I just finished reading Born To Be Brad by Brad Goreski. Like Fashion Victim, the reading material alone was enough of a carrot to get me on the elliptical.
I loved that Brad (and I am sure, to an extent, Mickey Rapkin) wrote in the voice that we all know from The Rachel Zoe Project and Its a Brad, Brad World. I would go so far to say that it truly felt like he was speaking to a friend, complete with interjections of applicable points of view and lists. For example, he discussed Madonna and in a pre-DVR, pre-iPhone world, we just had no idea what she was going to do next. He went on to mention her Vogue performance at the 1990s VMAs.
My own experience watching it? I vividly remember watching it as a five-year-old in the living room of my parents’ Maine house and being straight scandalized that a man stuck his head under her Marie Antoinette-esque costume. It never occurred to me until re-watching it much later in life, that the backup dancers were not attracted to Madonna, in the manner that Sean Penn was.
I love that Brad cited Unzipped as a way he was introduced into fashion, by way of Isaac Mizrahi. That documentary is vastly underrated. All of the supermodels were in the movie. Andre Leon Talley is in the movie. Again, the documentary is everything. It is on iTunes. Time to buy it. In addition to Unzipped, Brad suggests his other top nine fashion- and style-centric movies. (Cut to me binging them this weekend!)
Should you read this book? Yes, and you should have read it yesterday. It was an easily digestible read. (I took it out within five days, if that.) Reading the book felt like simply chatting with a friend, albeit an especially witty one. Particularly if you have professional goals, or find yourself in a professional rut, or just need inspiration, you need to read this book.
Born To Be Brad by Brad Goreski with Mickey Rapkin
2 Comments