Sighs and Whispers

Fashion and cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms speaks with fashion designer Ronaldus Shamask. Known for his architectural designs, Ron grew up in the Netherlands before emigrating to Australia at the age of 12. After working as a window dresser in Melbourne, he moved to London in the late 1960s, where he found work as a fashion illustrator. After a few years designing for the theatre in Buffalo, Shamask moved to NYC in the late 1970s. There his debut fashion collection for autumn/winter 1979 made a splash with its simple and austere clothes, shorn of all decorative elements yet striking in the precision of cut. Shamask’s designs for women and men brought him acclaim throughout the 1980s, and while in the 1990s he often took a step back from fashion week, whenever Shamask the brand has publicly reemerged, at NYFW in 2011 or a retrospective exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 2012, there has been much fanfare, with everyone in the fashion industry gleeful at the return of a true master of artful minimalism. His designs are both highly collectible and very wearable, seeming to exist outside of trends or a particular fashion moment. To sign up for my newsletter, visit https://laurakitty.substack.com/ For full show notes, episode resources, video clips, and a slideshow of photographs, head to https://sighswhispers.com/episode-51- shamask Produced and hosted by Laura McLaws Helms Featured Guest Ronaldus Shamask

Fashion and cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms speaks with fashion designer Erika Elias. Now 95, Erika Elias was born in Vienna in 1930 and raised in Czechoslovakia before escaping to America with her family in 1940. Once in New York City, she studied at the School of Industrial Art (now the High School of Art and Design) and Parsons before starting a career in fashion in the 1950s. By 1960, she was head designer at Juniorite, Inc., a junior sportswear brand. Highly skilled at understanding how to translate the youth movement on the street into mass market clothes, in 1967 she was brought into start Charlie’s Girls, a new juniors sportswear line of funky, inexpensive pieces. For six years, Charlie’s Girls was one of the most successful brands in America, often selling hundreds of thousands of units per garment, leading Rags Magazine to write, “Erika Elias has more fashion influence than anyone you’ve ever heard of.” Erika was a true career woman—her complete focus was on designing and advancing her career at a time when that was unusual for a woman. To sign up for my newsletter, visit https://laurakitty.substack.com/ For full show notes, episode resources, video clips, and a slideshow of photographs, head to https://www.sighswhispers.com/episodes/episode-50-erika-elias Produced and hosted by Laura McLaws Helms Featured Guest Erika Elias

Fashion and cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms speaks with fashion designer and artist Hylan Booker. Born and raised in Detroit, Hylan Booker came to the UK in 1958 as a G.I. in the US Air Force. In his downtime, he studied at the Swindon School of Art, before enrolling at the Royal College of Art in London, where he studied alongside Ossie Clark. Booker launched his own line after graduation in 1966, quickly becoming one of the most talked-about collections in Swinging London. In 1968, he was tapped by the historic House of Worth to design its couture collection, becoming the first Black to hold such a role at a European couture house. Through the 1970s, he freelanced for many British fashion companies and established a cosmetics line for women of color, before returning to the United States in 1980. After designing menswear in New York, Booker moved to Miami in the 1990s, where he established his own couture line of exquisite evening gowns. After closing his line in the wake of 9/11, Hylan switched his focus to art—primarily painting, as well as soaking up the beauty of art while working as a guard for LACMA, which provided him the opportunity to also start writing about art and fashion history. Over his long and varied career, Hylan has always been at the center of everything—continually creating and always evolving. Living in Los Angeles and still painting daily, Hylan is a highly erudite, philosophical man, and this is a particularly fascinating conversation. To sign up for my newsletter, visit https://laurakitty.substack.com/ For full show notes, episode resources, video clips, and a slideshow of photographs, head to https://sighswhispers.com/episode-49-hylan-booker Produced and hosted by Laura McLaws Helms Featured Guest Hylan Booker

