A household name as a fashion designer known for dramatic, colorful looks in the 1980s and ’90s, Isaac Mizrahi is making his mark in a second, equally glamorous career.
Over the past 15 years, the 63-year-old former yeshiva boy has taken to the stage with a cabaret act that showcases him as both a singer and raconteur. He is playing three dates in the Bay Area in April as part of his current “I Know Everybody” tour.
“I’m really kind of excited at the moment because this is sort of like phase two of my life, in showbusiness,” he said on social media in August.
To Mizrahi, cabaret is a continuation of everything he’s always loved.
Mizrahi grew up in a Syrian Jewish family of means in Brooklyn. As a boy, he attended an Orthodox yeshiva but hated it. He found his joy instead, as a gay teen, at the famed High School of Performing Arts in Manhattan. He intended to become an actor but pivoted to fashion, later attending Parsons School of Design
In a 1998 interview in J., Mizrahi said the first piece of clothing he made was for his mother, when he was still a teen.
“It was a rust-colored skirt. I didn’t know what I was doing. I just made this naive thing,” he said. “It was a mess, but she wore it on Rosh Hashanah, and made it look chic.”
His design career was on the upswing until Chanel, which held a stake in his company, decided in 1998 to pull out. His company closed, though Mizrahi has remained in the fashion, design and celebrity worlds in various roles and iterations since then.
Clearly, the performing bug never left him.
He has appeared on TV numerous times, including as a judge on the fashion competition show “Project Runway All Stars.” In 2022, he performed in a short-run Broadway revival of the musical “Chicago.”
He has also focused on his show that blends cabaret jazz standards, sung with a live band, with lively, provocative patter. He performs regularly at New York’s famed Café Carlyle and also takes his act on the road.
“I sort of know everybody, and I’m going to tell some stories about them,” he said on social media about the show. “So you’re going to want to be there.”