Isaac Mizrahi has been described as “a founding father of a genre that fuses performance art, music, and stand-up comedy.” Is it any surprise, then, that his bookshelf is as eclectic as his resume?
The Brooklyn-born designer will take his onstage talents to the Hamptons this summer with a one-night-only cabaret performance at Guild Hall in East Hampton on Aug. 10. Blending personal anecdotes, biting cultural commentary, and a songbook that ranges from Stephen Sondheim to Madonna, Mizrahi’s distinctive style—on display earlier this season at his annual Café Carlyle residency back in New York—has earned him a devoted following off the runway. Like any performer worth his salt, he knows the value of good source material. So ahead of his turn as a headliner out East, where he lives part time, CULTURED asked Mizrahi about the books that made him.
Where’s your favorite place to read? Favorite time to read?
My favorite place to read is in the bathtub just before dinner. I like bathing before dinner because I feel thin! And I love reading in the bathtub.
Describe the type of reader you are in three words.
Completist, faithful, and easily bored. Oh, and one more thing: skeptic of books on tape!
How do you find your next book?
I find books through authors I adore, whether it’s Leo Tolstoy, Henry James, Truman Capote, Philip Roth, Jonathan Franzen, etc. I read complete works. Also, I listen to smart people. I will not be left out if people are talking about a book—I must read it. As in: Graydon Carter’s and Keith McNally’s memoirs.
An artist, actor, or designer you feel deserves a biography but doesn’t have one yet?
I’d love to read a biography about the great director David Lynch.
One book you recommend to anyone who spends time in the East End?
A book I’ve been recommending recently is Moby Dick, which I only just read last year and was dazzled by. I would recommend it to anyone in an East Coast beach town only for the way Herman Melville captures Nantucket and Cape Cod, which, because I live on the East End, feels a lot like Montauk. Also, the subtle, beautiful homoeroticism. Also, the insanely beautiful language, dialogue, and descriptive passages.
One book your childhood self loved?
When I was too young, my mother was obsessed with Colette and got me to start reading her books. Way too early, in my preteen age, I became Francophile through reading Colette. If I think about it, based on that early exposure I then went on to invest in French literature: Zola, Flaubert, Stendhal, Baudelaire, Proust, Hugo…
One book that ruined you, in the best possible way?
I was ruined in the best possible way by Marcel Proust. I read all of In Search of Lost Time about 10 years ago and I’m rereading it now. I think it might be the most beautiful, satisfying thing I have ever or will ever read. I don’t know if I will find anything to replace it with, except to continue rereading it forever.
One book you stopped reading in the middle and never finished?
I tried a few times with various Kurt Vonnegut books and could never quite make it. Same with Philip K. Dick.
One trashy book to wedge in your vacation bag?
I don’t really define books in that way. There’s literature, there’s biography, there’s nonfiction, and then gossipy things like The Andy Warhol Diaries or Great Demon Kings by John Giorno—things I reread which I think are great but lighter, and which I keep by my bedside to take breaks from things like Anna Karenina.
If your bookshelf could wake up and talk to you, what would it say?
“Darling, please edit me. This is ridiculous. You have too many books.”
Isaac Mizrahi’s Required Reading
THE CLASSIC: Moby Dick, by Herman Melville, 1851 ($15.99)
THE ONE THAT WILL RUIN YOU FOREVER: In Search of Lost Time, series by Marcel Proust, 1913 ($100)
THE ONE YOU NAME DROP: The Andy Warhol Diaries, by Andy Warhol, edited by Pat Hackett, 2022, ($30)
THE SEXY MEMOIR: Great Demon Kings, by John Giorno, 2021, ($19)
THE DOORSTOP: Anna Karenina, by Leo Tolstoy, 1878, ($17.99)
All books featured on CULTURED are independently selected by our editors, contributors, and interview subjects. We may earn affiliate revenue when you buy something.
in your life?
