December 28, 2022 • 42 mins
Designer Dennis Basso gave Meryl Streep her iconic “Devil Wears Prada” fur look and has dressed everyone from Princess Diana to Naomi Campbell (and Martha!). His clients rely on him to bring the glamour, the furs, and the insight on how to pull it all together. He is known for his evening wear, bridal and home collections and is one of QVC’s most successful retailers. As he heads into his 40th year in fashion, he sits down with Martha to talk about how people are dressing in a post-pandemic world, their shared work ethic, and achieving longevity in such a challenging industry.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
To make it good, to make it pretty. You need.
Even with people helping you, it's still works. Designer Dennis O.
Basso's kindergarten teacher told his parents he should be pointed
in the direction of fashion because of his amazing sense
(00:20):
of color and style. At the young age of seven,
Basso drew his first fashion sketch. It was a stick
figure a bride wearing a wedding gown, which he priced
at five hundred thousand dollars. Maybe he was on to something. Today,
Dennis has been hailed by both celebrity and private clients
(00:41):
for his glamorous collections of eveningwear, ready to wear, bridal gowns, accessories,
and even home goods. After almost forty years in the business,
Dennis remains enthusiastic and focused on the future of fashion.
I am so happy my friend Dennis could amy here
today to talk about his amazing career, how it evolved
(01:05):
and more. Welcome to my podcast. I'm so happy to
be here. Oh my god, after all of these years.
I mean, we've been friends for over thirty years. A
long it has been and fun and a lot's happened
to you, a lot's happened to me. But today we're
talking about Dennis Spasso. Dennis now has a beautiful atilier
(01:27):
on Madison Avenue and is it yep? And he is
still selling some of the most beautiful clothing offered in
New York City and elsewhere. And you're still making how
many how many appearances on QBC. I'm on tonight actually,
and I'm on tomorrow. I'm on all the time, hundreds
of times a year because people really enjoy not only
(01:49):
hearing him describe his fabulous offerings, but they also enjoy
him and they really have had success wearing and using
his products. So all of that, I mean it's very admirable, really,
I mean it's it's the journey for me has been
fun because you don't know along the way who are
(02:11):
you going to meet and where it's going to take you.
And I'm never sitting on my laurels ever focused on
what tomorrow? What could we do tomorrow? I mean, you
would think I was, we would think we were forty
you I know, I'm I'm still building a business, right.
What sparked your passion for fashion in the first place?
(02:31):
You know, I always loved pretty things, beautiful things. I
was a little boy. I think you know how some people,
some men or women as children, have an interest in
silence or or the outdoors, and I was just or dinosaurs.
They dugged me to go outside and play, and I
was like, no, well, I'm not going outside to play there.
(02:54):
I want to stay down the house. I mean, I
would actually say to my mother, can I stay in
the house. I'll dust? Really yeah, I loved being you
have siblings. That helps, That helps, you know, it was fun.
I like it. I mean, you're just aproposo. One thing,
it was Christmas time to this time of the year,
and I was a little sad. All of my friends
(03:15):
have brothers and sisters and I'm at home and my mother.
I said to my mother, you know, Mom, I'm really sad.
I want her brother and sister. And she snapped back
with it. She said, you know, you see that tree
over there. I said yes. She said, you see all
those presents. She said, all those presents for you, because
if there were more kids here, you'd be dividing those presidents.
Shot right, She made you a selfish little boy right
(03:38):
from the beginning. Um. I loved pretty things, and I
was very involved with my mother and her friends and
her sisters and they were sort of glamorous women of
that time in the late fifties and sixties, and I
just thought, I love that. I loved watching those movies.
I was watching these old movies with Barbara Stanwick and
(03:59):
Eva under and Betty Davison. They were all dressed up.
Some of the most beautiful women that ever were in
the movies, and and think, where are those people at seven?
I want you to find those people. I found them.
I'm sitting here with one right. Oh yeah, well you
certainly did. When did you get to Madison Avenue? So
(04:20):
about twenty years ago, we realized that the day of
the seventh Avenue first show room was sort of becoming passe.
People were moving out, people were retiring. You know, most
of the people's sons didn't want to just be in
(04:43):
their father's business, like I didn't want to be in
the produce business. I wanted my own things. So all
of those companies sort of I said, we need to
get out of here, and we came up town and
opened up my first store on sixty five Street in
Madison ave That opening was amazing. Everybody came from Liza
(05:03):
Bennelly and Patti LaBelle and Joan Collins and Jackie her sister. Yes,
I mean it was amazing that people was spilling out
onto the street and Patti LaBelle and Glorious Martha Stewart.
It was an unbelievable and we've been there ever since,
(05:24):
and you know, it's been great. I mean it's been
you know, COVID wasn't the best thing for anybody with
the store, but we've you know, people still got dressed
people and still bought fashion. Yes, now, you know, let's
talk a little bit about your clientele. That you have
had the most beautiful women, the most fashionable women, the
(05:45):
most famous women in the world come through those doors
into your salon. Movies and here's your You can't say
how your favorite is the most perfect one out of
all the major celebrities who and you're gonna say, are yes,
I can see that it was Mouse Street. How great
(06:08):
her elegance. She right, she's for a movie or for
life both. But I did the in The Devil Wears
Pradoc all of the main coats with my coats, that
famous coat when she walks in and plays the editor
of the magazine and throws that coat nitor of Vogue magazine.
(06:28):
Everyone she we did all those coats, and she wrote
a beautiful note and thanked me and she and but
we've done that. I mean, we've dressed j Lo, We've
dressed Jump Collins, were dressed Elizabeth Tellor. Not only I mean,
I can't even It goes on and on and on um.
(06:49):
And they all know you, they all call you Dennis,
they all love you, they love they love the clothes
that you've made for them. I mean, you've had an incredible,
incredible design career. So Dennis the other day, two days ago,
had a most elegant lunch for about how many people
were there, seventies sixty six people, all women, all women,
(07:12):
he calls them girls. And they ranged an age from
like ninety all the way down to probably nineteen. And
we do not discriminated. And everyone came dressed to the tease,
the nines, what do you call addressed to the nine?
Addressed to the nine, boots, snow boots, uh, spike, heels, flats, jewelry, jewelry, furs.
(07:37):
Everybody's glad. Everybody had a little for something on in
honor of Dennis Basso, who is I didn't say that
in my introduction, but he's also known for some very
extraordinary fur designs, beautiful coats, scarves, jackets, blankets, so popular,
and not only real fur because that was well we'll
(07:58):
talk about the fur problem them, but also artificial for well.
You know I've been on qvc UH as you have
in the past twenty This was my twenty na and
we've had a very successful business there, reaching million, millions
of women. I mean, what a great thrill to be
able to do that. That lady out there, look at her?
(08:21):
Who you are able to do that? How great is that?
And we just did a faux for a blanket where
we sold I mean maybe sixty or seventy thousand. You
told me the day the day after you told me
you had sold seventy thousand fake for blankets, and those
of yours you said you'd bring me. Okay, I have
(08:49):
to do spectal delivery to Bedford. Watch out everybody off
that night. Oh boy, is bad. But let's get back
to your first sketch. It was a wedding dress. Was
a wedding dress, and I think had you gone to
a wedding by you know, I don't know, you know,
So we were Italian American and they've been known the
Italian American parents to take their kids to a wedding
(09:12):
or a funeral awake. You know, we were very exposed
and I had a lot of I'm the youngest of
first cousins. My first cousins go from my age, which
is whatever way up. So when I was seven, there
was a group that was in their twenties and they
were getting married and I saw loving, beautiful things. I
(09:34):
saw all these brides. So, but what made you think
at seven seven that a dress could cost five And
I even asked my cousins, who are all different, they said,
you always had a very big vision, and when people
see it, I'm knock wood and thank God every day
about the wonderful success, which I'm telling everyone out there,
(09:57):
success only comes with a lot of hard work. Who
knows better than you work. We're working all the time.
