August 21, 2023 • 48 mins
Isaac Mizrahi goes deep with Betty Halbreich about her 46 years working at Bergdorf Goodman as a clothes therapist, living in fear, not worrying about your legacy and more.
Follow Hello Isaac on @helloisaacpodcast on Instagram and TikTok, Isaac @imisaacmizrahi on Instagram and TikTok and Betty Halbreich on Instagram @bettyhalbreich.
(Recorded on July 18, 2023)
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello. Just a note in this episode there's a brief
discussion of suicidal ideation that some might find a little disturbing.
If you are struggling and have suicidal thoughts, please know
that you are not alone and that help is available.
Please contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at nine eight eight.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Isaac, when you strip someone down out of their clothing,
down to the bear essentials you see and hear a lot,
you become a close therapist.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
This is Hello, Isaac, my podcast about the idea of
success and how failure affects it. I'm Isaac Musrahi, and
in this episode I talk to my dear friend and
the legendary, legendary like queen of Bergdorff Goodman, the personal
shopper Betty Halbriusch.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Hello, I think do you know how I love you?
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I met Betty hall Brush probably in like nineteen eighty eight,
because my first collection was in nineteen eighty seven. I
was invited to have a trunk show at Bergruff Goodman
through the auspices of Betty Holbriisch, who ran this office
still runs in office there called Solutions by Betty hall Brusch.
She is the great personal shopper of the entire world.
(01:30):
She has dressed every movie star, every socialite you can name,
Okay in New York, in California. She has huge, long
tentacles all over the world. Betty can make or break
a collection. And the day I did that trunk show
with Betty transformed me completely. I did not know what
to expect, and whatever I did expect was completely exceeded
(01:53):
by about one thousandfold. It was like walking into another
kind of reality. But the other thing about that day
was that I started to get to know this incredibly beautiful, complex,
strong woman who I also know has a very fragile side,
(02:18):
and a very intelligent side, and a very psychological side.
And that is why I was so excited to do
this podcast. You know, part of my mission with this
podcast is to speak about everything, but not that much
about fashion, only because I feel like it's kind of
on the nose. I feel like I've said everything I
(02:39):
need to say about fashion, and so I don't like
speaking about it. But with Betty, I really love the
idea of speaking about it because I think we will
get to something deeply, deeply interesting. So let's not waste
another second, shall we, Betty Hall Brush, Betty Hallbrush, Betty
(03:06):
hall Brush, Darling, look at you, by the way, I
wish you could see how Betty looks right now. She
looks so incredibly chic. You're wearing some kind of like
a print with some fabulous sort of chokery beads, which
is amazing. And you're sitting in the greatest spot in
the world, right on top of the world, right on
(03:29):
fifty eighth Street and Fifth Avenue. You have the best
office pretty much in the world. Yeah, it's the corner
overlooking the plaza, the fountain at the plaza on Fifth Avenue.
It's what I would describe as like a tree top view.
You get the top of the trees and that fabulous view.
(03:50):
And here's why, Darling, because you're the most important woman
in the world, in the world, in the entire.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
God's sake.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Well, wait, here's the thing that world. Let's give our
listeners a little history. Okay, Betty has been working at
Bergdorf Goodman since she is how old forty something.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I've been here forty five plus years.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
You've been there forty five plus years, and you are
wearing a button that says the figure ninety five. Does
that mean you're ninety five years old.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Baby ninety five plus, ize.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Ninety five plus. You know my mother is ninety five
years old too. So you girls were born in nineteen
twenty seven, right, Yes, that's a good year, darling. That's
a good year, darling. So you've been working at Bergdorf's
as a kind of a personal shopper. Is that what
you call yourself? You're an incredible stylist on top of
being a personal shopper.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I'm a personal shopper.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Okay, that's it, all right, that's it. I've been following
your instagram, theed and your blog and it's very interesting
to me because, like, first of all, I want to
reach in there and like throttle you and go like smile, smile, Betty.
It's not a time that you want to smile. I
feel like you're very down. You're very down in the dumps, darling.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I'm very serious about this blog, Isaac. It has nothing
to do with clothing.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
I know you are well.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
I know, and I've been fortunate enough to get it
out there. And the coterie of people that have answered me,
including which has startled me beyond belief. Are all the men, right, boys?
Speaker 1 (05:36):
A lot of men and boys watching Betty Hallbrisch. But
darling like you talk a lot about how things have
changed over the years. Right, And the word that pops
into my mind is discretion, right, like, I know that
part of your business selling clothes to people is based
in this idea of discretion.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Right, Well, can I see something?
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yeah? Please?
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Do you remember from whence we both came?
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Of course?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Of course you should sit in this office and smoke
on this there its yesis and you knew those women
and their feelings, and there's more about selling clothes. A
lot of feeling goes into it. You have finger a
great deal, Isaac. When you strip someone down out of
(06:26):
their clothing, down to the bare essentials, you see and
hear a lot. You become a close therapist.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
I know that. I know that, and I'll tell you what,
Betty like, I don't talk about clothes a lot to people,
and I don't really book people on my podcast to
talk about clothes, except I booked you because I feel
like you aren't just like an intellectual about clothes, because
I don't really think the clothes are intellectual. I think
(06:56):
the visual they're sensual. There are a lot of things,
but an intellectual, yes, definitely to some people, but to us,
they're more like weirdly psychological because we are born and
raised in this industry. Did you have ties to the
fashion industry before you worked at Bergdorf?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Absolutely not right.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I was a rich housewife with a husband that looked
like Valentina and two lovely children who are now in
their seventies and don't even know where I am.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Aha, Right, no, Isaac.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Before you go further, and then we can go into this.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Okay, I do this job.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
I love my job. It is not my life intellectually.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I hope that I have gone further than that, in
depths with a lot of different human beings, as well
as those whose clothes I take on and off. Somehow,
when I get someone in a dressing room, it always
turns turns to a therapy session right often, and the
(08:07):
selling of the clothes becomes almost secondary. You understand that.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Yes, I've watched you in action, darling, and I know
that firsthand. But tell me something, Why do you do it?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Isaac. I'm ninety five and a half years old. I've
been here almost forty six years. It is an integral
part of my life since mister Goodman came knocking on
my door and asked what I was doing here, and
Jeffy Me put up a note saying, don't take that
woman to write irony.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Wow wow wow.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Posted on my door. I've lived through so much crapola.
I intend to keep this.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
But Darling, I read your book. I remember you. You
came from a very nice, upper middle class family in
chicag right, born in the nineteen twenties, raised there, and
then you met someone and you got married right almost
my husbands, that's right, who you loved and adored, and
you moved to New York City right because of him?
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Is that it at twenty?
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Right at twenty? And then you lived with him very
happily for a number of years, and then what happened.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
It was a very sad sorry he became a drinker
pretty but that was only part of it. And then
I didn't have very much patience in those days. I
think I've learned patience here. But I became very impatient,
extremely frightened, to the point that we separated, and I
(09:46):
then committed myself to a place called Hayne Whitney and
was incarcerated for six weeks.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
You were, yes, why because you were recovering alcoholic or something.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
It wasn't the drinking, I submitted myself. Okay, I walked in.
I couldn't handle life anymore. Left my children were grown
and I couldn't. I've always believed in psychiatry. Con best
I go live in a home where I can have
psychiatry every day of my life. It was a horrible
(10:20):
time in my life. But I will tell you a
funny story. While sitting in a session one day, in
a therapy session with ten much younger people than myself,
one young man turned to me and he pointed a
finger at me. He said to me, what are you
doing here? And I looked. I was askance because I
(10:41):
thought I had sick written all over right, you know, yes,
And from that point on I sort of pulled myself together.
People questioned me, I dressed, I was going out somewhere,
But I was in pain Whitney for six eight weeks. Wow,
And I think I learned more about people than I
(11:06):
could have ever done in the outside world.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
And then from there, somehow you just sprung into the
fashion world.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
No, in a strange way. A woman I knew krink Koum.
I don't know if you ever Karen Koomb.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Of course I knew Karin Koumb.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Lived across the street from me, where I still live
after seventy years. H She was always very attentive to me.
I knew her from working downtown where I worked for
Jeffrey Bean and Hannah Mary. Briefly she said to me,
why don't you come. We're all starting something new at
Bergdorf Goodman. I got so frightenedizeding I thought, I'm going
(11:48):
to commit myself again.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Right right.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
She brought me in to Irony Mark and I shall
never forget the day I had to go up and
meet him and said, Oh, you're very nice looking and
you're lovely. He said, what are we going to do
with you? And out of the back of my brain,
I said, do you have a personal shopping office? Wow?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
So it just encourage to you. Wow.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Well that's how my life has been, Isaac. Things rise
up from nowhere with me because I live with a
great deal of fright. Do you know how intimidated I
felt before we're speaking today. You have no idea.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
I'm me too, darling, me too. I was just talking
to my husband this morning about this, like, at what
age do you let go and just say like, okay, everybody,
I'm not afraid anymore. You come and get me or something,
or can we just live in peace and harmony and
be happy and okay? You know, I mean, does that
ever happen?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
But those are lovely thoughts. I go to the window
and shut it every day, or put it up and
say to myself, I live on the seventh floor. Dare
I drum? Yeah? You know how many times that that
has occurred to me?
