Were fabricators simply handed down plans, or were they involved in creating looks?
Turman: Everything was custom-made and -designed. He had a large design department that was housed in Paisley Park and moved to the space above his Glam Slam club in the Warehouse District of downtown Minneapolis during the 1990s. Stacia Lang has talked about how she would sketch designs for him, and all she would get back was a Post-It that said “approved.” She knew he liked the outfits if he asked for them in multiple colors.
Bucheit: It was always exhilarating to meet with Stacia and her team. There were works in progress we were not allowed to talk about, so it was terribly fun to have a juicy secret about some new look Prince would be trotting out on the red carpet.
Turman: For the backless yellow pants [infamously worn during his 1991 MTV Video Music Awards live performance], Prince gave a vague idea about wanting a backless look (he was not verbose), and Stacia presented him two different designs: one with the entire back of the legs backless, and one with just the cheeks. He chose the one with the cheeks, as we all know. They all had to keep it a secret before the live performance, so he was wearing some type of cape to cover his backside, and even the backup dancers didn’t know about it until the performance. You can see a look of surprise on their faces during the performance. [Check out the man atop Prince at the 0:53 mark.]
If you could get your hands on one particular item from Prince’s archives, what would it be?
Bucheit: Just one?! I recall a beautiful pair of pants he wore made entirely of Versace print fabric. I believe they were silk. He wore them during the Diamonds and Pearls Tour.
Turman: I’m obsessed with the cloud suit worn in the “Raspberry Beret” video. It’s constructed of blue silk, with hand-painted clouds. The same fabric covers the Cuban 3-inch-heeled boots he would wear over the years.
Music Icons: Featuring Property From The Life and Career of Prince auction takes place at the Hard Rock Cafe New York at 2 p.m. on May 18.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.