Bill Cunningham: New York Page #4

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I wanted to put in.

The most extraordinary

art director.

Incredible. Um...

The love of Bill's life,

I think.

Details got started

on the ides of March 1982.

The reason I remember that date...

was it was the date that the SoHo

News went out of business.

The vision that I had for Details

was really a continuation...

of what I had been doing

at SoHo News,

discovering people and giving them

their first opportunity to be in print.

[Bill] The reason Annie founded

the magazine was to give a platform...

to the downtown,

independent, small designers,

who no one else would pay attention

to until they were successful...

and then steal them from Annie.

[Laughing]

Oh, Annie was the Earth mother

of downtown.

I don't know if that's

what you called it. Oh, definitely.

Annie would just give Bill like...

Here's a hundred pages,

and Bill flourished with Annie

more than ever anywhere.

It was like she almost gave him his own little

mini magazine just to do it however he wanted.

He'd work all day,

and he'd come up at night,

and our sessions usually lasted

till about 4:
00 in the morning.

I worked for the Establishment

during the day,

so I was like a bird getting out

of a cage, and I'd go down there.

It was marvelous.

I would come after my job

at the Times,

and we would lay this out,

and then I'd go home about 2:00.

Biked back from SoHo

where we were.

[Annie] I think one Details

Magazine, it was Fall Special...

125 pages of Bill Cunningham.

A hundred pages?

Ninety-nine.

Ninety-nine pages.

We just...

We never thought of it.

We just went on and did what we wanted

till we had said what we wanted to say.

111 pages.

111 pages.

Here what I did was I blew up

the embroidery of the coat,

and we put it on the pages,

and then put the coat, small,

in the middle of it,

'cause the news was in...

Yeah, the idea was

the big... was this.

'Cause it was like something

out of the Renaissance, you see?

You try to show the reader

what was really new.

Look at this. It's like something

from Paul Poiret, uh, 1910.

Scheherazade,

the Arabian Nights.

Look at the embroidery,

the tassels, the lace.

Now, I mean, can you imagine

the extravagance of these pages?

Annie Flanders never blinked.

You can't say anything, Annie.

I didn't take money,

so I can do what I want.

It's a wonder she didn't say,

"That didn't mean you can bankrupt me."

What I did

from the very first issue...

is I kept a list of how much

Bill would've gotten paid.

Well, the first check I sent him, he came in

the office and ceremoniously ripped it up.

The second check,

he did the same thing.

You see, if you don't take money,

they can't tell you what to do, kid.

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