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Betty? Yes, Betty, Betty, Betty, Betty. I can't believe it,
because you know what I have to tell you something.
This podcast is about the idea of you know, success
and failure, and how failure kind of is almost like
a preferred kind of state, you know, because when you fail,
I think you learn a lot.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
I don't know that I've failed in anything except within myself.
I feel I'm a huge failure at times. I'm frightened
of so many things that you're not even aware of.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Wow, I am extremely surprised to hear you say that, because, Darling,
I have been in a room with you at some
movie stars and some like socialites, and you are in
control of that room.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Darling.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
You are telling people what you think they should wear
and also what they should not wear. And I watch you,
and you are like sharp as attack. You are fiercely,
fiercely opinionated.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
You know that's a secret. That's a secret. I very opinionated.
But that's my defense mechanism. Don't you understand that?
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Yes, yes, yes, I do. I do. I do. I
understand it.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
I can walk into a room and be like when
I come to your house once a year for dinner
with a group with a different group of the site
men you every year.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Oh takes a lot, Betty, and I can.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Sit down and engage. But until I get there, Isaac,
you have no idea what I go through?
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Is that right? Well, I'm happy to hear that someone
else does this, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Do you believe that we're the only two people in
the world with these kind of emotions? Don't ever ever
feel that way?
Speaker 1 (14:58):
No?
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Line them up from block to block.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Yeah, I think so, I think so.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I don't think. No.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Well, okay, so now let's talk for a minute about
this idea of your participation in the world of fashion
and how that might alleviate the pain or something like that,
or make it worse A pain job, my dear, But
I mean that asks me something about it that you like.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
I love the engaging of people. I like being used
in a very psychological way. And that's really what I do,
and that's perhaps what I'm known for. When I get
letters from people, men and women, usually says something about
(15:50):
something other than clothing. M it's something about me. Yeah,
and it builds me up because I have a lot
of frailties. Yes, that most people aren't aware of. That.
You might be because I know yours. But now you
can sing and you can hear music. I don't have that.
(16:14):
I live in an old eight room apartment that I've
lived in for seventy years, where the walls speak to me. Right, wow,
pretty scary.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
What are you most afraid of? Every day? Is there
one subject that you're afraid of? Are you afraid of
dying for instance?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
No, not at all. I'm afraid of just being afraid.
I was born with it and no one's been ever
able to take care of it, or draw it out
or exercise it.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Understand every single word of what you're saying. It's really
really resonating with me. I look at clothes that people
wear now, and of course there's a level of society
(17:11):
that we're in every day, people in offices, people at dinners,
you know, and people look okay, they look like they've
tried a little bit. But on the red carpet, you know,
the gatta, the upper crust of the world that we're
supposed to be looking at. You know, I look at
those clothes and they're incredible. They're huge, they're constructed, they're tight,
(17:33):
they're difficult.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
You know, there's no individual style. Do you remember in
the olden times that you could tell when a woman
had on whom the designer was. Yeah, anyone ever talk
about that if you saw Jeffrey being clothes that someone
had a Jeffrey Bean dress on or Bill Blast.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Yeah, Patula right. But I'm talking about like these constructions
that you see on red carpets and the way they look,
and our generation we look at those things like they're
too constructed, they're too tight, they're overwrought, you know. Like
for us, we love the idea of things that look
(18:18):
a little bit easier and stylish.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I don't look at feshion this way. If I bring
address a suit or a whole room full of clothes
to you, look at how they look on the individual person.
I never think how they're gonna look when they're out
in society. My job is to put them into it
(18:41):
something I like. I can't sell something I don't like.
You know the story that I have never worked on
a commission in my life. Okay, so I can do
anything I want. That frees me up.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Yes, it does.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Put clothes on people they like and look good. INN
want to be known as that woman, right, I want
to be known as a woman who's tasteful, who brings
them something new and makes them feel good.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
What do you think makes people feel good in their
clothes they see there in.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
The mirror to begin with, and then the accolades they get.
Now that I get back that I hear bout. Oh
my god, you should have heard what they said about me.
Everyone loved my dress, Everyone loved how I look. That's
the best thing. That's my reward. Sounds simplistic to you,
(19:36):
I know, and childlike maybe, but it is very important
to me. I don't want someone to bring back a
piece of clothing and say to me, you know, my
husband really didn't like this.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
My boy is said, right, And do you still work
on a regular basis? Are you still dressing people in
the way you did.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
If I see them right now, businesses at a standsto for.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Me, Is that right? I see?
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Well, there's, first of all, there strikes in my theatrical business.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
So no one's really getting ready to go places.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
No one's really has the lust. You remember, every season
somebody had to have something new.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Yes, you know that.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
It just like going to a new restaurant, seeing a
new play. I mean this encompasses a whole world dressing, Isaac.
It's not only what I do, which seems insular, but
what I do takes them out into the world.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
So let's go back a little bit. But was the
greatest thing that you achieved in your job? Is there
someone that you dressed that you sort of couldn't believe?
You pinched yourself and said, I cannot believe I dressed
Liza or Candice Bergen or one of the presidents. Wise,
you're saying all of them.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
I don't have to tell you. Look, each individual that
comes into me, be they nameless, whomever, are important. I
never take more than one person at a time, ever,
even if they spend hours year.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Right, of course, I remember, Darling, I remember people wait
outside to come into your office. The first trunk show
I ever had was at Bergdorff Goodman. I had my
first collection, and then right away I was booked in
your office to sell these clothes to these women. And
it was something so eye opening and fabulous. And you know,
for me, I had already worked in the industry for years.
(21:36):
I worked for Peri Ellis, I worked for Jeffrey Banks,
I worked for Calvin Klein, and I understood the idea
of trunk shows, but I did never thought of myself
as the center object of the room, you know. I
didn't think it would ever come to that. And when
you did that for me, that was an amazing step
through the looking glass for me, like I stepped through
(21:57):
to something. The day that that happened, I will forget
that day and those incredible women.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
And you how did you become a song and dance man?
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Well, you know what, after years of doing it, Darling,
and I'm telling you this, I probably wouldn't tell this
so many people. After years of doing it, it felt
less and less kind of what's the word rewarding, you know,
because it's the same people who were buying the clothes,
and so after a while it wasn't so rewarding, and
(22:27):
it was like a little repetitive or something. And also
I thought about those people, and I thought, well, those people,
you know. And it's not that I don't adore them,
not that I don't come from those people, because I
Do's nothing.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
You can do with it. One must reinvent themselves mentally
each day, each day that I rise, just like I
wonder from the bed what I'm going to wear that day?
M hmm, I have to come here and reinvent myself.
I come early in the morning. I'm here at eight o'clock.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
You know what I do.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I sit next to that beautiful window and I read
the New York Times from the obituary forward.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
I do the same thing. I read obituaries first.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
But at I read and I read all the crap
ol up and I get my head full of that
way or my day shirts. Look, Isaac, I've lived through
a lot of things outside of this world. Yeah, the store,
and I've lived within. It's helped me within.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
What is the main thing that people say? I mean?
Because I can guess? Can I guess? Can I guess? Betty?
Does this make me look fat? Do you hear that?
A lot in that room?
Speaker 2 (23:40):
No, it's more than clothes. They tell me things that
you won't believe, Isaac.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
I do believe it because I've been in dressing rooms too,
and people do reveal stuff to you that you don't expect.
I know. You know, it's like suddenly they're talking about
how much they want to leave their husband and you
barely know them, or I know worse, or how much
they want to kill their child. Whatever it is. It's
like not a joke. I know. The whole subject of
clothing brings this really crazy side of people out, you know, taking.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
The clothes off to begin with, right the whole process,
and then rebuilding again by layering on some clothes. You know,
they walk into my dressing room and you don't remember,
but it's all ladled out according to top spottoms, dresses
(24:30):
and whatever. I mean, it's a whole story they have
to choose from. They don't have to go and look
for it.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
It's you have already done and I know I see
you on the floor.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
But they feel secure enough with me to take the
advice I've brought to them, which is very unusual because
generally don't you want to see the more or don't
you want to see this and that? So there is
some sort of belief maybe belief, and you know, if
(25:06):
they don't buy, they're always welcome to come back.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
I know that, I know that. But is it because
you say it all starts when they take their clothes off?
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Right? The thing?
