1998

It was around the time that Joan Rivers’ fur coat got doused with red paint by PETA and it brought my eye to the Fancy Upper East Side Lady aka A Lady Who Lunches. She was a character iconic to the Upper East Side.

For my costume, I borrowed my aunt’s real fur coat. I went down to Canal Street and bought a knockoff Louis Vuitton bag. I gathered high end paper shopping bags from Barneys and FAO Schwartz. I studied the font used on Bloomingdale’s Big Brown Bag and replicated it by drawing my own Happy Happy Holidays bag on a plain brown shopping bag. I borrowed my friend Nancy’s dog and my friend Catherine’s doorman, Jose, happily agreed to play himself. I hired a Carmel Car Service for the car - I paid for the ride up to the Upper East Side and then I paid for waiting time while he parked at the curb so I could get in and out of the car for the photo.

I do not remember how many times I got in and out of the car, but if I had my way, it was many! After thinking about the idea, then prepping and propping and costuming and stepping into the role, the shoot always felt like it was over too quickly. Remember that these were shot on film, so I had no way to see what was captured the way we can now with digital photography. When Geoffrey shows up to our "set," if he had his way, he would take two to three photos and be done. After a few frames, he'd inevitably say, "We got it!" and I'd say, "Wait, but did you get Jose's face? Can you see the shopping bag? Does the Happy Holidays bag read clearly? Was the dog facing you?" etc. And so he'd shoot some more. One roll of film had 36 pictures, and I think we usually only shot one roll, so at the end of the roll, that was when Geoff finally won and we would stop. Otherwise, we might still be there now!