We work. We work night and day and weekends, and
that's what's so. I think I just wanted to do
something special, but that price, and then there's the comma,
and somebody had it put the comma. I can't imagine
that I knew where the comma went. I don't know.
(10:21):
Teacher wrote, so just is not proponed to that the
teacher ten years ago, set me this letter. How many
students do you think since nineteen sixty one? How many
students did she have that she remembered me and wrote
this letter. Isn't that nice? It's unbelievable. This is cree. Well,
(10:42):
you're like me. Miss Wire, who was my third grade teacher,
came on my show. I invited my teachers on my
daily television show, and we were the ones we could find,
you know, some words. Some had passed away, but but
the ones who were alive all came to my show.
And it was so much fun to see them because
I loved my teachers. Did you love your child? And
I was about happy? Did raise my head? And you
(11:06):
were a good student. You were a good student, and
you understood the value of a good teacher. Yes, I
loved it. I loved school. I mean school, I like
to go out. In my mind, I viewed school it's
going out go. It was like, you know, it was
the greatest thing, get away from the daily chores. Say
you were only child, You're lucky. I was the second
(11:29):
eldest of six, so my I had chores. I had
chores from the minute I got up in the morning
till the minute I went to bed at night. You
are one of the most disciplined people I have ever met, really,
and what I like about what I like about people
like you, I also put in that same category, put
people like Stephen Sills. I put Christopher spitz Miller, who
(11:51):
makes laughs, but he is a disciplined human being. And
they are also very industrious. I used the word industrious
to apply to people like you who have worked, uh,
started their own businesses, been very successful and remain good
friends too. Many also enthusiastic. Um, that's all right, not jaded.
(12:16):
But you live beautifully. You know how to live beautifully.
You know how to entertain wonderfully, and you know what,
It goes a long way because we all appreciate it
tremendously well. I think you know it's so for like
minded people like ourselves. Entertaining I mean eight for dinner
is like having dinner, right, I mean, it's like I
(12:38):
always say, it's it's just as easy to make a
recipe for six or eight than it is for one.
I mean easier, easier. When I'm home alone, I invite
my security guard as well as my driver to come
and have dinner with me if they're still around. You
have to. You have to. It's very important to have that.
(12:58):
Have that, you know, you know what it took to
get to where you are, and you haven't forgotten the struggles,
and you haven't forgotten the journey. And next shows Dennis,
it really does show. Well, you've called your mother and
your sister and her sisters, not your you don't have
any waters but your mother and stylish. What kind of
clothes did they wear? Do you remember what they wore? Well,
(13:21):
you know, yes, I mean when I think back, it
was the end of the fifties, so they were still
wearing a lot of dresses. I could remember. I'm going
to check something. I was taken to have my tonsils
out and I was I lived. I lived through that
and I was in the hospital and my parents came
(13:42):
to see me that morning before Dr Lewin took them out.
This is sixty two years ago. And I remember my
mother walked in. It was in the summer, and she
had on a lavender polka dot shirt race dress, so
you don't even raccoon. And then before you had your anesthesia, right,
(14:03):
I remember that dress. I remember seeing that. I'm thinking,
and then we moved from that look right into the
sixties right into the pant suit, and that was a
big look. The pants sort of took over in terms
of fashion, and they were tailored, but they were always
more than stylish. And they were stylish. They were what
(14:25):
I call an old expression. They were always just so.
They were just so. There was never a chip. Now,
there was never anything. It could be a hundred degrees.
They weren't perspiring. I don't know what it is. They
were just very very meticulous. You know, no eating in
the bedroom, no sitting on the bed, no this slip covers,
(14:46):
no good Oh god, Okay. Some people on my street
had plastic. We had. We had a couple of old
relatives that we didn't see too much that had that.
It's not not a good look old in the winter,
hot on the summer. What was nice about your parents, too,
is that they not only encourage your interest in fashion
(15:06):
and in design, but they also made sure that you
got the appropriate education. Yes, always right, It was education
important to that. They were very important. They wanted me
to you know, when you were an only child, you
operate as a little bit of a trio. Very rare
that I meet an only childhood isn't how it didn't
have an extraordinary relationship with that parents. We will like friends.
(15:30):
We would do things, the three of us. It was
like our little family. But your dad do that. My
father was in the produce business, importing and exporting, was
business nice, successful. And so you went to IF I T.
And before if I, where did you study? I studied
a little bit. I wanted to really be in the theater.
So I studied speech and drama for a semester at
(15:53):
Calfolic University in Washington Day and that was fun because
that is a classic stone ivy up the wall kind
of a university. And I said, well, let me have
a little taste of accass. You know, I do like
the whole buffet, so let me go check that out.
And that really and I think, you know, show business
is so difficult and sadly a little bit, and I
(16:17):
love what I do. I think I would have really
shined even you could have been in the sopranos exactly.
So I think that I did that, and then that
wasn't for me, and came back and went to F
I T. And it just clicked for me. And I remember,
(16:38):
I love the school. It's one of the stuff, you know,
they call it the Harvard of Fashion around the World.
I mean it is and I became very very involved
and on all different committees. And Dr Brown, who's the
president who you whom you Just about eight years ago
they gave me, uh a doctorate and it was really
(17:00):
mean more than honorary because it was for time served.
It wasn't like some universities where you know, I give
the tennis court, you give me the doctorate. This is
not This is comes from the governor because it's a
state university. You know, it's not a lot of people
think it's privately owned. No, no, And that was great.
I mean I loved I loved that school. When that school,
it is so great and they do so much good
(17:21):
um and not only in fashion, but in manufacturing and
photography right and keeping keeping so many businesses alive in
New York City to encouraging. So you went, if I
t and when did you graduate? So I graduated in
(17:46):
nineteen seventy four, and then then what happened, Well, I
had it well, to be honest, I mean, I'm happy
to you know. Years later I wasn't um. I needed
a few more credits, and they wanted me to go
to sub school, and I said, listen, I am not
(18:08):
messing my summer up. I'm coming to Europe with some friends.
I'll come back. Oh, I said, well, what about the graduation?
I said, well, you know what, my parents will kill
me if I don't graduate. Can't you just give me
a blank diplomash negotiated? Oh my gosh, So I said,
I'm carrying the flag anyway. So that happened, and then
(18:31):
I rafted I never finished the world but and so
I jumped dry. I went right from that b a
right to the PhD. Okay you your first fashion show
was about ten years later at the Regency Hotel. In
(18:53):
that ten year period after after your pseudo graduation, you
bounced around like where I I weren't. Actually I I
worked at Bloomingdale's. I was the the creative director in
the cosmetic beauty area. Really, that was fun. That's when
pre Michelle had just opened up in Bloomingdale's. Bloomingdales was
(19:16):
at the height. The Queen had just visited, and I
worked there. And then I worked at a fabric company
and I I actually couldn't find myself. The good news
is being an only child, they were helping me out.
They were subsidized. I was a big subsidized and that
was good. Uh. I you know, I was known to
(19:40):
be I mean I would. I had my mother's Bloomingdale's
credit card, and I lived my first department was a
block away from Bloomingdale's, and every once in a while
I'd want to entertain. But I had like used up
all my cash. I go to the gourmet department and
used that her credit card and be mine patte and
this and that, and so she really realized that that
like that like ended. That was not good. That was
(20:02):
not a good But I did that and then I
went I um answered an ant in a woman's wear
daily that started my career, and its working for whom
It said, just it's important. This is when you had
to go into a newspaper to find a job. It said,
wanted designer, shipping, sales, production, pattern maker, basically running an
(20:29):
entire business, right, But I thought it was the designer position. Yeah,
I didn't know that. I didn't know that. The first
day at work, he sent me a ship to boxes.