Speaker 1 (25:17):
So is it the way people see their bodies? Because,
by the way, body positivity is not the main thing
that you focus on in that office.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
I work around everybody, right, There isn't a body you
can give me anybody. That's another psychological part of it.
How many people come in and like their bodies?
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Zero zero zero? Right?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Zero zero?
Speaker 1 (25:40):
I mean, do you like your body? I don't look
ah well, I mean.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Not a mirror person. I love a mirror.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Right, me too, Me too, me too. But I was
a fat kid, darling, I was a fat kid, so
I will always see myself as a fat person.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
You know that you at least can hang your hat
on that. I can't hang. My problem was my mother
divorced my real father when I was young and remarried
when I was two and a half years old. So
in the end I ended up with two fathers. One
father that hung out in the school yard to see
(26:20):
me because he was forbidden to see me. My real
father and the other man whom my mother married, whom
I adored so all my life I was torn between
two parents right an anger anger, So anger frightens me
(26:42):
more than anything that can happen to me.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
You see, you see, so for you, the source of fear,
it might be anger. Would you say yes, right? Okay,
Well that's a great, great answer for us, Betty, I
mean it so darling. What do people say if they
don't say like, oh, does make me look fat? Does
this make me look tall? What do they say? What
is the main thing people want to garner when they
(27:07):
put on clothes? What is it?
Speaker 2 (27:09):
They want to see a different person in the mirror,
And my job is to make them feel as a
different human being.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
I suppose I put on them right.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
You know, turn look at yourself from the rear. Most
people don't even turn to look at the backside of
them when they're mind something. They just look forward. And
everyone wants to change, Isaac. I think they come for
different reasons. They come for a bad marriage. It's a
good marriage, a child is getting married, somebody had a baby.
(27:44):
They want to meet. They're going to Europe, They're going
to Cincinnati, They're going to ten but two.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Right. A lot of times it's because they're a little
on the board side and have nothing else to do,
which I hate.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Those days are sort of over, I think, are they? Yes?
I do feel that way. I think people are more
secure since it's epidemic, right, and I find that they
don't have that lust. Jason is changing, right, got something
new to where I hope feel that more secure and
(28:19):
a what they have where they're going, Oh, they're living. Remember,
so many people's lives have changed since it's epidemic, which
all reflects on clothing.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
And I noticed that it's it's people go into stores
now and no one buys anything. You go into a store,
they look at it, they take it off, they maybe
try it on, but no one buys stuff. I do
notice that salespeople in stores are really really zeroed in
and aggressive. They are so aggressive, and there's nothing that
(28:52):
turns me off more than an aggressive salesperson. You know,
I know you don't think of yourself as a salesperson. Proved, Yeah,
but is there a secret that you know about selling
clothes other than the fact that it is psychological? Because
I've been in a room with you where you say, Darling,
that looks terrible on you, but you should buy it.
I should buy it anyway, because it looks less terrible
(29:15):
than the last thing you've had. I mean, like, I've
been there with you, Betty, I've heard you say stuff
like that.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
When I came here forty odd years ago, I said,
I will come to work here on a salary basis.
I never want a commission.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. That's it, because for you, you don't
care if someone takes something or not. Of Course I care, well,
of course you care.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Of course I care. I care, that's my sality. I care,
but it's not taking the food out of my mouth
and paying my horrengeous rent.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Wow. That is huge, Betty. Huge.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Well. It has a lot to do with the young
people working here as well, and I sympathize with them
and I watch them carefully. I feel for them because
it's not easy, Isaac. Think how you have to sell
to get a sealery. Yeah, very difficult, difficult thing.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
It really is, it really, really is so over the
forty six years that you've been in that room, do
you have like pet peeves? Can I tell you my
pet peeve? And this might set you off. My pet
peeve is that most times women's bras do not fit properly.
It drives me insane, like they take the close of it.
I'm like, well, wait a minute, we start with your underwear,
(30:33):
because it does it's not fit properly.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Well, let me see why. There's very little lingerie anymore.
You have to go to a specialized store that sells
bros panty girdles. Right, But there's very little motivation in
the stores today in the lingerie department and basically sleepwear
and swimwear that's been incorporated into it.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
And shape. It is in shape going.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Into the lingerie department and look sexy. But there's no
human beings today trained in how to do that. There
are a few places that I send people for this, right.
There are many women that need under garment a lot.
It's a great source of how to sell clothes is
(31:23):
how you look and dress underneath.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
As Dr said, there is no fashion without foundation. That
could mean the simplest thing, the right pair of panties
and the right bra or in his case, he meant
girdling and girdling and brought.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Yet they don't feel that way. I mean I watched
from my window this is my window on the world.
This is the season of shorts. Last year it was
white pants. It's shorts. Even the men are walking around,
everyone's in shorts.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Is that a pet peeve of yours? Right now?
Speaker 2 (31:53):
It has nothing to do with my peeve. I just
don't like sameness. I don't like because I I think
it's a connotation of things to come. If everyone dresses
the same, our government's going to be the same. I
don't want to get into this with you. It has
a lot to do.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
It well, you know what, Betty Darling. That's one reason
I never really loved the idea of the tents and
fashion Week, and to be perfectly honest, the fashion groups.
I just don't like it because I think it's wrong
to make everything the same.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
It's a control. There's control attached to this that you
must do this, you must look this way. But I
think we're getting away from it Isaac, and I think
unfortunately for the stores, the people who are buying and
walking through aren't buying like they did before. They don't
(32:49):
have the compulsion every season. Yeah, now I hope I'm wrong.
Come fall may become the fall season number is a
non end.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
It's usually is, and people they want to take clothes
off in the summer.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
It's not everything I am living as far.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Darling, We have that in common. We both hate the summer.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Summer.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
We loathe the summer, and I get very scared and
depressed themself, Like I as fearful as I am in
the winter. Triple that, and you have me in the summer.
I can barely walk outside of my house in the summer.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Days are too long, my dear.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
The days are too long, and it's too hot, and
you feel gross all the time.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
The days are too long. I keep sound.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
But to get back to close, I began by saying
that we are from this generation who looks at close
right now and thinks that there was a certain amount
of restraint and a certain amount of fluidity and a
certain amount of flesh that you want to feel, and
there's a certain amount of simplicity, et cetera. And now
it's really not about that. And originally I was going
to say it kind of throws me for a loop,
(33:59):
like I look at people and I go, are they crazy?
How does that fit inside a taxi? How is that modern?
How is babba bah? And there are moments when I
go that is gorgeous, and it's exactly the opposite of
what I usually like or what I think I'm going
to like.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
You shock me because I take you out of that
world so completely, Isaac. I have you in the music
world with your beautiful five piece. Wow.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Oh, I'm so excited. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
No, no, no, it's not to thank you. But that's
how I see you intellectually today. I mean, you could
write books again, which you should be writing, I am,
because you read extremely well.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Yes I do. I read like everything but you.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
But I read what you write. You see, so you,
to me, have so far left that world that you're
even interested in It boggles my mind.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Of course I'm interested in it, Betty. It's part of
my blood. It's part of your blood. It's part of
who we are. We can't let go.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Of that part of my blood.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
It's what I do, yes, but it's what you do.
And a lot of your identities is surrounded by the
length of the skirt or the way it fits, or
what somebody looks like or feels like in clothes. You
know books, and I know you keep these crazy notebooks
and you keep writing long hand, which I love. By
(35:29):
the way, Betty, writes.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
I want to show you something.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Oh look, Betty is holding up a legal pad. It's
literally filled with handwriting. And that is I have.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Fifty legal paths. And all the comments I've gotten on
the writing and whatever is what beautiful handwriting you have?
My handwriting, guys, I have between two covers, Betty. Business
is changed, you see.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
I know, I know all business has changed. The entire
world is a big shift happening, and we need to
adapt and we need to look at things because listen,
I'm gonna get very personal with you. You are the
same age as my mother. She's very out of it
right now. She can barely speak, she can't walk, she
can't hear, she can't But darling, you're at ninety five. You, darling,
(36:24):
you need to adapt every single day to the world
and how it's changing. When my mother, when I was
a kid, one of the great things that she used
to tell us was, you know what tomorrow is another day?
