"Sometimes I'm really dressed up, and it really turns me on"
About this Quote
Fashion, in Isaac Mizrahi's telling, isn’t armor or status or even “self-expression” in the polite, brand-safe sense. It’s libido. “Sometimes I’m really dressed up, and it really turns me on” collapses the distance between aesthetic pleasure and bodily desire, refusing the tidy idea that clothes are just surface. Mizrahi makes the surface the point: the right silhouette, sheen, or constraint can become a private thrill, a spark of agency that’s felt before it’s read.
The line works because it’s blunt without being crass. “Really dressed up” signals ritual and performance, the deliberate escalation from everyday to heightened self. Then he flips the expected audience: you assume dressing up is for other people’s eyes; he frames it as a feedback loop that returns to him, physically. That’s a queer-coded move in its insistence on self-generated desire, but it’s also a designer’s confession: the clothes aren’t merely admired, they’re activated. They do something.
Context matters. Mizrahi came up when American fashion was learning how to be both commercial and personality-driven, and when celebrity culture turned designers into talkers, not just makers. The sentence reads like a soundbite, but it’s also a worldview: glamour is not a lie you tell the world, it’s a sensation you manufacture. In an era that treats “getting dressed” as content, Mizrahi reminds you the most radical audience might be your own nervous system.
The line works because it’s blunt without being crass. “Really dressed up” signals ritual and performance, the deliberate escalation from everyday to heightened self. Then he flips the expected audience: you assume dressing up is for other people’s eyes; he frames it as a feedback loop that returns to him, physically. That’s a queer-coded move in its insistence on self-generated desire, but it’s also a designer’s confession: the clothes aren’t merely admired, they’re activated. They do something.
Context matters. Mizrahi came up when American fashion was learning how to be both commercial and personality-driven, and when celebrity culture turned designers into talkers, not just makers. The sentence reads like a soundbite, but it’s also a worldview: glamour is not a lie you tell the world, it’s a sensation you manufacture. In an era that treats “getting dressed” as content, Mizrahi reminds you the most radical audience might be your own nervous system.
Quote Details
| Topic | Self-Love |
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