Curator, compiler, stylist and MC. Whether it’s loaning out pieces from his own designer archive to Bella, Paris & Lourdes, styling Lil’ Kim in Juicy Couture, paying tribute to the Queen Bee herself in his bathroom videos or celebrating the Unsung Sheroes of Fashion, Gabriel Held has got you covered.
Loverboy catches up with Gabriel in New York to discuss where his collecting all began, styling Lil’ Kim and whether his alter ego, MC Baby G Shock, will ever perform in public!
OK, so Gabriel, tell me, where are you right now?
I’m in my studio, waiting for my hairstylist to come with what she calls hair botox. I am not sure what I am getting into! But I smoking with the window open so it’s freezing and I’m wearing my Opening Ceremony aviator coat in putrid citrine.
Haha…Well, as well as a penchant for a putrid green, I discovered something else we have in common. Going to expensive private schools with people much richer than ourselves!
That’s absolutely accurate. I was the less privileged kid around the more privileged kids so I would take whatever money I had, buy clothes and sell them back to the girls at school for a markup, which essentially I still do.
How has collecting and curating, evolved into you being a stylist.
I never set out to do either of them. I had just been collecting clothing for personal reasons for a long time. But I spent quite a few years after college, trying to force my way into the Art world, which is weird because my family is an Art world family. So I had the connections, the resume, everything but it just didn’t take.
So I spent years, scratching and clawing and just trying to make this agenda happen. But my friend Hayley Wollens, stylist extraordinaire, had always borrowed clothes from my personal wardrobe, and other people started to get interested too, so I thought, ‘Why not give this a shot?’ and the rest is history.
I don’t hear of many private collectors who loan vintage items out.
Well, you know, not to sound like a real Mariah but nobody does what I do!
Often imitated, never duplicated!
Not everybody can be a curator. Vintage is becoming very mainstream now. So I wouldn’t say there is competition but there are other people doing a similar model to what I do now.
How has the ‘Gabriel Held woman’ changed over time?
My only curatorial concept is, ‘Do I like it?’ I’m not strategic. There were moments of strategy, but my resourcing has always been more resourceful than that. John Galliano had just stepped down from Dior and I remember thinking, ‘I bet you that stuff is going to be really collectible in a couple of years.’ So I started buying the Dior monogram pieces at a time when they were affordable and available. Now they’ve become so popular that it makes them less exciting to me.
But if someone comes to Gabriel Held, what sort of thing are they looking for?
Nobody is coming to me for minimalism!
Speaking of minimalism. I know you are a huge Lil’ Kim fan. Have you worked with her yet?
Yes, I styled her and I do regard that as a dark mark on my record. Certainly to be working with my idol and to not do something outstanding was frustrating. But there were certainly limitations, like it had to be Juicy Couture and there was no time for a fitting, which is kind of crucial.
So I met her at the hotel, started dressing her and I noticed that the piece I had made for her was catching her hair whenever she would move because it was pronged-set crystals. I ended up just ripping all the crystals off the sleeves and her team was not happy. It was an intense night.
She was supposed to go on at 11pm, we arrived at 2am. The fire department were there. We ended up getting separated because it was a mad house. But I did see her perform. She was pulling a few girls up on stage with her and I wondered if this would be my chance to join her! But it wasn’t. Kim definitely knows about my bathroom performance videos but it has never been acknowledged!
But when we got back to the hotel, I sat down on her bed with her and we talked a little bit. I did hit her with something I had written which was that as a more feminine man, she paradoxically allowed me to access my own masculinity by being feminine and sexy but being hard as a man. She seemed to appreciate it but it was also like four in the morning and she was in bed! I’m happy I dressed her. It didn’t turn out to be one for the history books. But it’s certainly one for the memoirs!
Well, hold up, because we need to discuss MC Baby G Shock’s bathroom performance videos! She makes me so happy!
Oh, bless you! I lose almost one thousand followers every time I post one of those videos. Some people in my family worked in the music industry and were always very discouraging to my musical efforts. So the whole bathroom video thing started as a way to try and get over that. I wanted to do it so I did it. Some people really respond to them. I definitely have the die-hards that follow for that reason only! And I appreciate it.
Has MC Baby G Shock performed in public?
Never! There are a couple of people that have asked and I feel like, when and if I do it, I want it to be for something major. I don’t want it to be just a club night. And it’s also been a long time since I performed anything live. I get stagefright! I’m not particularly good on camera either! I get very…tight, I guess. Unless I am supplied with alcohol!
You don’t post many selfies unless you are in drag, which I guess is you at your fullest.
My mother told me I look fifty in drag! I was like, ‘You’re rude!’ It’s not that I’m trying not to post selfies, but if I’m going to post a selfie, obviously I want to be well-groomed and have it in some context that is interesting. Like I’m not going to be doing an outfit of the day or anything because my outfit of the day is usually quite boring. It’s usually black pants and a tour t shirt of Mary J Blige, Destiny’s Child or something.
Now both the MJB & DC could easily feature on you amazing #UnsungSheroesOfFashion. I have to say I am a big Bai Ling fan.
Bai Ling! Bai Ling who says Lady Gaga stole her look….
Really?! An eternal Loverboy fave is Roisin Murphy who has said similar things about Lady Gaga and her own ensembles.
Oh really? Yes that would be appropriate! Roisin has had her Unsung Sheroes moment too! But I actually learned a lot through doing it. People I didn’t even know sometimes become them.
And next we move seamlessly onto another #UnSungSheroOfFashion, Miss Mariah Carey. As we are named after the biggest selling single of 2001, we ask everyone, what is your favourite Mariah song and why?
Oh my God, we could talk about the whole Loverboy/Candy/Firecracker sample thing forever! There is a story there and it is a legitimate one! I think Jennifer Lopez is a great performer and an icon in her own right but I do think Tommy just used her to agitate Mariah.
While I was at elementary school, I found a cassette of Mariah’s MTV Unplugged album in the recycling room of my father’s apartment building. I love ‘If It’s Over.’ In fact, I’m perhaps even more inclined to say specific performances! Of course the SNL performances from the early 90s are unparalleled. ‘Fly Like A Bird’ at the Grammys is a transcendent performance. Anytime Kelly Price and her sister were on backing vocals, the performance was phenomenal. She let them shine too, like on Unplugged’s ‘Someday’. The Oprah ‘When You Believe’ performance is a good one although The Oscars’ performance was not memorable for me. I also love ‘Through The Rain’ on Oprah. I’m obsessed with Mariah. I identify with her.
Find out more about Gabriel at www.gabrielheldvintage.com or follow him on Instagram.