She would quote Scarlett o'haris. She would say, tomorrow is
another day. And then one of the last things she
told me when she could put words together and ideas together,
(36:45):
she said, you know, I look at my grandchildren now
I look at my great grandchildren now, and I'm not
sure I can say tomorrow is another day because of
the environmental crisis, because of the crazy, crazy political problems
that this world is, and the impending wars and the
impending disasters.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
And we better prepare for It's only the beginning. And
I know, old lady speaking, you have government that you
have to pay attention to. Yes, we probably know too much,
which we didn't know during the ropeld era because that
era I grew up in, and there was plenty of
(37:26):
I can't use the word begins with an ass and
we got through it. But it's only when the country
pulls together. We are so fractured now, I know, so fractured,
and it is so obvious. It's all around us, and
(37:47):
I tried very hard to overstep it and not dwell
on it.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Darling. I started this conversation by saying, you are the
most important woman in the world, and so a lot
of people look at you, Darling, they go, she's this
number one position in this number one store. She's the
one that people call all these people. Over all of
these years, people have called you for solutions. You know,
Betty's business is called solutions Betty Hall Brisch solutions, and
(38:27):
so I would never know where you can even approach
this idea of failure or fear or something like that.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
I'm human. I have insides that get frightened. I have
a brain that says you can't, and the other side
of the brain says try it.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Mm hmm right, okay, Well let me ask you this
what makes you laugh? Because we used to laugh. We
used to go out to lunch and just laugh.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
When have you ever seen me laugh?
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Are you kidding, darling? That's all we do, only laugh.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Question like this, then it's so irrevelent. It is so
not me. It takes a lot to make me laugh.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Right, okay, all right, So let's talk about you as
a mother and a daughter. You talked about your mother
and how torn you were right as a girl. Do
you think that influenced you as a mother? That scene,
I hope not.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
I sincerely tried to walk to a different drummer from
where I was brought up and how I lived isie.
I think about it most every day, not to be
so concerned about who, what, where and how? So remember
my children are in their seventies right, and my grandchildren
(39:53):
are in their thirties.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Are you a close knit family? Would you call yourself
a close knit family?
Speaker 2 (39:59):
No? No, No, I'm close, but I'm not good I
mean independently close. Is that a way of frasing it.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
It's a good thing. It's something I long to kind
of connect with someone on because I feel like a
big outsider in my family and I don't have children,
and I worry about myself as an old person. But
I also don't want to live my life because I'm
afraid of my old age and I need people to
take care of me and wheel me around. You know.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
I also don't want to wait for the phone to
ring exactly.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
And I love being alone, by the way, I love
being alone with my dogs.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
I can handle being alone. I learn to handle being alone.
Loneliness is part of my agenda.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
Wow, Betty, that might be the title of your next book, Darling.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Yes, yes, remember I still live in the same apartment
I raised my children in.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Right. Wow, that is insane. I can't even believe that. Like,
this is the other thing I think about my mom's generation,
which is you basically right. You'll live through a lot, Darling.
You'll live through World War two and the Depression and
the sixties and the whole crazy atomic threat.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
And father, grandparents and uncles. I mean, there's no one
left standing but me.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Mm hmm, wow, wow, wow, wow.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
You know.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
I got to tell you I am obsessed with obits,
and I ask every single guest on my show this question,
which is, what does your own bit say in the
New York Times? Betty Hallbrish one hundred and twenty? Comma,
what does it say.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
She did?
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Really? That's all? And what was your life? If you
read the article, what does it say about you?
Speaker 2 (41:52):
I don't read the articles.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
You don't read them. You just look at the pictures. Betty.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
I've never read any of the articles ever written about me.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
So you don't worry about your legacy.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Worry about it? What the point of worrying about your legacy?
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Oh, darling, listen, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
I could care less.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
Oh. I love you, Betty, I love you. This is
the best. This is setting me free in so many ways.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Therapist.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
Everybody needs to listen to this podcast because this is
the best fucking thing I've ever heard. A Wow, that
is incredible. I think that's the best answer I've had
on this podcast to date.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
I mean it, I love you. I your nunny is
a fruitcake.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Wait a minute, let me ask you this, is there
something that you would like to promote on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Both of my books are wonderful.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
What are they called? One is called I'll Drink to That.
I'll drink to that with that incredible, wonderful photograph on
the cover. And then to the.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Old book, which was a great book. This has just
gone out.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Of print is oh it has? I love that book.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
It's a lovely book.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
That's a great book.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
I'm getting one hundred and twenty five dollars as a
second half book. I think I'll buy some.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
And it's called Secrets of a Fashion Therapist.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
So this book that I'm doing now, it's all about feeling.
It started at the first day of the epidemic, when
I was left in New York hotally alone, abandoned a band,
and I sat with the doorman and I decided, well,
the doorman and I are going to spend the summer together.
(43:42):
I'll go up and write the legal pads. And I
have never never missed today.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Wow. So it's like a journal of your time feelings.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
It's nothing to do about what I do in here, Okay,
and somehow or other I done about fifty five legal paths.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
I'm feeling, Wow, who's going to edit this damn thing? Buddy,
God help them, God help them. First of all, you
have to get someone to transcribe it onto like a computer,
because when you'd email Betty, it's always her assistant that
emails you back, because that's one thing you did not
adapt to as the computer.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Right, How smart I am? Why I am to myself?
You see what a phony I really am?
Speaker 1 (44:25):
I think, Wow, you're so not a phony. And also, darling,
can I just say this other thing to you, which
is really true? But I think you look better now
than ever, Like you look beautiful at this age, Like
you look really beautiful.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
Well, I think the secret is I'm not in love
with the mirror.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
Right, you know what? I feel like that's a book
that maybe we should do together, like this book about
how to look in the mirror, Because if you take
two like completely crazy people like us who are so
afraid and have such weird body issues and weird issues
looking in the mirror, it might be incredible as a
cautionary tale to others about how to look in the mirror.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
I think most people are afraid of the mirror, and
most people are so afraid of everything that whatever issue
we brought them, they're all living in.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Yeah, we're not any.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Different, do you know, ISAK than anybody that's walking on
the street.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
No, no, we're not. We're so much alike, and we're
so much like the people who are listening and hopefully
who this is resonating for. I love you and I
mean it. Thank you, thank you, thank you for being
my guest today, and I.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
Love you more. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Okay, wow, phew, darlings, I need a drink after that
talk with Betty Hall Briisch. That was so intense. I
expected it to get sort of, you know, deep, but
I did not expect that. There you go again, Betty
Hall Briusch, exceeding expectations. She's just so incredibly smart and
(46:03):
so incredibly like ascute and observant. But also what I
never got before was how very kind of nihilistic she is.
You know. To answer some of those questions with those
answers about the meaninglessness of life is at once kind
of jarring, but it's also very exciting to me, very freeing,
(46:27):
you know, because it's my tendency to think those thoughts
and when you hear someone that you love and respect
as much as I love and respect Betty kind of
reinforcing those thoughts and those ideas. It's very powerful to me.
It becomes like a very big inspiring idea and thought
to me, I'm sure and now that you know about
(46:48):
who she is, you'll become obsessed with her and google
her every five minutes because she is such an incredible
life force on this earth. And I'm really really grateful
that you were with me today in my talk with
Betty Hallbryish Darlings. If you enjoyed this episode, do me
(47:08):
a favor and tell someone, Tell a friend, tell your mother,
tell your cousin, tell everyone you know. Okay, and be
sure to rate the show. I love rating stuff. Go
on and rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts
so more people can hear about it. It makes such
a gigantic difference and like it takes a second, so
(47:29):
go on and do it. And if you want more
fun content videos and posts of all kinds, follow the
show on Instagram and TikTok at Hello Isaac podcast And
by the way, check me out on Instagram and TikTok at.
I Am Isaac Mssragi This is Isaac Missrahi. Thank you,
(47:51):
I love you, and I never thought i'd say this,
but goodbye Isaac. Hello Isaac is produced by Imagine Audio,
Offley Knights and I AM Entertainment for iHeartMedia. The series
is hosted by me Isaac Musrahi. Hello Isaac is produced
by Robin Gelfenbein. The senior producers are Jesse Burton and
(48:15):
John Assanti, and is executive produced by Ron Howard, Brian
Grazerkarral Welker, and Nathan Kloke At Imagine Audio, Production management
from Katie Hodges, Sound design and mixing by Cedric Wilson.
Original music composed by Ben Waltzer. A special thanks to
Neil Phelps and Sarah Katmak at I AM Entertainment
Hello. Just a note in this episode there's a brief
discussion of suicidal ideation that some might find a little disturbing.
If you are struggling and have suicidal thoughts, please know
that you are not alone and that help is available.
Please contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at nine eight eight.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Isaac, when you strip someone down out of their clothing,
down to the bear essentials you see and hear a lot,
you become a close therapist.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
This is Hello, Isaac, my podcast about the idea of
success and how failure affects it. I'm Isaac Musrahi, and
in this episode I talk to my dear friend and
the legendary, legendary like queen of Bergdorff Goodman, the personal
shopper Betty Halbriusch.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
Hello, I think do you know how I love you?
Speaker 1 (01:08):
I met Betty hall Brush probably in like nineteen eighty eight,
because my first collection was in nineteen eighty seven. I
was invited to have a trunk show at Bergruff Goodman
through the auspices of Betty Holbriisch, who ran this office
still runs in office there called Solutions by Betty hall Brusch.
She is the great personal shopper of the entire world.
