mean you could pinch them, no fat. Totally perfect -- like yourself. No va voom though. What do I do? We’ve got the va va but I didn’t get the va voom.

So we had to pad out, do like Dior did, pad – well, there were some tears in those fittings, I could tell you. They had worked so hard to not have hips, and here I am padding out against their hips. Well the tears -- but then they understood. So I tried to make them look like Faith, because you know, they’ve got to.