So I go, I get this job at his company
that was by the name of High Fisherman. First I thought, well,
this is glamorous and I'm there for so I just
important part of the story. I go to the interview
(20:51):
and I wanted four hundred and fifty dollars a week. Yes, man,
I'm in a money suit, and I'm like, you know,
I'm ready to go. I mean, I'm like going to
if you were everything I want this job. So he
hires me. He says, but you have to do everything
I said, But I want for fifty. He says, I
want to pay four hundred. I said, I'm gonna make
a deal. I'm gonna work for four a month. At
(21:12):
the end of the week, I'm gonna a week. If
I'm good, you'll pay me for fifty. If I'm not good,
we'll just part ways and that will be good. I
am design I'm rearranging the furniture. I'm going to the
Delhi and buying fake flower fresh flowers and putting them around.
He would come into this big show whom I had
(21:34):
moved the furniture around. He could not believe how lucky
he was. I was selling coats, like crazy for coats,
gorgeous black mink coats. As I'm with the rage. He
the bookkeeper who I became from me, but said, he's
crazy about you. The month is up. I go into
his office. I said, Mr Fisherman, I just want you
(21:56):
to know that tomorrow will be my last day, you'll
last stay. What are you crazy? He said, I'm gonna
pay you in the fifty I'm gonna pay you the
pointment to your great I said, oh, number, if you
want me to stay, it's five hundred. And he gave
me the five hundred. I stayed there for how long?
Three years? This is the this is the beginning of
(22:17):
Donna's about out. The third year, I get a phone
call from a very close friend of mine who says,
do you have a fox Jacket host sale? I said absolutely,
Now I know everybody on the firm market. I got
to Mr Fisherman, I said, my friend Jimmy wants a
fox jacket hostel. He says, we don't give anyone hos sale. Okay.
(22:38):
So on the way home, am I going to this
guy Bobby, who went a little factory. I said, Bobby,
do you have a jacket host and? I said, sure,
it's a Fox jacket it's three hundred dollars host. I
take the jacket. I got out to Long Island. I
bring it to my friend. My friend loves said those
jackets for about a thousand dollars in the store. She
gives me the three hundred. The next morning, on the
(22:58):
way to work, I go a Bobby, Bobby, this is great.
Next day the phone rings, no bones. Of course, you
know her sister in law wants the same jacket, but
you don't have to charge her that little good light bulb.
I go, I bring her the jacket I charged at three.
(23:21):
Now I keep that. Fifty eight months later, I'm going
to Short Hills, New Jersey, Alpine Greenwich, Connecticut. Well, the
natural salesman came out. I would be. I was rent
everybody in the market New give bass over coats. He's
having like tupperware parties. This is the God's on his truth.
(23:44):
I was doing three fair parties and then I hit
the jack parties. Women in Short Hills came they said,
we only want to see mink coats. The mink coats
were host sale of the time dollars. They were about
five six in a store. And I went there and
sold eight make coats and made eight thousand dollars. This
(24:10):
is nineteen eighty three. Oh great. I went to Puerto
Rico for the weekend. France. Oh he fired you in
his office and he said, what are you doing. You're stealing.
I said stealing. At that point, I was like the
number one. I was the king there. He said, you're
taking sales. I said, you didn't want to give me
(24:31):
host sale? We could have been He said, back up
your desk, you're out. I go to I had another
FIR party that night. I go and I said to him,
He says, you know, I have a little studio here
in the front. Why don't you rent it, go into
your own business. Here we are nine years later. What
was that the seventh Avenue, three or five, seventh Avenue.
(24:52):
I remember, like yesterday my first fashion show. Ivana Trump came.
She came the next morning after the show and bought
seven cards. She was still did WoT that is so amazing?
You did it. You were entrepreneurial and on top of
being a good designer, on top of being a really
good salesman. The entrepreneurial initiative appeared, and here's Dennis Basso
(25:15):
starting his own store. But it was but it was
a full story. I mean, you designed, you, you made,
you manufactured, you sold, you developed a clientele. I could
ship the best box. Yeah, I could wrap a box
with probably know it was great. I mean, you know
when young people and I've spoken it up, I t
I tell everyone, remember every day is in Christmas. You
(25:38):
have your good days, your bad days. You have to
be focused. You can't give up, you can't take no.
For announcer and for a seasonal seasonal. That's why we
went into we do most beautiful. Look that's gorgeous lace code.
I measure. Martha Finale helped me finale my show when
I came down the just a few months ago. That's right,
(25:59):
I should down there and she gave me a beautiful bouquet.
I took her by the dog and we did the
walk of the brand new ballroom of the Pier Hotel.
So closed are a big part of everything. Yeah, so
it was um. So you you just you became overnight
a success on Seventh Avenue. And uh, but when did
(26:19):
you start designing other things? It was first for I
went into clothing maybe fifty twenty years ago because I
was always designing the things to be worn under. I thought, well,
why were I making these clients right? And then we
just developed and kept going. So you've been now designing
(26:41):
for how many years? Forty years? Will be forty years.
We have a lot of landmarks together. This is my
forty year of being I wrote my first book forty
years ago, like two days ago was my birthday of
my first book, so that I considered that at the
beginning of my career. Yes, of course, lifestyle and here
you are designing furs and fashion forty years ago. Isn't
(27:06):
that amazing? You know? And we're both from New Jersey
by the way, everyone, so you have a big philosophy
about dressing and dressing correctly. Um. I know that your
(27:26):
clientele really goes to you for advice about what to
wear to what and what to and how to put
it together. So you're not only a designer, you're also
kind of stylist to some of the most beautiful and
exquisite women in the world. You know, how did that happen?
I just I think that's I think that's like natural.
I think that's who I am. I mean, I just
(27:48):
know what even as a child, I mean, I was
busy doing this with my mother and she's like listening
to a nine year old. I think it was my thing,
you know how, like a nine year old to sit
down and played the piano like chopin and they're like,
but mom should listen to their kids because their kids
have a different perspective. Yes, and they knew that I was.
I just it was very natural, and even just two
(28:10):
hours ago, to protect people's privacy. A very very important
woman who could have anything in the world just can't
give this after her death and fittings. And she's gonna
wear this fabulous jumpsuit with feathers and on a big
Christmas party in pomp Beach. And she said, so what
should I said, you need to take? She has a
(28:30):
huge diamond swan pin from graft and I said, you
pin that right in the middle of the bow that's
at your waist. She said, oh my god. I bracelets
and maybe just ear rings and just keep it not
just but and so that's part of what I'm going
to call me the pictures exactly. See who's wearing that
(28:54):
swan pit? How great? So, I mean, I think it's
part of you know, mean, it's something that I love.
And the other thing I love is you know was
the home. I mean, I love not the most well.
Dennis has one of the most exquisite homes in Southampton,
Long Island. I've had the pleasure of having dinner there
a couple of times, but not only the home. It's
(29:15):
the home, the garden, the table, the collections of table
where that you own of and he is very proud
of the tables he sets. So it really is amazing.
But you really do take you take it from high
fashion to table fashion. Yeah, it's more than interested in
(29:35):
you being the queen of home. It is the only
thing that transports me to another place. When I'm getting ready,
I think of nothing else. When I'm designing, I'm thinking,
are they're gonna like it is? Who's gonna wear it?
Can this be worn by a curvy girl? Can this
(29:56):
be worn by a particular there was is always a
second thing going on. When you're in my house or
on our apartment in New York. I'm just having a
good time creating, and it's it's an obsession actually, I
mean we have a lot of stuff. You've been man,
you've seen eating the same fork in the same plate
(30:18):
is amazing. Yes, it's part of it's a hobby. Actually
that that's nice. It is a hobby, but it's also
a lifestyle and you've you've created a lifestyle that that
so many people want to emulate. Yes, and that's work.
As you know, it's never easy. Listen, who entertains better
than you? You know, to make it good, to make
it pretty, you need even with people helping you, it's
(30:41):
still work. It is you have to think, to think
and have an archive. I mean, don't you call it
your archives? Your library of things to set a table?