(01:30):
She has dressed every movie star, every socialite you can name,
Okay in New York, in California. She has huge, long
tentacles all over the world. Betty can make or break
a collection. And the day I did that trunk show
with Betty transformed me completely. I did not know what
to expect, and whatever I did expect was completely exceeded
(01:53):
by about one thousandfold. It was like walking into another
kind of reality. But the other thing about that day
was that I started to get to know this incredibly beautiful, complex,
strong woman who I also know has a very fragile side,
(02:18):
and a very intelligent side, and a very psychological side.
And that is why I was so excited to do
this podcast. You know, part of my mission with this
podcast is to speak about everything, but not that much
about fashion, only because I feel like it's kind of
on the nose. I feel like I've said everything I
(02:39):
need to say about fashion, and so I don't like
speaking about it. But with Betty, I really love the
idea of speaking about it because I think we will
get to something deeply, deeply interesting. So let's not waste
another second, shall we, Betty Hall Brush, Betty Hallbrush, Betty
(03:06):
hall Brush, Darling, look at you, by the way, I
wish you could see how Betty looks right now. She
looks so incredibly chic. You're wearing some kind of like
a print with some fabulous sort of chokery beads, which
is amazing. And you're sitting in the greatest spot in
the world, right on top of the world, right on
(03:29):
fifty eighth Street and Fifth Avenue. You have the best
office pretty much in the world. Yeah, it's the corner
overlooking the plaza, the fountain at the plaza on Fifth Avenue.
It's what I would describe as like a tree top view.
You get the top of the trees and that fabulous view.
(03:50):
And here's why, Darling, because you're the most important woman
in the world, in the world, in the entire.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
God's sake.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Well, wait, here's the thing that world. Let's give our
listeners a little history. Okay, Betty has been working at
Bergdorf Goodman since she is how old forty something.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
I've been here forty five plus years.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
You've been there forty five plus years, and you are
wearing a button that says the figure ninety five. Does
that mean you're ninety five years old.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Baby ninety five plus, ize.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Ninety five plus. You know my mother is ninety five
years old too. So you girls were born in nineteen
twenty seven, right, Yes, that's a good year, darling. That's
a good year, darling. So you've been working at Bergdorf's
as a kind of a personal shopper. Is that what
you call yourself? You're an incredible stylist on top of
being a personal shopper.
Speaker 2 (04:47):
I'm a personal shopper.
Speaker 1 (04:50):
Okay, that's it, all right, that's it. I've been following
your instagram, theed and your blog and it's very interesting
to me because, like, first of all, I want to
reach in there and like throttle you and go like smile, smile, Betty.
It's not a time that you want to smile. I
feel like you're very down. You're very down in the dumps, darling.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
I'm very serious about this blog, Isaac. It has nothing
to do with clothing.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
I know you are well.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
I know, and I've been fortunate enough to get it
out there. And the coterie of people that have answered me,
including which has startled me beyond belief. Are all the men, right, boys?
Speaker 1 (05:36):
A lot of men and boys watching Betty Hallbrisch. But
darling like you talk a lot about how things have
changed over the years. Right, And the word that pops
into my mind is discretion, right, like, I know that
part of your business selling clothes to people is based
in this idea of discretion.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Right, Well, can I see something?
Speaker 1 (05:59):
Yeah? Please?
Speaker 2 (06:01):
Do you remember from whence we both came?
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Of course?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Of course you should sit in this office and smoke
on this there its yesis and you knew those women
and their feelings, and there's more about selling clothes. A
lot of feeling goes into it. You have finger a
great deal, Isaac. When you strip someone down out of
(06:26):
their clothing, down to the bare essentials, you see and
hear a lot. You become a close therapist.
Speaker 1 (06:35):
I know that. I know that, and I'll tell you what,
Betty like, I don't talk about clothes a lot to people,
and I don't really book people on my podcast to
talk about clothes, except I booked you because I feel
like you aren't just like an intellectual about clothes, because
I don't really think the clothes are intellectual. I think
(06:56):
the visual they're sensual. There are a lot of things,
but an intellectual, yes, definitely to some people, but to us,
they're more like weirdly psychological because we are born and
raised in this industry. Did you have ties to the
fashion industry before you worked at Bergdorf?
Speaker 2 (07:15):
Absolutely?
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Absolutely not right.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
I was a rich housewife with a husband that looked
like Valentina and two lovely children who are now in
their seventies and don't even know where I am.
Speaker 1 (07:28):
Aha, Right, no, Isaac.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
Before you go further, and then we can go into this.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
Okay, I do this job.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
I love my job. It is not my life intellectually.
Speaker 1 (07:41):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
I hope that I have gone further than that, in
depths with a lot of different human beings, as well
as those whose clothes I take on and off. Somehow,
when I get someone in a dressing room, it always
turns turns to a therapy session right often, and the
(08:07):
selling of the clothes becomes almost secondary. You understand that.
Speaker 1 (08:12):
Yes, I've watched you in action, darling, and I know
that firsthand. But tell me something, Why do you do it?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Isaac. I'm ninety five and a half years old. I've
been here almost forty six years. It is an integral
part of my life since mister Goodman came knocking on
my door and asked what I was doing here, and
Jeffy Me put up a note saying, don't take that
woman to write irony.
Speaker 1 (08:42):
Wow wow wow.
Speaker 2 (08:43):
Posted on my door. I've lived through so much crapola.
I intend to keep this.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
But Darling, I read your book. I remember you. You
came from a very nice, upper middle class family in
chicag right, born in the nineteen twenties, raised there, and
then you met someone and you got married right almost
my husbands, that's right, who you loved and adored, and
you moved to New York City right because of him?
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Is that it at twenty?
Speaker 1 (09:14):
Right at twenty? And then you lived with him very
happily for a number of years, and then what happened.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
It was a very sad sorry he became a drinker
pretty but that was only part of it. And then
I didn't have very much patience in those days. I
think I've learned patience here. But I became very impatient,
extremely frightened, to the point that we separated, and I
(09:46):
then committed myself to a place called Hayne Whitney and
was incarcerated for six weeks.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
You were, yes, why because you were recovering alcoholic or something.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
It wasn't the drinking, I submitted myself. Okay, I walked in.
I couldn't handle life anymore. Left my children were grown
and I couldn't. I've always believed in psychiatry. Con best
I go live in a home where I can have
psychiatry every day of my life. It was a horrible
(10:20):
time in my life. But I will tell you a
funny story. While sitting in a session one day, in
a therapy session with ten much younger people than myself,
one young man turned to me and he pointed a
finger at me. He said to me, what are you
doing here? And I looked. I was askance because I
(10:41):
thought I had sick written all over right, you know, yes,
And from that point on I sort of pulled myself together.
People questioned me, I dressed, I was going out somewhere,
But I was in pain Whitney for six eight weeks. Wow,
And I think I learned more about people than I
(11:06):
could have ever done in the outside world.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
And then from there, somehow you just sprung into the
fashion world.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
No, in a strange way. A woman I knew krink Koum.
I don't know if you ever Karen Koomb.
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Of course I knew Karin Koumb.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
Lived across the street from me, where I still live
after seventy years. H She was always very attentive to me.
I knew her from working downtown where I worked for
Jeffrey Bean and Hannah Mary. Briefly she said to me,
why don't you come. We're all starting something new at
Bergdorf Goodman. I got so frightenedizeding I thought, I'm going
(11:48):
to commit myself again.
Speaker 1 (11:51):
Right right.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
She brought me in to Irony Mark and I shall
never forget the day I had to go up and
meet him and said, Oh, you're very nice looking and
you're lovely. He said, what are we going to do
with you? And out of the back of my brain,
I said, do you have a personal shopping office? Wow?
Speaker 1 (12:16):
So it just encourage to you. Wow.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Well that's how my life has been, Isaac. Things rise
up from nowhere with me because I live with a
great deal of fright. Do you know how intimidated I
felt before we're speaking today. You have no idea.
Speaker 1 (12:33):
I'm me too, darling, me too. I was just talking
to my husband this morning about this, like, at what
age do you let go and just say like, okay, everybody,
I'm not afraid anymore. You come and get me or something,
or can we just live in peace and harmony and
be happy and okay? You know, I mean, does that
ever happen?
Speaker 2 (12:51):
But those are lovely thoughts. I go to the window
and shut it every day, or put it up and
say to myself, I live on the seventh floor. Dare
I drum? Yeah? You know how many times that that
has occurred to me?
Speaker 1 (13:05):
Betty? Yes, Betty, Betty, Betty, Betty. I can't believe it,
because you know what I have to tell you something.
This podcast is about the idea of you know, success
and failure, and how failure kind of is almost like
a preferred kind of state, you know, because when you fail,
I think you learn a lot.
Speaker 2 (13:26):
I don't know that I've failed in anything except within myself.
