SUSAN BLOND: EVERY OUTFIT HAS A STORY
by Anita Sarko
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| BLUE BALENCIAGA. Worn to Jack’s bar mitzvah. Never a drug person, Susan had a vintage clothing dealer instead, Mark Walsh, who was also a dealer for other very high-profile people. “This suit is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. It’s magical, perfect and I just feel gorgeous in it. Great suits transform your body because they give you shoulders you don’t have and the waist you want. I never really look as good whenever I go outside of this look and try to be modern.” |
I first met Susan Blond nearly 30 years ago. I was immediately given four reasons why she was fabulous: She was the most famous music PR powerhouse on earth, she threw a baby out of a window in a Warhol movie, she was the inspiration for music company PR chick, Bobbi Bleckman (as channeled by Fran Drescher) in Spinal Tap (“Everyone says that,” Susan laughs), and she only wore vintage Chanels.
In other words, she not only wouldn’t DREAM of chucking a baby out of a window, but she would also be far too considerate to those below to even toss out the bathwater. A native New Yorker, Blond had a talent for painting. After attending the High School of Music and Art, she went onto college in Boston. While there, she had a one-person show at Harvard University and participated in the Whitney Museum’s prestigious Independent Study Program. Upon graduation, she returned to Manhattan’s happening art scene, specifically Andy Warhol’s Factory. Warhol proclaimed Susan a “star” and they became close friends. This led to Blond being featured in both Warhol's Bad (in which she dispensed with the baby) and the Paul Morrissey-directed Madame Wang’s. Her career trajectory changed when Warhol created Interview. Warhol decided that Susan could sell anything to anyone, so he had her helm Interview’s advertising side. Good choice. It was when the ads rolled in that Blond discovered that she had a special feeling for the music industry. “Andy declared that business is art,” Susan gives as an explanation as to why it made perfect sense that the painter/actress would be the obvious choice for an advertising exec and why she would be happy doing it. Her reputation, relationships and contacts led to a PR gig at United Artists Records, repping such as Tina Turner and Electric Light Orchestra. Then, she moved to Epic Records, and a REAL star was born! The first woman in the music industry to hold the title of Vice President of Media Relations, she took care of the publicity campaigns for Culture Club, Meat Loaf and The Clash. She was the PR gatekeeper for many other stars, but it was her involvement with Michael Jackson during his “Thriller” years that really propelled her notoriety through the roof. Today’s Susan remains the uber-PR queen. After her 13-year run at Epic records (1973-86), she expanded her focus, creating and heading entertainment and lifestyle publicity agency Susan Blond, Inc. (SBI). With music still in the mix (i.e., the non-profit VH1 Save The Music Foundation), she also reps industries, personalities (i.e. Hotelier Vikram Chatwal), nightlife hotspots (Upstairs at the Kimberly Hotel; XVI), experts, entertainers, authors, “need-to-know figures” and brands. She lives in a beautiful cozy traditional UWS residence with her husband, Barry Bloom, a lawyer. It’s his imposing drum set that occupies a strategic spot in the living room, along with Warhol’s Marilyn and a trinity of his Cows. Her son, Jack Erickson, is a 20-year-old student at George Washington University in DC. |
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| THE FIRST CHANEL The suit that started it all! She saw it in Bloomingdales in the late '70s. “Went home and couldn’t stop thinking about it. Went back and it wasn’t there. Went home, couldn’t stop thinking about it. Kept going back and, suddenly, there it was! On sale! It was one of the happiest days of my life!” Susan wore this during Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” tour. “As we picked him up on the way to the garden for his performance, Steve Rubell directed traffic in the street. I gave Steve and Ian (Shrager) their first jobs out of jail. I pushed Andy (Warhol) right in front of Michael because Michael was hard to get to, so they could say “Hello.” Calvin Klein was wearing a t-shirt & jeans and told me I was so dressed up. Of COURSE, I would be all dressed up for what would be one of the major nights of all of our lives! This was followed by the party at the Museum of Natural History that Steve and Ian put together.” |
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NEWEST CHANEL Susan with Tammy Wynette (“Greatest country singer of all time.”). This was bought new in the '80s. Susan frets over the frayed silk edges. “Whatever has silk on the end of it will give out before the wool.” She also wore this with Fine Young Cannibals at the Grammys when they were up for a lot of awards. “Those were the years ... Here I was in Rock & Roll! Everyone was wearing jeans and t-shirts and here I was in Chanel suits! Boy George wrote in his book,’This is no jeans-wearing gal. She looks like she subsists on bird food and she wears COUTURE Chanel!’” |
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| CHANEL Susan with Walter Cronkite. |
