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Hi Dreamlanders! I'm new here. I thought I'd post this article John Waters wrote for the new Paper magazine book 20 Years of Style: The World According to Paper.



Day Life: Untouchable Looks on Everyday People

I always see great looks on the street. My friend Mink Stole used to wait until the day after Halloween and buy all the costumes to wear year-round. She wore fairy princess costumes to job interviews! That seemed radical to me. I once cast an actor for one of my films who showed up to an audition with his pajamas inside out. Pajamas are always a good look. And anything inside out is a good look. But Bums on the street really began the whole postmodern-fashion thing. Bum looks and distressed looks have been around forever. They're so influential for fashion designers. Now you can even see a tiny bit of tattering at K-Mart! Remember; designers have to think up ideas four times a year for fashion collections. No wonder they go out on the street looking for inspiration. It's a miracle they don't just go out there and push someone down on a street corner or kidnap people off the subway to get ideas.

I think fashion is a lot like contemporary art. Once the old masters of fashion were established - Chanel and Balenciaga, for example - the new designers had to destroy the old styles in a new and original way. Linda Evangelista once said to me that Rei Kawakubo was the only designer who made polyester cost more than cashmere. Fashion's a magic trick. I modeled for Rei Kawakubo once. I felt like Don-Knotts-meets-Mahogany walking down the runway. Rei used real people she found on the street as models, and backstage look lie Auschwitz. They were the skinniest people I'd ever seen in my whole life. I was the fattest one!

There are cute people on the streets of New York City, but everyone knows it. Even the bums know how cute they are. There is not of naive or innocent fashion person in all of Manhattan. Just the thought of moving here makes you feel stylish. I was in a fashion riot last week as I was walking down Canal Street, when the police began raiding people selling knock-offs and everyone started running. I would never wear anything with labels all over it. That amazes me. I have more faith in my own taste than to do that.

Here are some other fashion blunders that I think deserve public derision: I've always said that if you're over 20 you can never wear leather pants. Then there are fashion victims who try too hard. If you're not careful, fashion can turn on you and make you look like a big idiot. On the street, you always have to look like you're not really trying. You can learn this by spying on young people, who seem to have this flair. That's a privilege of youth. And it's not about money. If you're 20, money wrecks everything. On the other hand, if you're 40, you need it. I can't go to a thrift shop to find something to wear anymore. I now have to pay for my overpriced imitation of rags.