Sighs and Whispers Laura McLaws Helms

Fashion and cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms speaks with leather artisans and costumers Whitaker Malem.

The British leather-making duo Patrick Whitaker and Keir Malem having been loving, working, and living together for over 35 years. Its more than likely that you are well acquainted with their work, even if the name Whitaker Malem rings no bells. If you’ve ever watched Die Another Day, The Dark Knight, Hobbs and Shaw, Captain America, Wonder Woman, Troy or Aquaman, then you’ve seen Whitaker Malem’s expert leatherwork. They started their career in fashion—their unusual, molded leather bustiers and jackets soon becoming a favorite of magazines, pop stars and musicians. They also collaborated on runway pieces for Alexander McQueen (both his own label and Givenchy), Hussein Chalayan, and Tommy Hilfiger. Since 2002, Whitaker Malem have helped costume 26 films—their work integral to the creation of superhero and warrior bodily forms. Additionally, they have collaborated with pop artist Allen Jones for over 30 years while also maintaining their own fine art practice.

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For full show notes, episode resources and a slideshow of photographs, head to https://sighswhispers.com/episode-40-whitaker-malem

Produced and hosted by Laura McLaws Helms
Featured Guests Patrick Whitaker & Keir Malem

Fashion and cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms speaks with pop artist, painter and sculptor Allen Jones.

Allen was born in Southampton in 1937 and grew up in the London suburbs. He studied painting and lithography at Hornsey College of Art between 1955 and 1959, after which he entered the Royal College of Art alongside what was to become the first generation of British pop artists. After teaching art and exhibiting for a few years, in 1964 he moved to New York for a year, before going on an extended tour of the United States by car. This trip proved to be incredibly influential in his career—connecting him with the American pop art scene, helping him develop a more hard-edged painting style, and introducing him to fetish imagery. In 1970 he premiered his most controversial works—sculptures of pneumatic female mannequins as furniture: a chair, a hat stand, and a table. The feminist backlash made him into a household name. One of Britain’s most famous living artists, at 85, he continues to paint everyday day in his large barn-like studio in the beautiful English countryside.

Allen and I discuss growing up in the London suburbs, art school and his early years teaching, pop art, New York and the Chelsea Hotel, America in the 1960s, the evolution of his sculptural work, his current projects, and much more.

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For full show notes, episode resources and a slideshow of photographs, head to https://sighswhispers.com/episode-39-allen-jones

Produced and hosted by Laura McLaws Helms
Featured Guest Allen Jones

Fashion and cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms speaks author, journalist, activist and founding editor of Ms. Magazine, Letty Cottin Pogrebin.

From Queens, Letty grew up in a conservative Jewish family. At age 20 in 1960, she became the director of publicity for the publishing company Bernard Geis Associates—later rising to vice president. There she was instrumental in making books like ‘Valley of the Dolls’ and ‘Sex and the Single Girl’ into mega-bestsellers. In 1970, she wrote her first book, ‘How to Make it in a Man’s World’; after its success, she left her job to focus on writing and raising her family. She was a founding member of the National Women's Political Caucus, through which she met Gloria Steinem; in 1972, they founded Ms. Magazine together. Letty was an editorial consultant for the 1972 TV special ‘Free to Be... You and Me’ for which she earned an Emmy. Throughout the 70s, 80s, 90s and up to today, she has continued writing books—centering on subjects around the family, raising children, being a working woman, aging, and Judaism. Her latest book, ‘Shanda: A Memoir of Shame and Secrecy,’ was released in 2022; in it she unfurls generations of secrets in her family and discusses how the Jewish teaching of “Shanda,” or shame, perpetuated constant paranoia and secrecy. Letty and I chat about everything—her childhood, the abortions she had in college in the 1950s, how she got her start in publishing, her almost 60-year marriage to labor lawyer Bert Pogrebin, what ‘Mad Men’ got right about the 1960s, discovering feminism, Ms. Magazine, balancing career and family life, being a working writer, and rediscovering Judaism.