Are you selling things in the home area now onc Yes,
some things, but mostly in the faux for blind get
some the Little Teddy Bears and I did some Christmas
(31:03):
ornaments and we did some dishes, you know, a few
items here and there. But the strength is things that
I've done with the Froe far. But back to fashion
because I don't want to. I don't want to end
that discussion. Um, as we heard head into this new year,
two years ago, COVID began. Now we're kind of out
of it. Uh, we're still h We're still a little worried. Um.
(31:27):
Many people are looking to approach their wardrobes in a
in a different way. What do you see? What trends
are you seeing? It's a designer to the stars. I
think I think we've come out of it. Wanting to
be stylish. People want to get dressed up again. People
are focused on that, but people don't want to give
(31:51):
a comfort up. So there's a little bit so apropoached
the luncheon we have the other day. At another given time,
every home would have really come in some sort of
a suit, a lady suit, skirt suit that look a
little tight, a little pushed in. Now people were wearing
(32:12):
a beautiful pants and Cashmissweather is beautiful, beautiful dressed up.
But I think we've revisited how we dress and how
we look. I mean, if we just let's just jump
back twenty years today, if I was coming here, I
would only have been probably coming to do this in
(32:32):
a dark suit and a white shirt and a tie.
I'm all dressed up, but you look good, and you
look here's a black turtleneck on and a beautiful scarf
and a lovely checker jacket. Yes, all dressed up, but
we've taken it. And you too. You're in a kashmir
and top that you know. I'm in a sweatsuit by
(32:54):
Laura Piano. Hello, what is that? Okay? Right? Right? But
I had a lot of meetings. That's where I apologize.
I have to get dressed for a Christmas party. Tonight.
But you'll like, You'll like when I'm wearing I'm wearing
sequin pants, gold sequin pants and a bright red jacket.
If you wanted to go tonight with this, you put
(33:14):
on your big baroque pearls, a small bag. I could go.
You could go and nobody would think that you aren't
dressed that right, Uncle Boot, I mean with a heel.
That's what changed. But that's which changed in fashion, Martha,
that we're able to do things that really weren't acceptable before.
(33:34):
So what's your current trend obsession in design? What are
you what are you designing this accommodating women like like us?
Because Dennis Bassa was known for occasion clothes. So what
you're wearing today, you don't need to come to Dennis
Basso to buy that because they're doing Laura Piano and
(33:56):
Brunello Cristianity. They're doing the best. You come to me
for the sequence, Pats, Yes, I do right. So I'm
just saying, so that's I've stayed people. I think today
you need to stay in your lane, so to speak,
of what you do best. You can't do everything best.
You're not gonna go have hot surgery by a hip doctor.
(34:19):
You want to stay you want to stay in your
lane and slowly branch out to things that feel like
something to you. Yes, you do that. People want to
be dressed again. So you've been on QBC for how
many years? Twenty nine years? You're you're the longest performer,
the longest um um. There's a few others, yeah, who
(34:42):
have been uh not only entertaining but selling to a
vast audience on QBC. That was the first really televised
shopping network in America and uh, and it's still going strong,
and your business is still going strong. Doing it from
home or dad, you go down to Westchester home, but
(35:03):
I'm doing it from home later on and tomorrow. But
Saturday you're going down Westchester five times. Oh you have.
I haven't been back yet. But QVC we we really
do enjoy your performances there because it is a performance.
You are the penultimate sales persons. You think about exposure.
(35:26):
It's been so much fun. I mean, I mean, I
think I remember. Actually December four was my twenty ninth year.
Amazing and QBC honored you with a documentary. Yes, if
you go to um QVC h slash Dennis back, you
(35:49):
see that documents done quite well. I thought. I thought
they did a beautiful job. And it really does high
and show the highlights of your career, the funny moments
that show Michael Pack Oh yes, yeah show the sketch
is so great. And everybody knows Dennis by his name
Dennis any other Denis. People know he's Dennis the Menace,
(36:15):
and he's also Dennis the Menace. So the fun people,
what's the best thing you ever designed? Do you think?
What's the one one item of clothing that you would
hold up and say, I am really proud of this item.
So it was two things, two different things. I did
(36:37):
a golden sable coat to the floor and twenty five
years ago Ivana Trump close the Fashion show wearing that.
It was just over the tap and the King of
Saudi Arabia bought it. He bought it for his wife.
(37:01):
I don't know, somebody. It was quite over the top.
The other thing which I have loved in the movie Chicago,
the finale number with Katherine's Eater Jones and Renaized Alager.
They do some big rasbotas number and we did these
(37:24):
big white capes trimmed white fox. It was so Broadway,
so Hollywood that there were two fun things that movie
I loved. I loved Katherine Sada Jones. I went to
her wedding to Michael Douglas, did you do anything for
her wedding? No? But wasn't it in the Bahamas or no? No?
(37:45):
They got married in New York at the Plaza Hotel. Yeah,
it was funny. I sat with Anthony Hopkins. Yeah it was.
It was a fun fun table. Um. Oh wow, we
had some and Russell Crow sat at our table. I
loved Russell bro Yes, I'd say about celebrity people. Um.
Star Jones when she got married the first time, she
(38:08):
had a huge wedding at Saint Bartholomew and then the
world off and she said to me, I'm going to
sit you with some people that you don't know, but
you're going to thank me. Go to the wedding. We
go to the table and I'm seated with Mr and
Mrs Denzel Washington, Mr and Mrs Samuel Jackson, big time
(38:33):
movie stars. And then and they knew that I was
that I had done a white Man code for Star's wedding.
This was on a Saturday. The store was open on
a Sunday. The next morning all those girls were waiting
at my store. They and their husbands have hated you.
Ever since we have been we have become such close friends.
(38:56):
They are so great. But I'll tell you I was
at a party with Southampton Wants a friend of mine
who was a client. His wife is talking to a
man and the man says to my friend who's and
I was the other fellow. Who is that fellow talking
to my wife? And my friend said to this gentleman
that conversation is going to cause you about fifty hours. Well,
(39:19):
you've you've been such such a good mentor to other
fashionistas of people who are interested in fashion. What one
piece of advice would you give to a young student
if I t today uh to encourage them to either
continue or discontinue their education and fashion. No, I think
you have to be I think so. I think the
(39:41):
education is the most important part, to learn the techniques
of what's going to come forward and how it's done.
But you have to taste it, you have to feel it.
It's like you could go to become a doctor if
you're not interested in the human body and the science,
no matter how much you study. I don't know how
(40:02):
good of a doctor you are to be, or an
attorney or no matter what that field is. So I
think if you have that knows for it, don't give up.
You're gonna you have. But it's as master and I
just said, it's hard work because nothing is easy. You
need to be focused and work on it and don't
necessarily take no from an answer. Keep there. You know,
(40:25):
when when a door is shut, sometimes a window opens,
and you need to be focused. It's all about being focused,
and don't be afraid to work somebody who's you're working
in a company and you're giving them. They're all the
people that could help you. I've noticed. Know what you're
doing well. Dennis Basso has a great future still ahead
(40:45):
of him. A dear friend of mine, Domini blue Hoorn,
recently had to go to a family wedding in the
Dominican Republic and she was frantically looking for three evening gowns.
She went everywhere in New York looking for these evening
awns and then the friend told her, you know, you
should really go to Dennis Basso. Dominique has a very slender,
(41:06):
beautiful figure. She went, she went to your shop and
found three dresses in one hour, which is on her
on her of her for Dominique, by the way, but
boy does she love those dresses and she loves how
she looks in those dresses and feels in those dresses.
So I think that Dennis Basso knows he has his
(41:28):
finger on the pulse of American fashion. You really do.
And and you also have your your finger on what
people like. Well. I think that's so important. You have
to get a sense. It's all about the sense also
to sort of know what's right for that person. You
only want them to have something great from you, but
(41:49):
not just that person, but the public in general. Public.
I think I think you have that that real good,
good intuition that that so many other people are lacking,
and and you can sort of trust Dennis Basso. It's
always a pleasure to catch up with you, Dennis, and
there's so much more to talk about. We'll have a
repeat visit maybe maybe next next spring or summer and UM.
