Let Them Eat Cheesecake

With a spiraling luxury market, and a decided downturn in the ready-to-wear market, what is one of America’s most gifted designers left to do? If you are the talented Isaac Mizrahi, you start selling cheesecake. Well, we all have to eat.

These will not be your run-of-the-mill cheesecakes. These are designer cheesecakes, including a tartan plaid version for Christmas, and one he describes as “enrobed” in white chocolate, albeit dyed in signature red with navy plaid stripes. In spring, you can look forward to polka dots…”Obviously!” retorted Mizrahi. Ever prolific, he recently decided to make a cheesecake using goat cheese. Mizrahi reports…“It’s amazing. It sounds bad, but it is so good.” Baaaaa! Celebrity chefs are all the rage. It will sort of be like having Mizrahi in your kitchen when you bring out dessert for the in-laws and neighbors and boast that Isaac Mizrahi whipped this up…just for you…girlfriend!

Would I buy a Lagerfeld cheese log or Swedish meatballs from Diane Von Furstenberg? Probably not, but a cheesecake from Isaac…I’d go for it. To promote his exclusive line of cheesecakes, Mizrahi is even getting his own show on QVC called "Isaac Mizrahi Live!" Rest assured that while Mizrahi will be designing a large range of items for QVC, he professes the most excitement about designing couture cuisine.

At age 10, he says he was browsing through recipes and became intrigued by the word “sauté.” “I liked the way it sounded…sauté, sauté, sauté!” Mizrahi says, adding that he used to spend weekends cooking peppers and mushrooms in a pan until they were mushy. (He obviously didn’t see "Julie & Julia.”) “Call my mother. This is what I did on Saturday mornings,” reports Mizrahi. I believe you, but there I was watching reruns of “Sabrina and the Groovy Ghoulies"--my wasted youth.

Mizrahi’s show will begin airing in December, eight hours a month to start, the company says. According to the WSJ, the show is part pitch, part reality television and "will follow Mizrahi as he pitches items like a $200 handbag or $80 shoes, while he engages in his other activities, riffs extemporaneously about his life (he might even sing if coerced) and takes questions from callers," i.e., real people. He also reportedly paints his toenails orange. Well you have to do something while those cheesecakes bake.

The resurgence of Mizrahi, a designer known as much for his charisma as his clothing, is tied to the many changes sweeping the fashion industry. With cost-conscious conglomerates increasingly in control, many designers are searching for ways to broaden their sales beyond the high-fashion customer. At the same time, the growth of collaborations with mid-American retailers, the rise of cable television, the birth of reality television and the Internet have created a surge of opportunities…like cheesecakes.

Is it a comeback? Mizrahi--like a phoenix--has had multiple incarnations. Now 47, Mizrahi seems to be having his moment in the QVC sun again. He already designs for the Liz Claiborne brand--while sales are struggling amid the recession, retailers say he’s added buzz to a line that’s been considered frumpy for years. He’s hosting a fashion reality TV competition on the Bravo network, “The Fashion Show,” which is a “Project Runway” wannabe, and he has been a frequent guest judge on the Food Network’s “Iron Chef America.” Two seasons ago, he resumed showing a high-end line under his own name at New York’s fashion week. And any day now, he’s scheduled to open his first boutique on Madison Avenue.

Remember when Dorothy, Rose, Sophia and Blanche used to gather around their kitchen and trash men over a chocolate-covered cheery cheesecake? I miss the '80s. Isaac, if you're listening, you’re welcome to come over anytime and we can dish Marc Jacobs, Tom Ford and Michael Kors--providing you have a cheesecake in hand.

--Ron Knoth, Guest Blogger

 

Comments

[Ron Knoth]

Dear TSM,

It's so true, in todays tough economy the importance of "the splurge" cannot be under estimated.

Don't tell anyone, this is just between you and I, but yesterday I was feeling a little down in the dumps and splurged on a Coconut Pepperidge Farm Cake. I swear the folks at Pepperidge Farm must put crack in the icing. I'm addicted!

Regards,

Ron

[Ron Knoth]

Dear Mr. Birnbach,

I see from your website that we are practically neighbors, a small world as I'm on East 22nd Street all the time. Can I come over to borrow a cup of sugar? I'm whipping up my own classic cheesecake.

I do not know Mr. Mizrahi personally, but I have seen him "off camera" at events and lectures, and he appears to be the genuine deal. I always come away thinking that he'd be a great best friend. He's funny, sweet and sensitive. I wouldn't let him paint my toetails orange, but I'd love to swap recipies.

I do wish great designers stuck to what they do best...design. Mr. Mizrahi is a great designer. I'd rather see a beautiful dress than a beautiful cheesecake.

But who am I to give advice, I was the one who told Paul Newman to forget the Salad Dressing!

Ron

[jerry birnbach]

Isaac is a unique animal perhaps most like a cat. He has used up four lives and continues to test the waters. I much rather see him be instead of a jack of all trades and a master of none, someone that stands by his convictions and does it well. It would also be refreshing if what you see on camera was consistent with what you see off camera. But congrats on yet another venture, hopefully not short lived and using up another life.

[TSM]

He'll actually probably do really well. Working in food retail I get to see what people are really buying in the recession, and it's quite odd. People will buy 27p cans of own brand beans, the cheapest cuts of meat, and the cheapest of own brand washing powders - and yet we are selling more of the luxuary and expensive deserts than ever before.