Meet The Man Behind The Sequins

Meet The Man Behind The Sequins: "

Fergie took the stage last night on American Idol in a spangled bodysuit fit for a particularly glamorous superhero. Routinely topping the Top 40 charts has its perks. But ask us, and the real superhero is the guy who painstakingly crafted the damn thing: the undersung costume designer and stylist Michael Schmidt, the go-to for celebrities looking for a few (thousand) scales, sequins, and sparkles. Fergie’s Idol suit and boots are covered in 8,500 metal scales and Swarovski crystals, each one hand-sewn. The process took three months. But no sweat for Schmidt, whose clientele (Madonna, Cher, Dolly, Janet—the glitteriest of the glitterphiles) routinely go to him for showstopping couture. Not that it’s all girls. Schmidt also designed a rope-knot sculpture for the Palm Springs branch of the Ace Hotel in 2009, and the VIP rooms of NYC’s Palladium club, where he installed black leather floors and hand-studded them in silver—spelling out in Braille (why not?) the lyrics to Iggy Pop’s ‘Nightclubbing.’



—Matthew Schneier



Photo: Vince Bucci / PictureGroup / FOX / AP Photo

"



(Via .)

Comments