(42:14):
To find out more about Dennis, please visit his website
at Dennis O. Basso dot com or follow him on
Instagram at Dennis Basso b A S S O. UM.
We'll see you soon. I love you. This was great.
Thank you everybody for joining us,
To make it good, to make it pretty. You need.
Even with people helping you, it's still works. Designer Dennis O.
Basso's kindergarten teacher told his parents he should be pointed
in the direction of fashion because of his amazing sense
(00:20):
of color and style. At the young age of seven,
Basso drew his first fashion sketch. It was a stick
figure a bride wearing a wedding gown, which he priced
at five hundred thousand dollars. Maybe he was on to something. Today,
Dennis has been hailed by both celebrity and private clients
(00:41):
for his glamorous collections of eveningwear, ready to wear, bridal gowns, accessories,
and even home goods. After almost forty years in the business,
Dennis remains enthusiastic and focused on the future of fashion.
I am so happy my friend Dennis could amy here
today to talk about his amazing career, how it evolved
(01:05):
and more. Welcome to my podcast. I'm so happy to
be here. Oh my god, after all of these years.
I mean, we've been friends for over thirty years. A
long it has been and fun and a lot's happened
to you, a lot's happened to me. But today we're
talking about Dennis Spasso. Dennis now has a beautiful atilier
(01:27):
on Madison Avenue and is it yep? And he is
still selling some of the most beautiful clothing offered in
New York City and elsewhere. And you're still making how
many how many appearances on QBC. I'm on tonight actually,
and I'm on tomorrow. I'm on all the time, hundreds
of times a year because people really enjoy not only
(01:49):
hearing him describe his fabulous offerings, but they also enjoy
him and they really have had success wearing and using
his products. So all of that, I mean it's very admirable, really,
I mean it's it's the journey for me has been
fun because you don't know along the way who are
(02:11):
you going to meet and where it's going to take you.
And I'm never sitting on my laurels ever focused on
what tomorrow? What could we do tomorrow? I mean, you
would think I was, we would think we were forty
you I know, I'm I'm still building a business, right.
What sparked your passion for fashion in the first place?
(02:31):
You know, I always loved pretty things, beautiful things. I
was a little boy. I think you know how some people,
some men or women as children, have an interest in
silence or or the outdoors, and I was just or dinosaurs.
They dugged me to go outside and play, and I
was like, no, well, I'm not going outside to play there.
(02:54):
I want to stay down the house. I mean, I
would actually say to my mother, can I stay in
the house. I'll dust? Really yeah, I loved being you
have siblings. That helps, That helps, you know, it was fun.
I like it. I mean, you're just aproposo. One thing,
it was Christmas time to this time of the year,
and I was a little sad. All of my friends
(03:15):
have brothers and sisters and I'm at home and my mother.
I said to my mother, you know, Mom, I'm really sad.
I want her brother and sister. And she snapped back
with it. She said, you know, you see that tree
over there. I said yes. She said, you see all
those presents. She said, all those presents for you, because
if there were more kids here, you'd be dividing those presidents.
Shot right, She made you a selfish little boy right
(03:38):
from the beginning. Um. I loved pretty things, and I
was very involved with my mother and her friends and
her sisters and they were sort of glamorous women of
that time in the late fifties and sixties, and I
just thought, I love that. I loved watching those movies.
I was watching these old movies with Barbara Stanwick and
(03:59):
Eva under and Betty Davison. They were all dressed up.
Some of the most beautiful women that ever were in
the movies, and and think, where are those people at seven?
I want you to find those people. I found them.
I'm sitting here with one right. Oh yeah, well you
certainly did. When did you get to Madison Avenue? So
(04:20):
about twenty years ago, we realized that the day of
the seventh Avenue first show room was sort of becoming passe.
People were moving out, people were retiring. You know, most
of the people's sons didn't want to just be in
(04:43):
their father's business, like I didn't want to be in
the produce business. I wanted my own things. So all
of those companies sort of I said, we need to
get out of here, and we came up town and
opened up my first store on sixty five Street in
Madison ave That opening was amazing. Everybody came from Liza
(05:03):
Bennelly and Patti LaBelle and Joan Collins and Jackie her sister. Yes,
I mean it was amazing that people was spilling out
onto the street and Patti LaBelle and Glorious Martha Stewart.
It was an unbelievable and we've been there ever since,
(05:24):
and you know, it's been great. I mean it's been
you know, COVID wasn't the best thing for anybody with
the store, but we've you know, people still got dressed
people and still bought fashion. Yes, now, you know, let's
talk a little bit about your clientele. That you have
had the most beautiful women, the most fashionable women, the
(05:45):
most famous women in the world come through those doors
into your salon. Movies and here's your You can't say
how your favorite is the most perfect one out of
all the major celebrities who and you're gonna say, are yes,
I can see that it was Mouse Street. How great
(06:08):
her elegance. She right, she's for a movie or for
life both. But I did the in The Devil Wears
Pradoc all of the main coats with my coats, that
famous coat when she walks in and plays the editor
of the magazine and throws that coat nitor of Vogue magazine.
(06:28):
Everyone she we did all those coats, and she wrote
a beautiful note and thanked me and she and but
we've done that. I mean, we've dressed j Lo, We've
dressed Jump Collins, were dressed Elizabeth Tellor. Not only I mean,
I can't even It goes on and on and on um.
(06:49):
And they all know you, they all call you Dennis,
they all love you, they love they love the clothes
that you've made for them. I mean, you've had an incredible,
incredible design career. So Dennis the other day, two days ago,
had a most elegant lunch for about how many people
were there, seventies sixty six people, all women, all women,
(07:12):
he calls them girls. And they ranged an age from
like ninety all the way down to probably nineteen. And
we do not discriminated. And everyone came dressed to the tease,
the nines, what do you call addressed to the nine?
Addressed to the nine, boots, snow boots, uh, spike, heels, flats, jewelry, jewelry, furs.
(07:37):
Everybody's glad. Everybody had a little for something on in
honor of Dennis Basso, who is I didn't say that
in my introduction, but he's also known for some very
extraordinary fur designs, beautiful coats, scarves, jackets, blankets, so popular,
and not only real fur because that was well we'll
(07:58):
talk about the fur problem them, but also artificial for well.
You know I've been on qvc UH as you have
in the past twenty This was my twenty na and
we've had a very successful business there, reaching million, millions
of women. I mean, what a great thrill to be
able to do that. That lady out there, look at her?
(08:21):
Who you are able to do that? How great is that?
And we just did a faux for a blanket where
we sold I mean maybe sixty or seventy thousand. You
told me the day the day after you told me
you had sold seventy thousand fake for blankets, and those
of yours you said you'd bring me. Okay, I have
(08:49):
to do spectal delivery to Bedford. Watch out everybody off
that night. Oh boy, is bad. But let's get back
to your first sketch. It was a wedding dress. Was
a wedding dress, and I think had you gone to
a wedding by you know, I don't know, you know,
So we were Italian American and they've been known the
Italian American parents to take their kids to a wedding
(09:12):
or a funeral awake. You know, we were very exposed
and I had a lot of I'm the youngest of
first cousins. My first cousins go from my age, which
is whatever way up. So when I was seven, there
was a group that was in their twenties and they
were getting married and I saw loving, beautiful things. I
(09:34):
saw all these brides. So, but what made you think
at seven seven that a dress could cost five And
I even asked my cousins, who are all different, they said,
you always had a very big vision, and when people
see it, I'm knock wood and thank God every day
about the wonderful success, which I'm telling everyone out there,
(09:57):
success only comes with a lot of hard work. Who
knows better than you work. We're working all the time.
We work. We work night and day and weekends, and
that's what's so. I think I just wanted to do
something special, but that price, and then there's the comma,
and somebody had it put the comma. I can't imagine
that I knew where the comma went. I don't know.