Fashion and cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms speaks with photographer and filmmaker Denis Piel. Born in France and raised in Australia, Denis Piel began shooting advertising work in the 1960s, establishing his own studio before discovering a passion for fashion photography. After moving to Europe in the early 1970s, he shot for many of the hippest young fashion magazines, like French Elle and Honey. In 1979, Piel moved to New York, where his work brought him to the attention of Alexander Liberman, the legendary art director of American Vogue, who contracted him to shoot exclusively for Condé Nast. Over the next eleven years, Piel shot more than a thousand editorial spreads and celebrity portraits for the American, German, Italian, French, and British editions of Vogue, while also photographing for Vanity Fair, Self, and GQ. In the middle of the decade, he established a film production company and began shooting commercials, most famously for Donna Karan. After he left Condé Nast to concentrate on directing, Denis continued to shoot commercials while also making a feature-length documentary, Love is Blind. In the early 2000s, Denis and his family left New York and moved permanently to a Renaissance chateau in South-West France. There, he has focused on art photography, much of it inspired by the gardens and local environment. This conversation delves into all aspects of his career and photography; from the cameras he uses to his many collaborators and inspirations. To sign up for my newsletter, visit https://laurakitty.substack.com/ For full show notes, episode resources, video clips, and a slideshow of photographs, head to https://sighswhispers.com/episode-48-denis-piel Produced and hosted by Laura McLaws Helms Featured Guest Denis Piel

Fashion and cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms speaks with artist and illustrator Richard Ellescas. From Southern California, the Filipino-Chinese-Native American Dick Ellescas found his way to art and illustration through the kindness of a series of mentors, before studying at the School of Visual Arts, Chouinard Art, and Art Center College of Design, where he later taught. His artistry led him to become a muralist in the Army and a designer of movie intros, before developing a successful freelance illustration career that lasted decades. In the 1970s, Ellescas’ skillful mixture of Art Déco, Art Nouveau, and psychedelic art became a mainstay of magazines and album covers—his romantic art the ideal accompaniment to classical music and opera. Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown once wrote, “Los Angeles’ Dick Ellescas specializes in glamorous women, brilliant color – and we gasp (pleasurably) when his work arrives at the office.” Those glamorous women included Barbie, as he was the artist behind her illustrated boxes for over a decade. Dick continued painting until his death in 2025; this interview was recorded at his home in 2023. To sign up for my newsletter, visit https://laurakitty.substack.com/ For full show notes, episode resources, video clips, and a slideshow of photographs, head to https://sighswhispers.com/episode-47-richard-ellescas Produced and hosted by Laura McLaws Helms Featured Guest Richard Ellescas

Fashion and cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms speaks with movie critic and author Molly Haskell. A legendary film critic, with her first book, ‘From Reverence to Rape: the Treatment of Women in the Movies’ (1973) Molly Haskell fundamentally changed the way we look at women in film and basically started the whole field of feminist film theory and criticism. Starting her career in the mid-1960s at the French Film Office in New York, writing press releases about French films and translating for visiting directors, Molly began reviewing in the late 1960s. Over the next five decades, she went on to write for New York Magazine, Vogue, Ms., Viva, The New York Times, The Guardian, Esquire, The New York Review of Books, Film Comment, and many other publications, in addition to writing five other books. From a traditional Southern background, Molly forsook the expected path of a housewife, instead choosing a career and a marriage built on a shared passion for film—she was married to fellow film critic Andrew Sarris for 43 years, until his death in 2012. Of course, this conversation touches on movies, but also about growing up in the South in the 1940s and 50s, feminism, the life of a writer and critic, and so much more. To sign up for my newsletter, visit https://laurakitty.substack.com/ For full show notes, episode resources, video clips, and a slideshow of photographs, head to https://sighswhispers.com/episode-46-molly-haskell Produced and hosted by Laura McLaws Helms Featured Guest Molly Haskell

Fashion and cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms in conversation with illustrator and graphic designer Barry Zaid. Canadian self-taught artist Barry Zaid had had a long, fruitful career that has taken him all over the world. While living in London in the mid-to-late-1960s, his stylized 20s-inspired art and graphics were a vital part of the nascent Art Deco revival; they can be seen on the cover of ‘The Beatles’ First’ and the book that gave the movement its name, Bevis Hillier’s ‘Art Deco.’ Barry then brought his inimitable illustrations to New York and Push Pin Studios, where he worked under graphic design legends Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast. In the late 1970s, Zaid became the creative director for Celestial Seasonings Tea, where he created their iconic packaging. Over the decades, Barry worked for every major magazine and newspaper, from the Globe & Mail to Seventeen, Sesame Street to New York, Esquire to Ladies’ Home Journal. Zaid has designed hundreds of logos, packaging for a range of products, album covers, billboards, and also worked on many books. In 1990, he published ‘Wish You Were Here,’ a nostalgic tour through his collection of hand-tinted hotel picture postcards. Now living in San Miguel de Allende, 87-year-old Barry continues to paint and design. Sign up for the Sighs and Whispers newsletter for more fashion and cultural history. For full show notes, videos, episode resources, and a slideshow of photographs, head to https://sighswhispers.com/episode-45-barry-zaid Produced and hosted by Laura McLaws Helms Featured Guest Barry Zaid

