Fashion Reverie Exclusive: Prince and Ponzo

Most people in the fashion community know Rosemary Ponzo from her red carpet and New York Fashion Week appearances—regularly photographed by Patrick McMullen and Bill Cunningham— and for the many interesting and sometimes outrageous hats that don her Liza Minelli–like coif. She is a New York City Easter Parade constant presence with a new an dinnovative hat each season.

That said; Rosemary Ponzo is so much more than that. For many years she taught fashion styling for film, television and magazine editorials at Fashion Institute of Technology and LIM College.  Ponzo is an Emmy-nominated stylist for the “Roman Era” and has styled for many films, television series, commercials, theater, and celebrities including Gwenyth Paltrow, Josh Lucas, Mary J. Blige, and Michael Bolton.

What has been left out of Rosemary Ponzo’s extensive resume is that Ponzo met and worked with the late great Prince. If you examine Rosemary Ponzo’s personal style and Prince’s sometimes outré stylings, the combination of Prince and Ponzo seems like a match orchestrated by the fashion gods.

A few weeks after Prince’s untimely death, Rosemary Ponzo sat down with Fashion Reverie and talked about designing stage costumes for the “Purple One.”

Fashion Reverie: How did you get to work with Prince? 

Rosemary Ponzo: I met Prince’s manager at a nightclub in NYC.  I told him I was a designer and he came to my workspace and he asked me to sketch three designs for Prince’s 1998 tour that was beginning with a two-week engagement at Radio City Music Hall.

FR: Had you ever designed for a pop musician before that? 

Rosemary Ponzo: Yes, I had designed for LL Cool J, Tone Loc, and Whitney Houston who was being honored at NJ PAC. I styled and designed for these musical artists.

FR: What impressed you about Prince’s personal style?

Rosemary Ponzo: Prince was always a step ahead of everyone; he did his own thing. He was the off the beaten path of most pop musicians. I would look at his music videos when MTV and VH1 was at an all-time high so you could get a sense of how musicians could project themselves through music and their own personal style. I loved “Diamond and Pearls,” which gave me a direction of how I wanted to sketch for Prince.

FR: Were you given any design direction? 

Rosemary Ponzo: Yes, the direction was very 70s with bell-bottomed pants and an Edwardian look with brocade jackets. I sketched Edwardian bell-bottomed pants with a pleated flair that matched the brocade jacket. I sketched one design where Prince is wearing bell bottomed slacks with a white ruffled shirt and a crown as an accessory. All or his ornaments had to be solid gold.

FR: What fabrications and color palettes did Prince want? 

Rosemary Ponzo: He let me choose the color palette and fabrications. However, he did not want anything purple. Most people don’t realize that Prince liked a range of bold colors and fabrications and he didn’t use purple as much as the press reports that he did.

There were two other designers that were designing for the tour. I never did meet the other designers, but I can say we were all paid extremely well. His team took my sketches and translated them into stage costumes that were made at his design studio in Minneapolis.

FR: How long was this tour supposed to last? 

Rosemary Ponzo: Prince was supposed to have a two-week engagement at Radio City Music Hall that was to be the launch pad for his tour. However, Prince cancelled the engagement at Radio City Music Hall and subsequently the 1998 tour was cancelled.

FR: Did you actually meet Prince?

Rosemary Ponzo: Of course, I did. I had two meetings with Prince and one with the manager alone. When I first met him I didn’t realize how small he was in stature, so on some level that informed me to go in a slight different direction design wise.

I had to call him Mr. Prince. His manager was with him at all times. But, they really had no need to be concerned with me because I accustomed to being around celebrity personalities and was very out there at the time. I had red and blue streaks in my hair, and I wore a lot of studded jackets. Prince liked my personality.

FR: What was Prince’s personality like?

Rosemary Ponzo: He was very quiet and reserved at first. He was friendly when he got to know you. He would look you up and down at first to get a sense of who you were. He was a musical genius and his music will sell more now than ever before.

FR: Were you designing just for Prince or his entire musical group?

Rosemary Ponzo: Initially it was supposed to be just for Prince; however, when the tour took off it was to be expanded to the entire band.

FR: We know the Radio City Music Hall appearance was cancelling as well as the tour. What ever happened to your designs?

Rosemary Ponzo: My designs are either in the Prince archives in Minneapolis or they are gone. But the clothes were made at his design studio in Minnesota.  I only met with him in NYC because at that time Prince had a recording studio in NYC where he would record and hangout with Madonna.

FR: Where were you when you found out he had passed away?

Rosemary Ponzo: I was in my home and I looked at my phone and someone sent me an image of Prince Street with the word Prince crossed out and then I went online and it was all over the news. So sad, he can never be replaced!!

For more information about Rosemary Ponzo, go to rosemaryponzo.com.

—William S. Gooch