(10:21):
Teacher wrote, so just is not proponed to that the
teacher ten years ago, set me this letter. How many
students do you think since nineteen sixty one? How many
students did she have that she remembered me and wrote
this letter. Isn't that nice? It's unbelievable. This is cree. Well,
(10:42):
you're like me. Miss Wire, who was my third grade teacher,
came on my show. I invited my teachers on my
daily television show, and we were the ones we could find,
you know, some words. Some had passed away, but but
the ones who were alive all came to my show.
And it was so much fun to see them because
I loved my teachers. Did you love your child? And
I was about happy? Did raise my head? And you
(11:06):
were a good student. You were a good student, and
you understood the value of a good teacher. Yes, I
loved it. I loved school. I mean school, I like
to go out. In my mind, I viewed school it's
going out go. It was like, you know, it was
the greatest thing, get away from the daily chores. Say
you were only child, You're lucky. I was the second
(11:29):
eldest of six, so my I had chores. I had
chores from the minute I got up in the morning
till the minute I went to bed at night. You
are one of the most disciplined people I have ever met, really,
and what I like about what I like about people
like you, I also put in that same category, put
people like Stephen Sills. I put Christopher spitz Miller, who
(11:51):
makes laughs, but he is a disciplined human being. And
they are also very industrious. I used the word industrious
to apply to people like you who have worked, uh,
started their own businesses, been very successful and remain good
friends too. Many also enthusiastic. Um, that's all right, not jaded.
(12:16):
But you live beautifully. You know how to live beautifully.
You know how to entertain wonderfully, and you know what,
It goes a long way because we all appreciate it
tremendously well. I think you know it's so for like
minded people like ourselves. Entertaining I mean eight for dinner
is like having dinner, right, I mean, it's like I
(12:38):
always say, it's it's just as easy to make a
recipe for six or eight than it is for one.
I mean easier, easier. When I'm home alone, I invite
my security guard as well as my driver to come
and have dinner with me if they're still around. You
have to. You have to. It's very important to have that.
(12:58):
Have that, you know, you know what it took to
get to where you are, and you haven't forgotten the struggles,
and you haven't forgotten the journey. And next shows Dennis,
it really does show. Well, you've called your mother and
your sister and her sisters, not your you don't have
any waters but your mother and stylish. What kind of
clothes did they wear? Do you remember what they wore? Well,
(13:21):
you know, yes, I mean when I think back, it
was the end of the fifties, so they were still
wearing a lot of dresses. I could remember. I'm going
to check something. I was taken to have my tonsils
out and I was I lived. I lived through that
and I was in the hospital and my parents came
(13:42):
to see me that morning before Dr Lewin took them out.
This is sixty two years ago. And I remember my
mother walked in. It was in the summer, and she
had on a lavender polka dot shirt race dress, so
you don't even raccoon. And then before you had your anesthesia, right,
(14:03):
I remember that dress. I remember seeing that. I'm thinking,
and then we moved from that look right into the
sixties right into the pant suit, and that was a
big look. The pants sort of took over in terms
of fashion, and they were tailored, but they were always
more than stylish. And they were stylish. They were what
(14:25):
I call an old expression. They were always just so.
They were just so. There was never a chip. Now,
there was never anything. It could be a hundred degrees.
They weren't perspiring. I don't know what it is. They
were just very very meticulous. You know, no eating in
the bedroom, no sitting on the bed, no this slip covers,
(14:46):
no good Oh god, Okay. Some people on my street
had plastic. We had. We had a couple of old
relatives that we didn't see too much that had that.
It's not not a good look old in the winter,
hot on the summer. What was nice about your parents, too,
is that they not only encourage your interest in fashion
(15:06):
and in design, but they also made sure that you
got the appropriate education. Yes, always right, It was education
important to that. They were very important. They wanted me
to you know, when you were an only child, you
operate as a little bit of a trio. Very rare
that I meet an only childhood isn't how it didn't
have an extraordinary relationship with that parents. We will like friends.
(15:30):
We would do things, the three of us. It was
like our little family. But your dad do that. My
father was in the produce business, importing and exporting, was
business nice, successful. And so you went to IF I T.
And before if I, where did you study? I studied
a little bit. I wanted to really be in the theater.
So I studied speech and drama for a semester at
(15:53):
Calfolic University in Washington Day and that was fun because
that is a classic stone ivy up the wall kind
of a university. And I said, well, let me have
a little taste of accass. You know, I do like
the whole buffet, so let me go check that out.
And that really and I think, you know, show business
is so difficult and sadly a little bit, and I
(16:17):
love what I do. I think I would have really
shined even you could have been in the sopranos exactly.
So I think that I did that, and then that
wasn't for me, and came back and went to F
I T. And it just clicked for me. And I remember,
(16:38):
I love the school. It's one of the stuff, you know,
they call it the Harvard of Fashion around the World.
I mean it is and I became very very involved
and on all different committees. And Dr Brown, who's the
president who you whom you Just about eight years ago
they gave me, uh a doctorate and it was really
(17:00):
mean more than honorary because it was for time served.
It wasn't like some universities where you know, I give
the tennis court, you give me the doctorate. This is
not This is comes from the governor because it's a
state university. You know, it's not a lot of people
think it's privately owned. No, no, And that was great.
I mean I loved I loved that school. When that school,
it is so great and they do so much good
(17:21):
um and not only in fashion, but in manufacturing and
photography right and keeping keeping so many businesses alive in
New York City to encouraging. So you went, if I
t and when did you graduate? So I graduated in
(17:46):
nineteen seventy four, and then then what happened, Well, I
had it well, to be honest, I mean, I'm happy
to you know. Years later I wasn't um. I needed
a few more credits, and they wanted me to go
to sub school, and I said, listen, I am not
(18:08):
messing my summer up. I'm coming to Europe with some friends.
I'll come back. Oh, I said, well, what about the graduation?
I said, well, you know what, my parents will kill
me if I don't graduate. Can't you just give me
a blank diplomash negotiated? Oh my gosh, So I said,
I'm carrying the flag anyway. So that happened, and then
(18:31):
I rafted I never finished the world but and so
I jumped dry. I went right from that b a
right to the PhD. Okay you your first fashion show
was about ten years later at the Regency Hotel. In
(18:53):
that ten year period after after your pseudo graduation, you
bounced around like where I I weren't. Actually I I
worked at Bloomingdale's. I was the the creative director in
the cosmetic beauty area. Really, that was fun. That's when
pre Michelle had just opened up in Bloomingdale's. Bloomingdales was
(19:16):
at the height. The Queen had just visited, and I
worked there. And then I worked at a fabric company
and I I actually couldn't find myself. The good news
is being an only child, they were helping me out.
They were subsidized. I was a big subsidized and that
was good. Uh. I you know, I was known to
(19:40):
be I mean I would. I had my mother's Bloomingdale's
credit card, and I lived my first department was a
block away from Bloomingdale's, and every once in a while
I'd want to entertain. But I had like used up
all my cash. I go to the gourmet department and
used that her credit card and be mine patte and
this and that, and so she really realized that that
like that like ended. That was not good. That was
(20:02):
not a good But I did that and then I
went I um answered an ant in a woman's wear
daily that started my career, and its working for whom
It said, just it's important. This is when you had
to go into a newspaper to find a job. It said,
wanted designer, shipping, sales, production, pattern maker, basically running an
(20:29):
entire business, right, But I thought it was the designer position. Yeah,
I didn't know that. I didn't know that. The first
day at work, he sent me a ship to boxes.
So I go, I get this job at his company
that was by the name of High Fisherman. First I thought, well,
this is glamorous and I'm there for so I just
important part of the story. I go to the interview
(20:51):
and I wanted four hundred and fifty dollars a week. Yes, man,
I'm in a money suit, and I'm like, you know,
I'm ready to go. I mean, I'm like going to
if you were everything I want this job. So he
hires me. He says, but you have to do everything
I said, But I want for fifty. He says, I
want to pay four hundred. I said, I'm gonna make
a deal. I'm gonna work for four a month. At
(21:12):
the end of the week, I'm gonna a week. If
I'm good, you'll pay me for fifty. If I'm not good,
we'll just part ways and that will be good. I
am design I'm rearranging the furniture. I'm going to the
Delhi and buying fake flower fresh flowers and putting them around.
