One doesn’t ask to visit designer Zoran Ladicorbic’s studio.
One is summoned.
Once summoned to the lily white confines of Zoran’s downtown loft, one does not expect to leave within the hour. Or the following hour. Or the hour after that. . . .
One could expect to leave as one reporter did, escorted home in the wee hours in a garbage truck. One could expect to leave sans garbage man but nursing a considerable hangover. In fact, one could expect just about anything–including an impromptu haircut by the enigmatic Zoran, a 49-year-old Yugoslavian whose clients wear his monastic clothes with an almost cult-like fervor.
Above all, one should expect to hang.
You see, Zoran, who has dressed Oprah Winfrey, Tipper Gore and the late Jackie Onassis, just looovvves having company.
And why not? There is vodka and champagne to guzzle. Sunsets to savor from the penthouse floor. Gossip to giggle over. And–of course–there are clothes to try on.
“Let’s play dress up,” Zoran says, twirling his voluminous beard and downing a bolt of Stolichnaya. “Have some more champagne.”
Only if you insist.
He insists.
With such a command, there is no room for modesty. Nor are there dressing rooms. You strip. He tosses clothes at you, poking, prodding, surveying his handiwork–all the while tossing out his opinions on the world according to Zoran:
On who should be running the country:
“Next century, I want a black president and a female vice president. Colin Powell and (New Jersey Gov.) Christine Todd Whitman–they would make a great team. . . . Then we’ll never have to talk about the issue (of racism and sexism) again. They both have intelligence and stature. They’re both very good speakers. And I want to listen to them.”
On the future:
“Very bright. Each generation, they’re always speaking the end. I don’t see yesterday as better. It’s always better tomorrow.”
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On what bugs him the most:
“Insecurity. We live in a secure country, the most secure in the world. I go over there (gesturing outside, to the world beyond) and I want to come back. You can’t say that about too many countries.”
On what pleases him the most:
“Intelligence. Education. Without education, there is no life. Without mathematics, there is no surviving. Just to learn how not to be cheated. I’ve never been cheated. Never lost a penny yet. My secret? Honesty.”
On what scares him the most:
“Face lifts.”