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For full show notes, episode resources and a slideshow of photographs, head to https://sighswhispers.com/episode-38-letty-cottin-pogrebin

Produced and hosted by Laura McLaws Helms
Featured Guest Letty Cottin Pogrebin

Fashion and cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms speaks with author, screenwriter and TV producer James Fritzhand.

Originally from Brooklyn, James Fritzhand published his first novel in 1971, ‘Son of the Great American Novel.’ He then went on to publish seventeen further novels, across many genres and using several pseudonyms—from showbiz roman a clefs to sagas to gothics to adventure novels and more. In the early 1980s, Fritzhand became a television screenwriter—writing for many of the major prime time soaps of the era: ‘Falcon Crest’, ‘Flamingo Road’, and ‘Hotel’ (which he also produced for a season). Around 2000, he retired from showbusiness and moved to northern California, where he lives a quiet life with his partner of 46 years. Jim and I talk about growing up in Brooklyn in the 50s and 60s, discovering himself as a writer, how he went from literary fiction to popular fiction to TV writing, meeting his partner in a gay bathhouse, AIDS, the quiet life, losing everything in the Tubbs Fire, and his passion for birding.

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For full show notes, episode resources and a slideshow of photographs, head to https://sighswhispers.com/episode-37-james-fritzhand

Produced and hosted by Laura McLaws Helms
Featured Guest James Fritzhand

Fashion and cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms speaks with art director and author Steven Heller.
An incredibly creative and prolific individual, Steven is the author, co-author or editor of over 200 books on graphic design, illustration and political art. I interviewed him in the fall, around the publication of “Growing Up Underground: A Memoir of Counterculture New York,” which details his teens and early 20s working in the counterculture press. At 17 he became the art director at the counterculture weekly, the New York Free Press. He then went on to work for Screw, the East Village Other, Rock, Gay, Mobster Times, and Evergreen Review, before being poached at age 24 by the New York Times to be the art director of the Op-ed page. Steve was an art director at The New York Times for 33 years; 3 years on the Op-ed page, before moving to the Book Review. He became a senior art director in 1980. Steven is the co-founder and co-chair of the MFA Design Department and co-founder of the MFA Design Criticism, MPS Branding, MFA Interaction Design, and MFA Products of Design programs at SVA. Heller is also the recipient of the Smithsonian Institution National Design Award for "Design Mind," the AIGA Medal for Lifetime Achievement and other honors.

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For full show notes, episode resources and a slideshow of photographs, head to https://sighswhispers.com/episode-36-steven-heller

Produced and hosted by Laura McLaws Helms
Featured Guest Steven Heller

Fashion and cultural historian Laura McLaws Helms speaks with aerobics instructor and actress Bess Motta.
Bess Motta was born and raised right outside Los Angeles, and began acting in school plays at a young age. After high school, she went on to star in “The Great American Backstage Musical” on stage in San Francisco and London—arriving back from her British sojourn thirty pounds heavier. Needing to lose weight for auditions led her to join a gym and try aerobics; within months she had lost the weight and was leading sixteen classes a week. She was elevated to fitness fame as one of the instructors of “20 Minute Workout,” and began traveling the country to lead workouts and host fitness competitions in malls nationwide. In addition to teaching fitness for forty years, Bess has continued to act—her most famous role being Ginger, Sarah Connor’s roommate in “The Terminator.” In 2016, Bess returned to the stage to star as Judy Garland in the west coast theatre premier of “The Boy from Oz,” for which she won the LA Stage Alliance Ovation Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and Best Featured Performance from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle.

To sign up for my newsletter, visit https://laurakitty.substack.com/

For full show notes, episode resources and a slideshow of photographs, head to https://sighswhispers.com/episode-35-bess-motta

Produced and hosted by Laura McLaws Helms
Featured Guest Bess Motta