I feel I'm a huge failure at times. I'm frightened
of so many things that you're not even aware of.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Wow, I am extremely surprised to hear you say that, because, Darling,
I have been in a room with you at some
movie stars and some like socialites, and you are in
control of that room.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
Darling.
Speaker 1 (13:54):
You are telling people what you think they should wear
and also what they should not wear. And I watch you,
and you are like sharp as attack. You are fiercely,
fiercely opinionated.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
You know that's a secret. That's a secret. I very opinionated.
But that's my defense mechanism. Don't you understand that?
Speaker 1 (14:17):
Yes, yes, yes, I do. I do. I do. I
understand it.
Speaker 2 (14:20):
I can walk into a room and be like when
I come to your house once a year for dinner
with a group with a different group of the site
men you every year.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
Oh takes a lot, Betty, and I can.
Speaker 2 (14:35):
Sit down and engage. But until I get there, Isaac,
you have no idea what I go through?
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Is that right? Well, I'm happy to hear that someone
else does this, you know.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
Do you believe that we're the only two people in
the world with these kind of emotions? Don't ever ever
feel that way?
Speaker 1 (14:58):
No?
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Line them up from block to block.
Speaker 1 (15:01):
Yeah, I think so, I think so.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
I don't think. No.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Well, okay, so now let's talk for a minute about
this idea of your participation in the world of fashion
and how that might alleviate the pain or something like that,
or make it worse A pain job, my dear, But
I mean that asks me something about it that you like.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
I love the engaging of people. I like being used
in a very psychological way. And that's really what I do,
and that's perhaps what I'm known for. When I get
letters from people, men and women, usually says something about
(15:50):
something other than clothing. M it's something about me. Yeah,
and it builds me up because I have a lot
of frailties. Yes, that most people aren't aware of. That.
You might be because I know yours. But now you
can sing and you can hear music. I don't have that.
(16:14):
I live in an old eight room apartment that I've
lived in for seventy years, where the walls speak to me. Right, wow,
pretty scary.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
What are you most afraid of? Every day? Is there
one subject that you're afraid of? Are you afraid of
dying for instance?
Speaker 2 (16:31):
No, not at all. I'm afraid of just being afraid.
I was born with it and no one's been ever
able to take care of it, or draw it out
or exercise it.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
Understand every single word of what you're saying. It's really
really resonating with me. I look at clothes that people
wear now, and of course there's a level of society
(17:11):
that we're in every day, people in offices, people at dinners,
you know, and people look okay, they look like they've
tried a little bit. But on the red carpet, you know,
the gatta, the upper crust of the world that we're
supposed to be looking at. You know, I look at
those clothes and they're incredible. They're huge, they're constructed, they're tight,
(17:33):
they're difficult.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
You know, there's no individual style. Do you remember in
the olden times that you could tell when a woman
had on whom the designer was. Yeah, anyone ever talk
about that if you saw Jeffrey being clothes that someone
had a Jeffrey Bean dress on or Bill Blast.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Yeah, Patula right. But I'm talking about like these constructions
that you see on red carpets and the way they look,
and our generation we look at those things like they're
too constructed, they're too tight, they're overwrought, you know. Like
for us, we love the idea of things that look
(18:18):
a little bit easier and stylish.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
I don't look at feshion this way. If I bring
address a suit or a whole room full of clothes
to you, look at how they look on the individual person.
I never think how they're gonna look when they're out
in society. My job is to put them into it
(18:41):
something I like. I can't sell something I don't like.
You know the story that I have never worked on
a commission in my life. Okay, so I can do
anything I want. That frees me up.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Yes, it does.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Put clothes on people they like and look good. INN
want to be known as that woman, right, I want
to be known as a woman who's tasteful, who brings
them something new and makes them feel good.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
What do you think makes people feel good in their
clothes they see there in.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
The mirror to begin with, and then the accolades they get.
Now that I get back that I hear bout. Oh
my god, you should have heard what they said about me.
Everyone loved my dress, Everyone loved how I look. That's
the best thing. That's my reward. Sounds simplistic to you,
(19:36):
I know, and childlike maybe, but it is very important
to me. I don't want someone to bring back a
piece of clothing and say to me, you know, my
husband really didn't like this.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
My boy is said, right, And do you still work
on a regular basis? Are you still dressing people in
the way you did.
Speaker 2 (19:58):
If I see them right now, businesses at a standsto for.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Me, Is that right? I see?
Speaker 2 (20:04):
Well, there's, first of all, there strikes in my theatrical business.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
So no one's really getting ready to go places.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
No one's really has the lust. You remember, every season
somebody had to have something new.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Yes, you know that.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
It just like going to a new restaurant, seeing a
new play. I mean this encompasses a whole world dressing, Isaac.
It's not only what I do, which seems insular, but
what I do takes them out into the world.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
So let's go back a little bit. But was the
greatest thing that you achieved in your job? Is there
someone that you dressed that you sort of couldn't believe?
You pinched yourself and said, I cannot believe I dressed
Liza or Candice Bergen or one of the presidents. Wise,
you're saying all of them.
Speaker 2 (20:54):
I don't have to tell you. Look, each individual that
comes into me, be they nameless, whomever, are important. I
never take more than one person at a time, ever,
even if they spend hours year.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Right, of course, I remember, Darling, I remember people wait
outside to come into your office. The first trunk show
I ever had was at Bergdorff Goodman. I had my
first collection, and then right away I was booked in
your office to sell these clothes to these women. And
it was something so eye opening and fabulous. And you know,
for me, I had already worked in the industry for years.
(21:36):
I worked for Peri Ellis, I worked for Jeffrey Banks,
I worked for Calvin Klein, and I understood the idea
of trunk shows, but I did never thought of myself
as the center object of the room, you know. I
didn't think it would ever come to that. And when
you did that for me, that was an amazing step
through the looking glass for me, like I stepped through
(21:57):
to something. The day that that happened, I will forget
that day and those incredible women.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
And you how did you become a song and dance man?
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Well, you know what, after years of doing it, Darling,
and I'm telling you this, I probably wouldn't tell this
so many people. After years of doing it, it felt
less and less kind of what's the word rewarding, you know,
because it's the same people who were buying the clothes,
and so after a while it wasn't so rewarding, and
(22:27):
it was like a little repetitive or something. And also
I thought about those people, and I thought, well, those people,
you know. And it's not that I don't adore them,
not that I don't come from those people, because I
Do's nothing.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
You can do with it. One must reinvent themselves mentally
each day, each day that I rise, just like I
wonder from the bed what I'm going to wear that day?
M hmm, I have to come here and reinvent myself.
I come early in the morning. I'm here at eight o'clock.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
You know what I do.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
I sit next to that beautiful window and I read
the New York Times from the obituary forward.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
I do the same thing. I read obituaries first.
Speaker 2 (23:09):
But at I read and I read all the crap
ol up and I get my head full of that
way or my day shirts. Look, Isaac, I've lived through
a lot of things outside of this world. Yeah, the store,
and I've lived within. It's helped me within.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
What is the main thing that people say? I mean?
Because I can guess? Can I guess? Can I guess? Betty?
Does this make me look fat? Do you hear that?
A lot in that room?
Speaker 2 (23:40):
No, it's more than clothes. They tell me things that
you won't believe, Isaac.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
I do believe it because I've been in dressing rooms too,
and people do reveal stuff to you that you don't expect.
I know. You know, it's like suddenly they're talking about
how much they want to leave their husband and you
barely know them, or I know worse, or how much
they want to kill their child. Whatever it is. It's
like not a joke. I know. The whole subject of
clothing brings this really crazy side of people out, you know, taking.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
The clothes off to begin with, right the whole process,
and then rebuilding again by layering on some clothes. You know,
they walk into my dressing room and you don't remember,
but it's all ladled out according to top spottoms, dresses
(24:30):
and whatever. I mean, it's a whole story they have
to choose from. They don't have to go and look
for it.
Speaker 1 (24:39):
It's you have already done and I know I see
you on the floor.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
But they feel secure enough with me to take the
advice I've brought to them, which is very unusual because
generally don't you want to see the more or don't
you want to see this and that? So there is
some sort of belief maybe belief, and you know, if
(25:06):
they don't buy, they're always welcome to come back.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
I know that, I know that. But is it because
you say it all starts when they take their clothes off?
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Right? The thing?
Speaker 1 (25:17):
So is it the way people see their bodies? Because,
by the way, body positivity is not the main thing
that you focus on in that office.
Speaker 2 (25:25):
I work around everybody, right, There isn't a body you
can give me anybody. That's another psychological part of it.
How many people come in and like their bodies?
Speaker 1 (25:37):
Zero zero zero? Right?
Speaker 2 (25:39):
Zero zero?
Speaker 1 (25:40):
I mean, do you like your body? I don't look
ah well, I mean.