He would come into this big show whom I had
(21:34):
moved the furniture around. He could not believe how lucky
he was. I was selling coats, like crazy for coats,
gorgeous black mink coats. As I'm with the rage. He
the bookkeeper who I became from me, but said, he's
crazy about you. The month is up. I go into
his office. I said, Mr Fisherman, I just want you
(21:56):
to know that tomorrow will be my last day, you'll
last stay. What are you crazy? He said, I'm gonna
pay you in the fifty I'm gonna pay you the
pointment to your great I said, oh, number, if you
want me to stay, it's five hundred. And he gave
me the five hundred. I stayed there for how long?
Three years? This is the this is the beginning of
(22:17):
Donna's about out. The third year, I get a phone
call from a very close friend of mine who says,
do you have a fox Jacket host sale? I said absolutely,
Now I know everybody on the firm market. I got
to Mr Fisherman, I said, my friend Jimmy wants a
fox jacket hostel. He says, we don't give anyone hos sale. Okay.
(22:38):
So on the way home, am I going to this
guy Bobby, who went a little factory. I said, Bobby,
do you have a jacket host and? I said, sure,
it's a Fox jacket it's three hundred dollars host. I
take the jacket. I got out to Long Island. I
bring it to my friend. My friend loves said those
jackets for about a thousand dollars in the store. She
gives me the three hundred. The next morning, on the
(22:58):
way to work, I go a Bobby, Bobby, this is great.
Next day the phone rings, no bones. Of course, you
know her sister in law wants the same jacket, but
you don't have to charge her that little good light bulb.
I go, I bring her the jacket I charged at three.
(23:21):
Now I keep that. Fifty eight months later, I'm going
to Short Hills, New Jersey, Alpine Greenwich, Connecticut. Well, the
natural salesman came out. I would be. I was rent
everybody in the market New give bass over coats. He's
having like tupperware parties. This is the God's on his truth.
(23:44):
I was doing three fair parties and then I hit
the jack parties. Women in Short Hills came they said,
we only want to see mink coats. The mink coats
were host sale of the time dollars. They were about
five six in a store. And I went there and
sold eight make coats and made eight thousand dollars. This
(24:10):
is nineteen eighty three. Oh great. I went to Puerto
Rico for the weekend. France. Oh he fired you in
his office and he said, what are you doing. You're stealing.
I said stealing. At that point, I was like the
number one. I was the king there. He said, you're
taking sales. I said, you didn't want to give me
(24:31):
host sale? We could have been He said, back up
your desk, you're out. I go to I had another
FIR party that night. I go and I said to him,
He says, you know, I have a little studio here
in the front. Why don't you rent it, go into
your own business. Here we are nine years later. What
was that the seventh Avenue, three or five, seventh Avenue.
(24:52):
I remember, like yesterday my first fashion show. Ivana Trump came.
She came the next morning after the show and bought
seven cards. She was still did WoT that is so amazing?
You did it. You were entrepreneurial and on top of
being a good designer, on top of being a really
good salesman. The entrepreneurial initiative appeared, and here's Dennis Basso
(25:15):
starting his own store. But it was but it was
a full story. I mean, you designed, you, you made,
you manufactured, you sold, you developed a clientele. I could
ship the best box. Yeah, I could wrap a box
with probably know it was great. I mean, you know
when young people and I've spoken it up, I t
I tell everyone, remember every day is in Christmas. You
(25:38):
have your good days, your bad days. You have to
be focused. You can't give up, you can't take no.
For announcer and for a seasonal seasonal. That's why we
went into we do most beautiful. Look that's gorgeous lace code.
I measure. Martha Finale helped me finale my show when
I came down the just a few months ago. That's right,
(25:59):
I should down there and she gave me a beautiful bouquet.
I took her by the dog and we did the
walk of the brand new ballroom of the Pier Hotel.
So closed are a big part of everything. Yeah, so
it was um. So you you just you became overnight
a success on Seventh Avenue. And uh, but when did
(26:19):
you start designing other things? It was first for I
went into clothing maybe fifty twenty years ago because I
was always designing the things to be worn under. I thought, well,
why were I making these clients right? And then we
just developed and kept going. So you've been now designing
(26:41):
for how many years? Forty years? Will be forty years.
We have a lot of landmarks together. This is my
forty year of being I wrote my first book forty
years ago, like two days ago was my birthday of
my first book, so that I considered that at the
beginning of my career. Yes, of course, lifestyle and here
you are designing furs and fashion forty years ago. Isn't
(27:06):
that amazing? You know? And we're both from New Jersey
by the way, everyone, so you have a big philosophy
about dressing and dressing correctly. Um. I know that your
(27:26):
clientele really goes to you for advice about what to
wear to what and what to and how to put
it together. So you're not only a designer, you're also
kind of stylist to some of the most beautiful and
exquisite women in the world. You know, how did that happen?
I just I think that's I think that's like natural.
I think that's who I am. I mean, I just
(27:48):
know what even as a child, I mean, I was
busy doing this with my mother and she's like listening
to a nine year old. I think it was my thing,
you know how, like a nine year old to sit
down and played the piano like chopin and they're like,
but mom should listen to their kids because their kids
have a different perspective. Yes, and they knew that I was.
I just it was very natural, and even just two
(28:10):
hours ago, to protect people's privacy. A very very important
woman who could have anything in the world just can't
give this after her death and fittings. And she's gonna
wear this fabulous jumpsuit with feathers and on a big
Christmas party in pomp Beach. And she said, so what
should I said, you need to take? She has a
(28:30):
huge diamond swan pin from graft and I said, you
pin that right in the middle of the bow that's
at your waist. She said, oh my god. I bracelets
and maybe just ear rings and just keep it not
just but and so that's part of what I'm going
to call me the pictures exactly. See who's wearing that
(28:54):
swan pit? How great? So, I mean, I think it's
part of you know, mean, it's something that I love.
And the other thing I love is you know was
the home. I mean, I love not the most well.
Dennis has one of the most exquisite homes in Southampton,
Long Island. I've had the pleasure of having dinner there
a couple of times, but not only the home. It's
(29:15):
the home, the garden, the table, the collections of table
where that you own of and he is very proud
of the tables he sets. So it really is amazing.
But you really do take you take it from high
fashion to table fashion. Yeah, it's more than interested in
(29:35):
you being the queen of home. It is the only
thing that transports me to another place. When I'm getting ready,
I think of nothing else. When I'm designing, I'm thinking,
are they're gonna like it is? Who's gonna wear it?
Can this be worn by a curvy girl? Can this
(29:56):
be worn by a particular there was is always a
second thing going on. When you're in my house or
on our apartment in New York. I'm just having a
good time creating, and it's it's an obsession actually, I
mean we have a lot of stuff. You've been man,
you've seen eating the same fork in the same plate
(30:18):
is amazing. Yes, it's part of it's a hobby. Actually
that that's nice. It is a hobby, but it's also
a lifestyle and you've you've created a lifestyle that that
so many people want to emulate. Yes, and that's work.
As you know, it's never easy. Listen, who entertains better
than you? You know, to make it good, to make
it pretty, you need even with people helping you, it's
(30:41):
still work. It is you have to think, to think
and have an archive. I mean, don't you call it
your archives? Your library of things to set a table?
Are you selling things in the home area now onc Yes,
some things, but mostly in the faux for blind get
some the Little Teddy Bears and I did some Christmas
(31:03):
ornaments and we did some dishes, you know, a few
items here and there. But the strength is things that
I've done with the Froe far. But back to fashion
because I don't want to. I don't want to end
that discussion. Um, as we heard head into this new year,
two years ago, COVID began. Now we're kind of out
of it. Uh, we're still h We're still a little worried. Um.
