When Helen Mirren took her seat at Badgley Mischka in September, she provided one of the New York season’s front row highlights. On Wednesday night, Mirren showed her support for designers Mark Badgley and James Mischka again, this time celebrating their new Rizzoli book “Badgley Mischka: American Glamour” at Bergdorf Goodman.
Sipping on a glass of champagne – “It’s going straight to my head,” she said – Mirren discussed her long relationship with Badgley Mischka and admiration for Mark Badgley and James Mischka.
“The first dress I wore on a red carpet was a Badgley Mischka dress and I was not a particularly well-known actress here in America,” she recalled. “I had seen their beautiful clothes. I wondered, maybe they might lend me something. They were so incredibly generous and immediately helpful.”
A first visit to the duo’s showroom made an impression on the award-winning actress and thespian. “It was full of these spectacular clothes and I saw one dress,” she said. “I loved it and pointed at it. Well, I put it on and they zipped it up.
“I’ve got a very narrow back,” she explained. “I got quite big tits. I got big hips, and it just fitted me like a glove. And that’s been my experience with Badgley Mischka every time. These clothes fit women with a womanly kind of shape.”
And it’s not just the clothes that Mirren is so fond of. “Mark and James are so incredibly kind, so accessible, so easy, so undramatic,” she said. “They produce these spectacular imaginative clothes without being difficult people at all.”
While not a fashion show regular, Mirren has been to Alexander McQueen and Giorgio Armani shows in the past. When the Badgley Mischka invite arrived, she knew she had to attend. “It’s just a parade of unbelievable beauty and glamour,” she said. “I don’t really like the word ‘glamour’ because I like people to feel that what we do is accessible to them, but they do present the dream very beautifully.”
For their part, Badgley and Mischka returned all the compliments. “She is such a doll for coming by,” Mischka said. “She went out of her way and didn’t have to. She already has the book.”
Badgley called the actress “our ultimate Badgley Mischka woman. First of all, she is drop dead gorgeous and she wears the clothes so beautifully. She is cool, modern and elegant all at the same time. And she keeps getting sexier!”