Fashion and cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms is back with a conversation with writer, actor, narrator, Zen Buddhist priest, and countercultural icon Peter Coyote. As the narrator for many of Ken Burns’ documentaries, Peter Coyote has been described as the “voice of America,” yet his life and career are far most interesting and diverse. He came to screen acting and fame in his 40s, leading a wild and colorful life of adventure on the edges of society before that. Coyote was a founding member of the Diggers, a San Francisco anarchist collective. Once the Diggers evolved into the Free Family, Coyote went on to live on several communes. Drugs and the downfall of the counterculture brought Peter Coyote to Zen Buddhism in the mid-70s, which shifted the tenor and direction of his life and career, bringing him into the arts and eventually back into acting, something he had first attempted in the mid-60s as part of the San Francisco Mime Troupe. After re-starting his acting career in 1978, among his first films was as the mysterious government agent Keys in Steven Spielberg’s ‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial’ (1982). A successful career in the United States brought him to Europe, where he became a bona fide movie star. Throughout all the ups and downs of moviemaking and the difficulties of balancing family life with a career on the road, Coyote maintained his Zen meditation practice, finding in it his center. For the last twenty years, he has devoted most of his time to narration and writing; Coyote has published two memoirs, a book of poetry, and two books on Zen. Sign up for the Sighs and Whispers newsletter for more fashion and cultural history. For full show notes, videos, episode resources, and a slideshow of photographs, head to https://sighswhispers.com/episode-44-peter-coyote Produced and hosted by Laura McLaws Helms Featured Guest Peter Coyote

Fashion and cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms speaks with Sally Ann Parsons. Sally Ann Parson is the grande dame of the Broadway, dance and theatre costume worlds. Now in her 80s, she has been involved with the theatre since she was a small child—first as an actress, then as a costume designer for downtown dance troupes and ballets and, since 1980, the owner of a costume workshop. Parson-Meares is a Premier Broadway costume shop known for its excellence in artistic and fantastic costumes, and still after 45 years, New York City’s largest. Among the many Broadway hits for which she has supervised costume-making are “Hamilton,” “The Lion King,” “Aladdin,” “Wicked,” “Cats,” “Phantom of the Opera,” and “Starlight Express.” Additionally, Parson-Meares has created costumes for the Metropolitan Opera and other opera houses, numerous ballets, Disney on Ice, and the Rockettes. In 2016, Sally Ann was the first costume maker to receive a Tony Honor. To sign up for my newsletter, visit https://laurakitty.substack.com/ For full show notes, episode resources, video clips, and a slideshow of photographs, head to https://sighswhispers.com/episode-43-sally-ann-parsons Produced and hosted by Laura McLaws Helms Featured Guest Sally Ann Parsons

After a two-year break, fashion and cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms is back with a conversation with artist Steven Thomas. After studying at the Chelsea School of Art in the mid-60s, Steve started his career in Swinging London, modelling, painting the façade of Chelsea boutique Dandie Fashions, and designing album artwork for bands, including the Rolling Stones. In the late 1960s, a girlfriend introduced him fashion illustrator-turned-fashion designer Barbara Hulanicki and her husband Stephen Fitz-Simon of Biba, which began a very fruitful and inspirational collaboration. He began working with Biba first on smaller projects, like a makeup poster, then a children’s department at the Kensington Church Street store and the Biba concession at Bergdorf Goodman, and finally, when Biba took over a whole department store on Kensington High Street, Steve and his partner Tim Whitmore were hired to create all of the designs for the entire Big Biba store, including interiors, signage, giant display items and graphic designs for the hundreds of own-brand product lines. After Big Biba closed in August 1975, Whitmore-Thomas began working extensively with Paul McCartney—designing his company’s headquarters along with numerous private homes—as well as launching a highly lucrative advertising and branding business for some of the largest brands in the world, like Guinness, Harrods, Lucky Strike, Pepsi, and Virgin. In the early 2000s, Whitmore-Thomas separated, with Steve returning to his first love: painting. Sign up for the Sighs and Whispers newsletter for more fashion and cultural history. For full show notes, episode resources and a slideshow of photographs, head to https://sighswhispers.com/episode-42-steven-thomas Produced and hosted by Laura McLaws Helms Featured Guest Steven Thomas