She followed blue hair from NYC, which led her over to Los
Angeles, where she hooked up with a band called Poison, and the
rest was fashion rock history. Below is part 2 of our exciting,
exclusive interview with Hollywood’s coolest Los Angeles
designer to the stars, Maggie Barry. Part one may be read here.
Maggie Barry: (ON HER FASHION SHOWS), (…) I can’t
take full credit, you know, everything I do, it’s a path,
and as I walk down that path, I gather friends, and then we have
a party, so that’s kind of how we do it.
BRUCE EDWIN: Did you do CBGB’s and THE
LIMELIGHT and all that at all?
Maggie Barry: Yeah, CBGB’s, The Limelight,
I had a fashion show at The Limelight actually. I used to be a
doorperson at STUDIO 54, and PALLADIUM, and AREA.
BRUCE EDWIN: Cool.
Maggie Barry: So I moved out to L.A. because
(…) all these cool clubs were happening, and I was like,
This is the place to be! It was so awesome. So anyway, I came out
here, and it was just like rock star heaven. This is where
I’m gonna’ be. This is great.
BRUCE EDWIN: that’s awesome. Has the
fetish fashion scene influenced you a lot? Were you in to
that?
Maggie Barry: Yeah, well, (…) I work in
leather. So my work is getting a little fetishy because I work in
leather. Leather tells you what to do. When you work in leather,
there are certain things that kind of make the right balance. We
always have a little bit of that kind of dominance approach to
leather, because that’s how it looks right to me, and it
also looks wearable. I almost think about what shoes I’m
going to wear before I make the clothes, so it starts with the
motorcycle boot in my opinion, and from there you build up. Back
then it was Doc Martens you know, or whatever.
So I mean, I like feminine clothes, but I like the balance of
having something a little hard on it. It looks modern and young
that way. And so we always do a little bit of- if it’s a
zipper, it’s a motorcycle zipper. If it’s a buckle,
it’s a roll buckle. You know, I like studs. I like working
in fashion almost from the point of a coddler. (…) I love
leather, and there’s no way I’m giving leather up.
And it’s a really good fabric. It lasts forever, and it
keeps its shape, it’s a good fabric, you know, I know
it’s an animal, but I eat hamburger, you know. If you can
tell me how to turn tofu in to a jacket, I’ll do it.
BRUCE EDWIN:Ha Ha! That’s funny. That was
my next question actually, was about fur, you know, what would
you say to the anti-fur people and all that?
Continued on next page.