Still – or sparkling?

When it comes to Isaac Mizrahi, you are always going to get some semblance of the latter in human form.

The iconic ’90s-era designer, star of the OG fashion documentary and all-around present-day polymath – singer, actor, memoirist and Instagram star – was his usual vivacious self when we called to talk shortly after the end of Mercury retrograde (phew!). Also, as it happens, a mere few days before his variety show, A Holiday Fruitcake, which lands in Toronto on Dec. 12 at Koerner Hall.

“More and more, I get stopped on the street by people who tell me they loved my show – more than they love my clothes,” he says.

“Really, I’ve been doing this – performing – for way longer than anything else,” the 64-year-old adds, alluding to his days at New York’s High School of Performing Arts (better known as the Fame high school). And he honed his love of all things Old Hollywood and Broadway whilst growing up in a Syrian Orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn.

“The show is an extension of the show I do, but holiday-inspired. A big celebration,” he adds. “I’m basically everyone’s Christmas aunt. Let me tell you: I really love the holidays. And if you don’t like the holidays, you should come to my show because you might just like them better after you see it. I don’t just talk about the glory of the holidays – but also the horrors and the slog. It’s all a part of loving something.”

Something he has to croon about, in particular, as 2025 crawls to a close? Mizrahi is keeping company with Timothée Chalamet and Gwyneth Paltrow in Marty Supreme, an Oscar contender that’s out Christmas Day and is already one of the best-reviewed films of the year.

If he wasn’t already smitten with the movie’s leading man, he makes it clear now: “I’m madly in love with Timothée Chalamet!”

As for Paltrow, he says it was a treat to watch her work. “I’ve known Gwyneth forever. Dressed her a million times. I always loved her onscreen, but it is one thing to see someone onscreen, and appreciate them; it’s another thing to work with them in a scene. I can’t believe what a great actor she is. For one scene, I couldn’t understand what preparation she was doing before. It was very late at night when we were shooting. Josh Safdie (the director) said, “Action.” And she was bawling. And I was like, wow. Then, she did it again, like, 16 times. And each time it was like the first time.”

“To make it fresh,” he says, “that much emotion requires not just technical ability, but I think brilliance. I think she’s brilliant.”

How did he get the role? They wanted a quintessential New Yorker, it would appear. Plus, he says, “I’ve known Josh Safdie since he was a boy. He was the family friend of a family friend. He’s such a talented guy.”

I couldn’t, of course, speak with Mizrahi without touching on Unzipped, the cult-darling documentary that, amazingly, celebrated its 30th anniversary this year – and returned to the Sundance Film Festival where it first premiered in 1995, now with a new 4K digital restoration.

If there was any doubt, it still stands up as a burst of cinéma vérité genius – a film directed by Mizrahi’s then-boyfriend Douglas Keeve, as the fashion designer prepares for his 1994 fall collection in New York City; chaos and supermodels abound. Mizrahi’s arch asides and bon mots (“gorgeous, darling”) became part of the fashion world’s lexicon – and the film pretty much created a whole genre, the fashion designer doc! N’est-ce pas, Isaac?

“Well, I’m happy you said it created a genre. Some people don’t remember it was the first and, in my opinion, the best. It’s really funny, and it’s got a real storyline to it. It sorta created the genre in the way In Cold Blood created the genre of true crime. I kid you not. I do think that!

“I mean, I was 33 years old when that movie was made,” he adds. “It’s crazy! The bittersweet thing is acknowledging the passage of time.”

With time slipping away on our phone conversation, we shifted to talking about what’s on his cultural diet of late. A super-fun rapid-round:

The Keith McNally memoir, I Regret Almost Everything. The Graydon Carter memoir, When the Going Was Good. Last summer, I read Moby-Dick – mostly in the bathtub!

The Beast In Me (with Claire Danes and Matthew Rhys). And I’m rewatching Gilmore Girls. I can’t stop! Catch me in July, and I’m still watching Gilmore Girls.

I loved the new Dior collection – Jonathan Anderson’s debut. I loved the emotional quality of it. It was a story. I nearly started to cry – I felt the spirit of Dior was being embodied and brought to another level.

Billie Eilish. She’s a genius. She’s just got something that’s really special. As a songwriter, particularly. And I love doing her songs. I’ve done three or four of them already.  

I’m going to bake a pie this Christmas. This year, I didn’t get to bake up a pie! I’m so good at pies. I just have a knack for them. A fruit pie!