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Not a mirror person. I love a mirror.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Right, me too, Me too, me too. But I was
a fat kid, darling, I was a fat kid, so
I will always see myself as a fat person.
Speaker 2 (25:57):
You know that you at least can hang your hat
on that. I can't hang. My problem was my mother
divorced my real father when I was young and remarried
when I was two and a half years old. So
in the end I ended up with two fathers. One
father that hung out in the school yard to see
(26:20):
me because he was forbidden to see me. My real
father and the other man whom my mother married, whom
I adored so all my life I was torn between
two parents right an anger anger, So anger frightens me
(26:42):
more than anything that can happen to me.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
You see, you see, so for you, the source of fear,
it might be anger. Would you say yes, right? Okay,
Well that's a great, great answer for us, Betty, I
mean it so darling. What do people say if they
don't say like, oh, does make me look fat? Does
this make me look tall? What do they say? What
is the main thing people want to garner when they
(27:07):
put on clothes? What is it?
Speaker 2 (27:09):
They want to see a different person in the mirror,
And my job is to make them feel as a
different human being.
Speaker 1 (27:17):
I suppose I put on them right.
Speaker 2 (27:20):
You know, turn look at yourself from the rear. Most
people don't even turn to look at the backside of
them when they're mind something. They just look forward. And
everyone wants to change, Isaac. I think they come for
different reasons. They come for a bad marriage. It's a
good marriage, a child is getting married, somebody had a baby.
(27:44):
They want to meet. They're going to Europe, They're going
to Cincinnati, They're going to ten but two.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Right. A lot of times it's because they're a little
on the board side and have nothing else to do,
which I hate.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Those days are sort of over, I think, are they? Yes?
I do feel that way. I think people are more
secure since it's epidemic, right, and I find that they
don't have that lust. Jason is changing, right, got something
new to where I hope feel that more secure and
(28:19):
a what they have where they're going, Oh, they're living. Remember,
so many people's lives have changed since it's epidemic, which
all reflects on clothing.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
And I noticed that it's it's people go into stores
now and no one buys anything. You go into a store,
they look at it, they take it off, they maybe
try it on, but no one buys stuff. I do
notice that salespeople in stores are really really zeroed in
and aggressive. They are so aggressive, and there's nothing that
(28:52):
turns me off more than an aggressive salesperson. You know,
I know you don't think of yourself as a salesperson. Proved, Yeah,
but is there a secret that you know about selling
clothes other than the fact that it is psychological? Because
I've been in a room with you where you say, Darling,
that looks terrible on you, but you should buy it.
I should buy it anyway, because it looks less terrible
(29:15):
than the last thing you've had. I mean, like, I've
been there with you, Betty, I've heard you say stuff
like that.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
When I came here forty odd years ago, I said,
I will come to work here on a salary basis.
I never want a commission.
Speaker 1 (29:29):
Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. That's it, because for you, you don't
care if someone takes something or not. Of Course I care, well,
of course you care.
Speaker 2 (29:37):
Of course I care. I care, that's my sality. I care,
but it's not taking the food out of my mouth
and paying my horrengeous rent.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Wow. That is huge, Betty. Huge.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
Well. It has a lot to do with the young
people working here as well, and I sympathize with them
and I watch them carefully. I feel for them because
it's not easy, Isaac. Think how you have to sell
to get a sealery. Yeah, very difficult, difficult thing.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
It really is, it really, really is so over the
forty six years that you've been in that room, do
you have like pet peeves? Can I tell you my
pet peeve? And this might set you off. My pet
peeve is that most times women's bras do not fit properly.
It drives me insane, like they take the close of it.
I'm like, well, wait a minute, we start with your underwear,
(30:33):
because it does it's not fit properly.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
Well, let me see why. There's very little lingerie anymore.
You have to go to a specialized store that sells
bros panty girdles. Right, But there's very little motivation in
the stores today in the lingerie department and basically sleepwear
and swimwear that's been incorporated into it.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
And shape. It is in shape going.
Speaker 2 (31:01):
Into the lingerie department and look sexy. But there's no
human beings today trained in how to do that. There
are a few places that I send people for this, right.
There are many women that need under garment a lot.
It's a great source of how to sell clothes is
(31:23):
how you look and dress underneath.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
As Dr said, there is no fashion without foundation. That
could mean the simplest thing, the right pair of panties
and the right bra or in his case, he meant
girdling and girdling and brought.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Yet they don't feel that way. I mean I watched
from my window this is my window on the world.
This is the season of shorts. Last year it was
white pants. It's shorts. Even the men are walking around,
everyone's in shorts.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Is that a pet peeve of yours? Right now?
Speaker 2 (31:53):
It has nothing to do with my peeve. I just
don't like sameness. I don't like because I I think
it's a connotation of things to come. If everyone dresses
the same, our government's going to be the same. I
don't want to get into this with you. It has
a lot to do.
Speaker 1 (32:12):
It well, you know what, Betty Darling. That's one reason
I never really loved the idea of the tents and
fashion Week, and to be perfectly honest, the fashion groups.
I just don't like it because I think it's wrong
to make everything the same.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
It's a control. There's control attached to this that you
must do this, you must look this way. But I
think we're getting away from it Isaac, and I think
unfortunately for the stores, the people who are buying and
walking through aren't buying like they did before. They don't
(32:49):
have the compulsion every season. Yeah, now I hope I'm wrong.
Come fall may become the fall season number is a
non end.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
It's usually is, and people they want to take clothes
off in the summer.
Speaker 2 (33:04):
It's not everything I am living as far.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
Darling, We have that in common. We both hate the summer.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Summer.
Speaker 1 (33:15):
We loathe the summer, and I get very scared and
depressed themself, Like I as fearful as I am in
the winter. Triple that, and you have me in the summer.
I can barely walk outside of my house in the summer.
Speaker 2 (33:25):
Days are too long, my dear.
Speaker 1 (33:27):
The days are too long, and it's too hot, and
you feel gross all the time.
Speaker 2 (33:32):
The days are too long. I keep sound.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
But to get back to close, I began by saying
that we are from this generation who looks at close
right now and thinks that there was a certain amount
of restraint and a certain amount of fluidity and a
certain amount of flesh that you want to feel, and
there's a certain amount of simplicity, et cetera. And now
it's really not about that. And originally I was going
to say it kind of throws me for a loop,
(33:59):
like I look at people and I go, are they crazy?
How does that fit inside a taxi? How is that modern?
How is babba bah? And there are moments when I
go that is gorgeous, and it's exactly the opposite of
what I usually like or what I think I'm going
to like.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
You shock me because I take you out of that
world so completely, Isaac. I have you in the music
world with your beautiful five piece. Wow.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
Oh, I'm so excited. Thank you.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
No, no, no, it's not to thank you. But that's
how I see you intellectually today. I mean, you could
write books again, which you should be writing, I am,
because you read extremely well.
Speaker 1 (34:43):
Yes I do. I read like everything but you.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
But I read what you write. You see, so you,
to me, have so far left that world that you're
even interested in It boggles my mind.
Speaker 1 (35:00):
Of course I'm interested in it, Betty. It's part of
my blood. It's part of your blood. It's part of
who we are. We can't let go.
Speaker 2 (35:07):
Of that part of my blood.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
It's what I do, yes, but it's what you do.
And a lot of your identities is surrounded by the
length of the skirt or the way it fits, or
what somebody looks like or feels like in clothes. You
know books, and I know you keep these crazy notebooks
and you keep writing long hand, which I love. By
(35:29):
the way, Betty, writes.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
I want to show you something.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Oh look, Betty is holding up a legal pad. It's
literally filled with handwriting. And that is I have.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
Fifty legal paths. And all the comments I've gotten on
the writing and whatever is what beautiful handwriting you have?
My handwriting, guys, I have between two covers, Betty. Business
is changed, you see.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
I know, I know all business has changed. The entire
world is a big shift happening, and we need to
adapt and we need to look at things because listen,
I'm gonna get very personal with you. You are the
same age as my mother. She's very out of it
right now. She can barely speak, she can't walk, she
can't hear, she can't But darling, you're at ninety five. You, darling,
(36:24):
you need to adapt every single day to the world
and how it's changing. When my mother, when I was
a kid, one of the great things that she used
to tell us was, you know what tomorrow is another day?
