Jeremy O. Harris and Mel Ottenberg Go Rogue After Gucci’s Cruise Show

Last night, Alessandro Michele gathered the fashion cognoscenti at the Castel Del Monte in Puglia for the unveiling of Gucci’s 2023 Cosmogonie  Cruise collection. The medieval castle offered the perfect vantage point to take in the red glow of a total lunar eclipse—and, of course, the stars. On the way to the after party, Interview’s editor in chief and Mel Ottenberg and consigliere Jeremy O. Harris talked to a few of them about fashion, bloodlust, and full moons.

———

MEL OTTENBERG: Okay, we’re in the men’s bathroom.  I’m with Paul Mescal and Jeremy O. Harris. We’re reviewing the show. Let’s talk.

PAUL MESCAL: That was one of the greatest theatrical experiences. I saw Jerusalem last week, and I would hold it up to that. 

OTTENBERG: Oh, wow. 

JEREMY O. HARRIS: I mean, it’s theater.

MESCAL: Paolo Sorrentino is my reference for this show. His work is super romantic and super Italian. 

HARRIS: It also just felt opulent. I saw excess and wealth, but in a way that didn’t feel gross. It’s hard to do that.

MESCAL: Completely. This was high fashion at its best, and I’m like, from fucking Ireland.

HARRIS: Yeah, we’re both working class boys.

MESCAL: I guess so. I was super proud to be there, to get to experience that, it’s next level. 

HARRIS: I also really loved the silhouettes on the boys. A lot of heavy shoulders and long capes.

MESCAL: Alessandro has managed to cater to the skinny boy and the boy with strong shoulders in the same look.

OTTENBERG: Which is crazy. Like, that doesn’t happen. I actually just got a Gucci suit, and I didn’t believe that I could look good in one, and it’s the best suit I own right now.

HARRIS: And that boy walked in one of the best looks.

OTTENBERG: Wait, excuse me. What’s your name? 

JOEP FLEUREM: Joep.

HARRIS: J-O-E-P?

FLEUREM: It’s Dutch.

OTTENBERG: Hot.

MESCAL: You wore my favorite look. I took a photo, it’s in my Favorites.

FLEUREM: Oh, thank you very much.

OTTENBERG: Paul, you should wear that look.

MESCAL: I mean, look at those boots. Joep, did you lose your mind in that suit? 

OTTENBERG: What did it feel like walking in this insane show and wearing one of the best menswear looks?

FLEUREM: The location is really beautiful. The look was very nice, especially the earrings.

HARRIS: How many rehearsals did you do?

FLEUREM: Two.

HARRIS: You killed it.

MESCAL: Completely.

OTTENBERG: Okay, this concludes the bathroom talks for tonight.

———

MEL OTTENBERG: Alright, let’s start. Damn look at you! What’s up, Lou Doillon? 

LOU DOILLON: I’m here for a fashion show. It’s all about full moons, and I’m full mooning. 

OTTENBERG: Full moon, baby.

JEREMY O. HARRIS: Hot.

[All laugh] 

DOILLON: I’m the other full moon tonight.

OTTENBERG: I’m just too stunned by this gorgeous moon to come up with any questions. You got any, Jeremy? 

HARRIS: I have one question for you, Lou. We just saw Alessandro [Michele] take us back in time. If you went back in time, where would you go, and what would be the first thing you’d do? 

DOILLON: Well, we’re talking about a fantasy world, right? Because as a woman, there’s no other time I’d like to live in apart from today. [Laughs] I’ve always been obsessed with the period between the two wars. In a fantasy world, I think the 1930s in Paris. 

HARRIS: Ooh.

DOILLON: Maybe even the end of the ‘20s, so there’s still a bit of James Joyce going around, but you get the beginning of Anaïs Nin and Henry Miller and the feeling of magic Paris that existed at that time—especially for writers and women. There was a new level of sexual freedom and drug freedom. I mean, the ‘60s and ‘70s tried to recreate that time, so I think that would have been my moment. But I would still be wearing a fraise, like they were doing tonight at the Gucci show, and I would be dressed up like a man under Henry the 8th, but I would be living in the ‘30s.