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CHANEL Vintage Susan Blond. PERFECT. |
| Visually, Susan has never changed. She’s still the elegant, beautifully-dressed woman with the small bird-like frame. And though the Chanels have been joined by other high end designers, Susan still has the same signature look. “Even now, when I look in Vogue, I just want something that makes someone look good. I have great admiration for (the newer designers), but ... I went to Bergdorf’s yesterday and saw all these modern looks, but I realized that, in a few years, they’ll look dated. Some collections end up as classic. I’ve certainly bought things that I never felt like wearing the next season. It’s like Chanel now.” |
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| WHITE CHANEL Susan with Cyndi Lauper and Walter Yetnikoff. “That is another one that’s still hanging in my closet and I refuse to throw out. It has dressy gold beads and has not stood the test of time ... but I can’t let it go.” |
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| RED CHANEL In the 70s, Susan’s sister bought this for her in Paris. “Whenever I wear it, people go crazy! To think she picked it out without me even being there! People love the color and how it looks on me. The red just brightens you up.” |
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VELVET-TRIMMED CHANEL Susan loves the velvet around the neck and sleeves on this unusual pairing of the nubby brown wool and black velvet. “It’s a standout and feels right. People’s eyes just brighten. A Famous German or English rock star stopped in a meeting because of this!” |
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| THE PERFECT CHANEL. So votes Susan. She’s had it for 20 years and always feels great in it. “It’s as perfect today as when I bought it. It was vintage then. The old suits are so much better than the new ones and who can afford $7500 for a jacket? Of course, that’s how much you pay for shoes now!” |
| Here we’ve chosen some of Susan’s most famous and beloved looks. One’s first thought is “If these clothes could talk….” These clothes have enjoyed a very colorful and unique life on one of the great ladies of Manhattan. So, because Susan Blond has never been at a loss for words, she’s going to give voice to all these luxurious threads for us. We had so much fun playing dress-up ... well, I certainly had a blast seeing these treasures up-close and experiencing the unbridled enthusiasm Susan still has for everything in her magical closet. Special thanks go out to Susan’s great assistant Erin Mahon for all her help. |
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| KARL LAGERFELD for CHLOE SWEATER JACKET “From the '70s. This has great structure, is buttoned on the side and looks great with everything.” |
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| BALENCIAGA BOLERO JACKET “When you wear these jackets, these beautiful sequins in all these shapes – circles, squares, diamonds – always trail behind you and you know you’re losing parts of this beautiful piece, but you can’t interrupt your evening to pick them up!” |
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| FORTUNY IN A BAG Given to Susan by Bill Spear, a macrobiotic counselor/feng shui expert who works with the dying. When Tina Chow was dying, he worked with her. After her death, Bill, Tina’s sister Adele Lutz and Adele’s husband David Byrne asked Susan to do publicity for her death. “She was on the covers of New York, Vanity Fair, and Tattler, so we did a great job.” Susan’s payment was part money and part Tina’s clothing. “She was always on the best-dressed lists so I was happy to do this!” One of the pieces was this Fortuny. And there is a very good reason for the Balducci’s bag. “Silk disintegrates and worms come alive in them! I probably would never wear this, but it’s something you save forever ... in a bag.” |
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| YVES ST. LAURENT STRIPED JACKET From the early '70s. Susan enjoyed wearing pants in those days because she liked to show off her legs. However,14 years ago, she became observant so no more pants "... which wasn’t so bad for me because my ankles were always my favorite feature.” She doesn’t show skin either. “The shoulders are wider than any Chanel suits, so you look better in those jackets. They’re still in great condition.” |
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| GUESS WHICH FASHION HOUSE THIS SILK BLOUSE CAME FROM? |
| Nevertheless, there was a certain wistfulness to the proceedings: Some items are unraveling, some no longer fit, and some Blond refuses to wear due to their immodesty because she became an observant Jew 14 years ago. “Many of them I know I’ll never wear again, but I just keep them. They take up a lot of room and some have an energy you don’t really want, but I don’t know what I’d do with them.” Spoken like a true addict. At least this addict cannot only afford her habit, but she has GREAT taste. |
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| ANDY WAROL’S COWS “When the Whitney had its first Warhol retrospective, the walls were covered in cow wallpaper.” |
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| ANDY WARHOL’S MARILYN. |
Twitter: ShoppingDiary |
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