Norma Kamali, 74, is a designer whose innovations include the Sleeping Bag coat, parachute clothing, sweats as fashion and sculptural swimwear. She spoke with Marc Myers.
Throughout my childhood, my mother made all my clothes. Her designs were so beautiful that she changed my outfits two or three times a day. She even created a photo album, “Norma’s Life in Pictures.” It was a catalog documenting the clothes she had made for me.
My mother, Estelle, was Lebanese and impossibly talented. In addition to being a seamstress, she was a painter and a hairdresser. If I did the ironing and cleaning, she’d do my hair in Marcel waves. She also could eat a dish at a restaurant, then make it at home without a recipe.
She was into health food early. I’d awaken to the sound of her grinding down carrots at 6 a.m. All of this planted in my mind the idea that women could do anything and everything.
I grew up in a tiny apartment on the third floor of a six-story building on East 77th Street between York and John Jay Park. Most of the buildings on our block were built at the start of the 20th century. Originally, the apartments went to those with tuberculosis so they could live near the hospital and get fresh air off the East River.
I was very tomboyish. I loved playing sports, and my friends and I were super-active.
My father, Sam, was Basque and worked in his family’s restaurant business. He was thin, tall and very good-looking, with slicked-back hair. He landed minor roles in films shot in New York.
Early on, fashion wasn’t as exciting for me as art, painting, dance and drawing in anatomy classes. My bedroom walls were covered with references to Michelangelo, Rudolf Nureyev and other artists I admired.
As a child, I felt exotic. In the summers, my skin would turn really dark. Most of the kids in the neighborhood were Irish. They were fair-skinned with cute little turned-up noses. Mine was straight. So I slept on my nose hoping it would turn up.
One of my first fashion statements came in sixth grade, when I wore layers of starched petticoats. In the late 1950s, when everyone I knew was into the same look, I’d come up with a different way to wear what I put on.
When I was 13, my parents divorced and my mother remarried. Their breakup wasn’t as traumatic as our move to the suburbs. After a year, we moved back to 77th Street.
By high school, I was more interested in vintage clothing from the late 1930s and early ’40s. I loved how I felt in the clothes.
I attended New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology and studied under Ana Ishikawa. Despite being tight with her compliments, she had a way of letting me know I was talented. I felt encouraged.
After graduating in 1965, I took an office job at Northwest Airlines in New York. On the weekends, I flew round trip to London for $29. During one trip, I noticed a store on King’s Road called Dandie Fashions. Inside I saw a huge slosh of brilliant psychedelic shades. I was like a moth to a flame.
When I left the airline in 1968, I opened a basement boutique in New York on East 53rd Street. The shop started everything for me.
Today, I live in a one-bedroom apartment with a guest room in the West Village of Manhattan. I also have a country house north of New York designed by Richard Meier.
Last year, when my business turned 50, I decided I had collected too many things. So I gave them all away. Now my apartment is understated, simple and Zen.
I even gave “Noma’s Life in Pictures” to my younger brother, Bill. Memories are more important than things. If what I remember creates a feeling, I don’t need the objects.
Norma on Farrah
Farrah Fawcett’s red bathing suit was yours? Yes, she was a customer. I had no idea she’d wear it for a shoot in 1976.
Were you happy? No, I hated the suit’s fit.
How so? It was a test suit. She liked the color and bought it.
Why did she wear it? The photographer needed bathing-suit shots. Farrah reached into her bag and out it came.
Where is the suit today? The Smithsonian has it. I begged them to let me make a better one. They said no.
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December 10, 2019 at 10:24PM
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Norma Kamali Grew Up in Style - The Wall Street Journal
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