OTTENBERG: It’s interesting you say that, because this show is really giving me Henry the 8th, hard. Lily McMenamy was giving me Anne of The Thousand Days running away from the guillotine.

DOILLON: But weirdly mixed with like 1940s babydoll, mixed a bit with Brooke Shields. 

OTTENBERG: Oh yeah! Brooke Shields in Pretty Baby, you’re right. It was very Pretty Baby with the pearls, very Susan Sarandon. 

DOILLON: And Diana at some moments.

OTTENBERG: Definitely a little Diana. Also, the power fur on Audrey Marnay made me think Mildred Pierce, when she’s gonna throw herself off the bridge but then she doesn’t. And in a Dynasty way she was very like, “I own 51% of this castle,” as Armand Limnander said when she walked by.

HARRIS: I am loving all of these references.

OTTENBERG: Also, the season one finale and season 2, episode 1 of Dynasty were definitely on the mood board. Alessandro Michele and your team, I know that you hear me here. Also, my favorite kind of sunglasses ever, the wraparound. Anita Pallenberg, RIP. Keith Richards, still going. Oliver Goldsmith forever.

DOILLON:: Yes there was this big kind of clash. And I wear fraise—I don’t know how you call them in English—

HARRIS: Big collars?

DOILLON: Yeah, the massive collars, you know, because why not? And they were all there in the show tonight. Also, lots of sexy fucking boots.

HARRIS: Can we just look at these shoes that Lou’s wearing while pregnant? Look at these things!

DOILLON: [Laughs] Yeah, I went up the castle with these shoes. And down the castle. And now I’m gonna get on the dance floor.

———

MEL OTTENBERG: You’re giving—[Laughs] you’re just already giving me fire. So yes, we’re feeling the total eclipse of the heart.

LILY MCMENAMY: Are you feeling the total—the LUNAR—eclipse of the heart?

OTTENBERG: I’m feeling the lunar eclipse of the heart. And actually, I mean, look at it. 

MCMENAMY: The super blood is boiling in me.

[Both laugh]

OTTENBERG: Wait, wait, wait, hold on. What’s going on with the moon?

MCMENAMY: Don’t ask a model what, on an astrophysical level, is happening, but things are riling.

OTTENBERG: I am riled up, by the way. I’ve had an outrageous day, I saw the blood red moon go down, I saw you walk the finale of the spectacular Gucci show looking like Anne Boleyn rushing off to her beheading. It was really phenomenal. I loved it.

MCMENAMY: [Laughs] Yeah, asking for it.

OTTENBERG: Was she asking for it?

MCMENAMY: Gagging for the beheading.

OTTENBERG: She was gagging for it, honey. She was rushing! She had places to go.

MCMENAMY: I know.

OTTENBERG: Okay. I think this interview is over, unless you have something else to say.

MCMENAMY: Well, I want to tell you something off the record.

OTTENBERG: Okay, thank you, bye. I’m turning it off now. 

———

MEL OTTENBERG: You look so gorgeous, how are you doing?

THOMAS DE KLUYVER: Thank you, so do you. I need a drink. 

OTTENBERG: Yeah, we’re going to go to the bar, but can I ask you a quick question about the show?

DE KLUYVER: Yes.

OTTENBERG: I don’t have anything to say, because I just want to hang out with you and not have it be recorded, but what are we talking about? Thomas is like, the most major makeup artist.

DE KLUYVER: We wanted all the makeup to have a bit of, like, mystery and mystique to it.

OTTENBERG: Oh! Wait. The dark-skinned Black girls with the metallic fucking sheen of those midnight colors on the cheeks. So gorgeous.

DE KLUYVER: Yeah, those were the Gucci Beauty eyeshadows—

OTTENBERG: —On the cheeks.

DE KLUYVER: Exactly. We wanted to do something a bit futuristic. I think what’s nice about the makeup for this show is it doesn’t feel like it’s from any particular era. It’s transcending that. I love the way Alessandro approached designing the collection—taking references from so many different places. So, we kind of went about the make up in the same way. 

OTTENBERG: Thank you baby. Let’s go get a drink.