(31:27):
Many people are looking to approach their wardrobes in a
in a different way. What do you see? What trends
are you seeing? It's a designer to the stars. I
think I think we've come out of it. Wanting to
be stylish. People want to get dressed up again. People
are focused on that, but people don't want to give
(31:51):
a comfort up. So there's a little bit so apropoached
the luncheon we have the other day. At another given time,
every home would have really come in some sort of
a suit, a lady suit, skirt suit that look a
little tight, a little pushed in. Now people were wearing
(32:12):
a beautiful pants and Cashmissweather is beautiful, beautiful dressed up.
But I think we've revisited how we dress and how
we look. I mean, if we just let's just jump
back twenty years today, if I was coming here, I
would only have been probably coming to do this in
(32:32):
a dark suit and a white shirt and a tie.
I'm all dressed up, but you look good, and you
look here's a black turtleneck on and a beautiful scarf
and a lovely checker jacket. Yes, all dressed up, but
we've taken it. And you too. You're in a kashmir
and top that you know. I'm in a sweatsuit by
(32:54):
Laura Piano. Hello, what is that? Okay? Right? Right? But
I had a lot of meetings. That's where I apologize.
I have to get dressed for a Christmas party. Tonight.
But you'll like, You'll like when I'm wearing I'm wearing
sequin pants, gold sequin pants and a bright red jacket.
If you wanted to go tonight with this, you put
(33:14):
on your big baroque pearls, a small bag. I could go.
You could go and nobody would think that you aren't
dressed that right, Uncle Boot, I mean with a heel.
That's what changed. But that's which changed in fashion, Martha,
that we're able to do things that really weren't acceptable before.
(33:34):
So what's your current trend obsession in design? What are
you what are you designing this accommodating women like like us?
Because Dennis Bassa was known for occasion clothes. So what
you're wearing today, you don't need to come to Dennis
Basso to buy that because they're doing Laura Piano and
(33:56):
Brunello Cristianity. They're doing the best. You come to me
for the sequence, Pats, Yes, I do right. So I'm
just saying, so that's I've stayed people. I think today
you need to stay in your lane, so to speak,
of what you do best. You can't do everything best.
You're not gonna go have hot surgery by a hip doctor.
(34:19):
You want to stay you want to stay in your
lane and slowly branch out to things that feel like
something to you. Yes, you do that. People want to
be dressed again. So you've been on QBC for how
many years? Twenty nine years? You're you're the longest performer,
the longest um um. There's a few others, yeah, who
(34:42):
have been uh not only entertaining but selling to a
vast audience on QBC. That was the first really televised
shopping network in America and uh, and it's still going strong,
and your business is still going strong. Doing it from
home or dad, you go down to Westchester home, but
(35:03):
I'm doing it from home later on and tomorrow. But
Saturday you're going down Westchester five times. Oh you have.
I haven't been back yet. But QVC we we really
do enjoy your performances there because it is a performance.
You are the penultimate sales persons. You think about exposure.
(35:26):
It's been so much fun. I mean, I mean, I
think I remember. Actually December four was my twenty ninth year.
Amazing and QBC honored you with a documentary. Yes, if
you go to um QVC h slash Dennis back, you
(35:49):
see that documents done quite well. I thought. I thought
they did a beautiful job. And it really does high
and show the highlights of your career, the funny moments
that show Michael Pack Oh yes, yeah show the sketch
is so great. And everybody knows Dennis by his name
Dennis any other Denis. People know he's Dennis the Menace,
(36:15):
and he's also Dennis the Menace. So the fun people,
what's the best thing you ever designed? Do you think?
What's the one one item of clothing that you would
hold up and say, I am really proud of this item.
So it was two things, two different things. I did
(36:37):
a golden sable coat to the floor and twenty five
years ago Ivana Trump close the Fashion show wearing that.
It was just over the tap and the King of
Saudi Arabia bought it. He bought it for his wife.
(37:01):
I don't know, somebody. It was quite over the top.
The other thing which I have loved in the movie Chicago,
the finale number with Katherine's Eater Jones and Renaized Alager.
They do some big rasbotas number and we did these
(37:24):
big white capes trimmed white fox. It was so Broadway,
so Hollywood that there were two fun things that movie
I loved. I loved Katherine Sada Jones. I went to
her wedding to Michael Douglas, did you do anything for
her wedding? No? But wasn't it in the Bahamas or no? No?
(37:45):
They got married in New York at the Plaza Hotel. Yeah,
it was funny. I sat with Anthony Hopkins. Yeah it was.
It was a fun fun table. Um. Oh wow, we
had some and Russell Crow sat at our table. I
loved Russell bro Yes, I'd say about celebrity people. Um.
Star Jones when she got married the first time, she
(38:08):
had a huge wedding at Saint Bartholomew and then the
world off and she said to me, I'm going to
sit you with some people that you don't know, but
you're going to thank me. Go to the wedding. We
go to the table and I'm seated with Mr and
Mrs Denzel Washington, Mr and Mrs Samuel Jackson, big time
(38:33):
movie stars. And then and they knew that I was
that I had done a white Man code for Star's wedding.
This was on a Saturday. The store was open on
a Sunday. The next morning all those girls were waiting
at my store. They and their husbands have hated you.
Ever since we have been we have become such close friends.
(38:56):
They are so great. But I'll tell you I was
at a party with Southampton Wants a friend of mine
who was a client. His wife is talking to a
man and the man says to my friend who's and
I was the other fellow. Who is that fellow talking
to my wife? And my friend said to this gentleman
that conversation is going to cause you about fifty hours. Well,
(39:19):
you've you've been such such a good mentor to other
fashionistas of people who are interested in fashion. What one
piece of advice would you give to a young student
if I t today uh to encourage them to either
continue or discontinue their education and fashion. No, I think
you have to be I think so. I think the
(39:41):
education is the most important part, to learn the techniques
of what's going to come forward and how it's done.
But you have to taste it, you have to feel it.
It's like you could go to become a doctor if
you're not interested in the human body and the science,
no matter how much you study. I don't know how
(40:02):
good of a doctor you are to be, or an
attorney or no matter what that field is. So I
think if you have that knows for it, don't give up.
You're gonna you have. But it's as master and I
just said, it's hard work because nothing is easy. You
need to be focused and work on it and don't
necessarily take no from an answer. Keep there. You know,
(40:25):
when when a door is shut, sometimes a window opens,
and you need to be focused. It's all about being focused,
and don't be afraid to work somebody who's you're working
in a company and you're giving them. They're all the
people that could help you. I've noticed. Know what you're
doing well. Dennis Basso has a great future still ahead
(40:45):
of him. A dear friend of mine, Domini blue Hoorn,
recently had to go to a family wedding in the
Dominican Republic and she was frantically looking for three evening gowns.
She went everywhere in New York looking for these evening
awns and then the friend told her, you know, you
should really go to Dennis Basso. Dominique has a very slender,
(41:06):
beautiful figure. She went, she went to your shop and
found three dresses in one hour, which is on her
on her of her for Dominique, by the way, but
boy does she love those dresses and she loves how
she looks in those dresses and feels in those dresses.
So I think that Dennis Basso knows he has his
(41:28):
finger on the pulse of American fashion. You really do.
And and you also have your your finger on what
people like. Well. I think that's so important. You have
to get a sense. It's all about the sense also
to sort of know what's right for that person. You
only want them to have something great from you, but
(41:49):
not just that person, but the public in general. Public.
I think I think you have that that real good,
good intuition that that so many other people are lacking,
and and you can sort of trust Dennis Basso. It's
always a pleasure to catch up with you, Dennis, and
there's so much more to talk about. We'll have a
repeat visit maybe maybe next next spring or summer and UM.
(42:14):
To find out more about Dennis, please visit his website
at Dennis O. Basso dot com or follow him on
Instagram at Dennis Basso b A S S O. UM.
We'll see you soon. I love you. This was great.
Thank you everybody for joining us,
Host
Martha Stewart
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