She would quote Scarlett o'haris. She would say, tomorrow is
another day. And then one of the last things she
told me when she could put words together and ideas together,
(36:45):
she said, you know, I look at my grandchildren now
I look at my great grandchildren now, and I'm not
sure I can say tomorrow is another day because of
the environmental crisis, because of the crazy, crazy political problems
that this world is, and the impending wars and the
impending disasters.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
And we better prepare for It's only the beginning. And
I know, old lady speaking, you have government that you
have to pay attention to. Yes, we probably know too much,
which we didn't know during the ropeld era because that
era I grew up in, and there was plenty of
(37:26):
I can't use the word begins with an ass and
we got through it. But it's only when the country
pulls together. We are so fractured now, I know, so fractured,
and it is so obvious. It's all around us, and
(37:47):
I tried very hard to overstep it and not dwell
on it.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Darling. I started this conversation by saying, you are the
most important woman in the world, and so a lot
of people look at you, Darling, they go, she's this
number one position in this number one store. She's the
one that people call all these people. Over all of
these years, people have called you for solutions. You know,
Betty's business is called solutions Betty Hall Brisch solutions, and
(38:27):
so I would never know where you can even approach
this idea of failure or fear or something like that.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
I'm human. I have insides that get frightened. I have
a brain that says you can't, and the other side
of the brain says try it.
Speaker 1 (38:47):
Mm hmm right, okay, Well let me ask you this
what makes you laugh? Because we used to laugh. We
used to go out to lunch and just laugh.
Speaker 2 (38:56):
When have you ever seen me laugh?
Speaker 1 (38:58):
Are you kidding, darling? That's all we do, only laugh.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
Question like this, then it's so irrevelent. It is so
not me. It takes a lot to make me laugh.
Speaker 1 (39:14):
Right, okay, all right, So let's talk about you as
a mother and a daughter. You talked about your mother
and how torn you were right as a girl. Do
you think that influenced you as a mother? That scene,
I hope not.
Speaker 2 (39:30):
I sincerely tried to walk to a different drummer from
where I was brought up and how I lived isie.
I think about it most every day, not to be
so concerned about who, what, where and how? So remember
my children are in their seventies right, and my grandchildren
(39:53):
are in their thirties.
Speaker 1 (39:55):
Are you a close knit family? Would you call yourself
a close knit family?
Speaker 2 (39:59):
No? No, No, I'm close, but I'm not good I
mean independently close. Is that a way of frasing it.
Speaker 1 (40:08):
It's a good thing. It's something I long to kind
of connect with someone on because I feel like a
big outsider in my family and I don't have children,
and I worry about myself as an old person. But
I also don't want to live my life because I'm
afraid of my old age and I need people to
take care of me and wheel me around. You know.
Speaker 2 (40:29):
I also don't want to wait for the phone to
ring exactly.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
And I love being alone, by the way, I love
being alone with my dogs.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
I can handle being alone. I learn to handle being alone.
Loneliness is part of my agenda.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
Wow, Betty, that might be the title of your next book, Darling.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Yes, yes, remember I still live in the same apartment
I raised my children in.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
Right. Wow, that is insane. I can't even believe that. Like,
this is the other thing I think about my mom's generation,
which is you basically right. You'll live through a lot, Darling.
You'll live through World War two and the Depression and
the sixties and the whole crazy atomic threat.
Speaker 2 (41:16):
And father, grandparents and uncles. I mean, there's no one
left standing but me.
Speaker 1 (41:24):
Mm hmm, wow, wow, wow, wow.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
You know.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
I got to tell you I am obsessed with obits,
and I ask every single guest on my show this question,
which is, what does your own bit say in the
New York Times? Betty Hallbrish one hundred and twenty? Comma,
what does it say.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
She did?
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Really? That's all? And what was your life? If you
read the article, what does it say about you?
Speaker 2 (41:52):
I don't read the articles.
Speaker 1 (41:54):
You don't read them. You just look at the pictures. Betty.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
I've never read any of the articles ever written about me.
Speaker 1 (42:01):
So you don't worry about your legacy.
Speaker 2 (42:04):
Worry about it? What the point of worrying about your legacy?
Speaker 1 (42:09):
Oh, darling, listen, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
I could care less.
Speaker 1 (42:14):
Oh. I love you, Betty, I love you. This is
the best. This is setting me free in so many ways.
Speaker 2 (42:26):
Therapist.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
Everybody needs to listen to this podcast because this is
the best fucking thing I've ever heard. A Wow, that
is incredible. I think that's the best answer I've had
on this podcast to date.
Speaker 2 (42:39):
I mean it, I love you. I your nunny is
a fruitcake.
Speaker 1 (42:45):
Wait a minute, let me ask you this, is there
something that you would like to promote on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
Both of my books are wonderful.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
What are they called? One is called I'll Drink to That.
I'll drink to that with that incredible, wonderful photograph on
the cover. And then to the.
Speaker 2 (43:01):
Old book, which was a great book. This has just
gone out.
Speaker 1 (43:06):
Of print is oh it has? I love that book.
Speaker 2 (43:10):
It's a lovely book.
Speaker 1 (43:11):
That's a great book.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
I'm getting one hundred and twenty five dollars as a
second half book. I think I'll buy some.
Speaker 1 (43:17):
And it's called Secrets of a Fashion Therapist.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
So this book that I'm doing now, it's all about feeling.
It started at the first day of the epidemic, when
I was left in New York hotally alone, abandoned a band,
and I sat with the doorman and I decided, well,
the doorman and I are going to spend the summer together.
(43:42):
I'll go up and write the legal pads. And I
have never never missed today.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
Wow. So it's like a journal of your time feelings.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
It's nothing to do about what I do in here, Okay,
and somehow or other I done about fifty five legal paths.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
I'm feeling, Wow, who's going to edit this damn thing? Buddy,
God help them, God help them. First of all, you
have to get someone to transcribe it onto like a computer,
because when you'd email Betty, it's always her assistant that
emails you back, because that's one thing you did not
adapt to as the computer.
Speaker 2 (44:19):
Right, How smart I am? Why I am to myself?
You see what a phony I really am?
Speaker 1 (44:25):
I think, Wow, you're so not a phony. And also, darling,
can I just say this other thing to you, which
is really true? But I think you look better now
than ever, Like you look beautiful at this age, Like
you look really beautiful.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
Well, I think the secret is I'm not in love
with the mirror.
Speaker 1 (44:45):
Right, you know what? I feel like that's a book
that maybe we should do together, like this book about
how to look in the mirror, Because if you take
two like completely crazy people like us who are so
afraid and have such weird body issues and weird issues
looking in the mirror, it might be incredible as a
cautionary tale to others about how to look in the mirror.
Speaker 2 (45:08):
I think most people are afraid of the mirror, and
most people are so afraid of everything that whatever issue
we brought them, they're all living in.
Speaker 1 (45:18):
Yeah, we're not any.
Speaker 2 (45:19):
Different, do you know, ISAK than anybody that's walking on
the street.
Speaker 1 (45:23):
No, no, we're not. We're so much alike, and we're
so much like the people who are listening and hopefully
who this is resonating for. I love you and I
mean it. Thank you, thank you, thank you for being
my guest today, and I.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
Love you more. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (45:38):
Okay, wow, phew, darlings, I need a drink after that
talk with Betty Hall Briisch. That was so intense. I
expected it to get sort of, you know, deep, but
I did not expect that. There you go again, Betty
Hall Briusch, exceeding expectations. She's just so incredibly smart and
(46:03):
so incredibly like ascute and observant. But also what I
never got before was how very kind of nihilistic she is.
You know. To answer some of those questions with those
answers about the meaninglessness of life is at once kind
of jarring, but it's also very exciting to me, very freeing,
(46:27):
you know, because it's my tendency to think those thoughts
and when you hear someone that you love and respect
as much as I love and respect Betty kind of
reinforcing those thoughts and those ideas. It's very powerful to me.
It becomes like a very big inspiring idea and thought
to me, I'm sure and now that you know about
(46:48):
who she is, you'll become obsessed with her and google
her every five minutes because she is such an incredible
life force on this earth. And I'm really really grateful
that you were with me today in my talk with
Betty Hallbryish Darlings. If you enjoyed this episode, do me
(47:08):
a favor and tell someone, Tell a friend, tell your mother,
tell your cousin, tell everyone you know. Okay, and be
sure to rate the show. I love rating stuff. Go
on and rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts
so more people can hear about it. It makes such
a gigantic difference and like it takes a second, so
(47:29):
go on and do it. And if you want more
fun content videos and posts of all kinds, follow the
show on Instagram and TikTok at Hello Isaac podcast And
by the way, check me out on Instagram and TikTok at.
I Am Isaac Mssragi This is Isaac Missrahi. Thank you,
(47:51):
I love you, and I never thought i'd say this,
but goodbye Isaac. Hello Isaac is produced by Imagine Audio,
Offley Knights and I AM Entertainment for iHeartMedia. The series
is hosted by me Isaac Musrahi. Hello Isaac is produced
by Robin Gelfenbein. The senior producers are Jesse Burton and
(48:15):
John Assanti, and is executive produced by Ron Howard, Brian
Grazerkarral Welker, and Nathan Kloke At Imagine Audio, Production management
from Katie Hodges, Sound design and mixing by Cedric Wilson.
Original music composed by Ben Waltzer. A special thanks to
Neil Phelps and Sarah Katmak at I AM Entertainment
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