Speaker 1: To make it good, to make it pretty. You need.
Speaker 1: Even with people helping you, it's still works. Designer Dennis O.
Speaker 1: Basso's kindergarten teacher told his parents he should be pointed
Speaker 1: in the direction of fashion because of his amazing sense
Speaker 1: of color and style. At the young age of seven,
Speaker 1: Basso drew his first fashion sketch. It was a stick
Speaker 1: figure a bride wearing a wedding gown, which he priced
Speaker 1: at five hundred thousand dollars. Maybe he was on to something. Today,
Speaker 1: Dennis has been hailed by both celebrity and private clients
Speaker 1: for his glamorous collections of eveningwear, ready to wear, bridal gowns, accessories,
Speaker 1: and even home goods. After almost forty years in the business,
Speaker 1: Dennis remains enthusiastic and focused on the future of fashion.
Speaker 1: I am so happy my friend Dennis could amy here
Speaker 1: today to talk about his amazing career, how it evolved
Speaker 1: and more. Welcome to my podcast. I'm so happy to
Speaker 1: be here. Oh my god, after all of these years.
Speaker 1: I mean, we've been friends for over thirty years. A
Speaker 1: long it has been and fun and a lot's happened
Speaker 1: to you, a lot's happened to me. But today we're
Speaker 1: talking about Dennis Spasso. Dennis now has a beautiful atilier
Speaker 1: on Madison Avenue and is it yep? And he is
Speaker 1: still selling some of the most beautiful clothing offered in
Speaker 1: New York City and elsewhere. And you're still making how
Speaker 1: many how many appearances on QBC. I'm on tonight actually,
Speaker 1: and I'm on tomorrow. I'm on all the time, hundreds
Speaker 1: of times a year because people really enjoy not only
Speaker 1: hearing him describe his fabulous offerings, but they also enjoy
Speaker 1: him and they really have had success wearing and using
Speaker 1: his products. So all of that, I mean it's very admirable, really,
Speaker 1: I mean it's it's the journey for me has been
Speaker 1: fun because you don't know along the way who are
Speaker 1: you going to meet and where it's going to take you.
Speaker 1: And I'm never sitting on my laurels ever focused on
Speaker 1: what tomorrow? What could we do tomorrow? I mean, you
Speaker 1: would think I was, we would think we were forty
Speaker 1: you I know, I'm I'm still building a business, right.
Speaker 1: What sparked your passion for fashion in the first place?
Speaker 1: You know, I always loved pretty things, beautiful things. I
Speaker 1: was a little boy. I think you know how some people,
Speaker 1: some men or women as children, have an interest in
Speaker 1: silence or or the outdoors, and I was just or dinosaurs.
Speaker 1: They dugged me to go outside and play, and I
Speaker 1: was like, no, well, I'm not going outside to play there.
Speaker 1: I want to stay down the house. I mean, I
Speaker 1: would actually say to my mother, can I stay in
Speaker 1: the house. I'll dust? Really yeah, I loved being you
Speaker 1: have siblings. That helps, That helps, you know, it was fun.
Speaker 1: I like it. I mean, you're just aproposo. One thing,
Speaker 1: it was Christmas time to this time of the year,
Speaker 1: and I was a little sad. All of my friends
Speaker 1: have brothers and sisters and I'm at home and my mother.
Speaker 1: I said to my mother, you know, Mom, I'm really sad.
Speaker 1: I want her brother and sister. And she snapped back
Speaker 1: with it. She said, you know, you see that tree
Speaker 1: over there. I said yes. She said, you see all
Speaker 1: those presents. She said, all those presents for you, because
Speaker 1: if there were more kids here, you'd be dividing those presidents.
Speaker 1: Shot right, She made you a selfish little boy right
Speaker 1: from the beginning. Um. I loved pretty things, and I
Speaker 1: was very involved with my mother and her friends and
Speaker 1: her sisters and they were sort of glamorous women of
Speaker 1: that time in the late fifties and sixties, and I
Speaker 1: just thought, I love that. I loved watching those movies.
Speaker 1: I was watching these old movies with Barbara Stanwick and
Speaker 1: Eva under and Betty Davison. They were all dressed up.
Speaker 1: Some of the most beautiful women that ever were in
Speaker 1: the movies, and and think, where are those people at seven?
Speaker 1: I want you to find those people. I found them.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting here with one right. Oh yeah, well you
Speaker 1: certainly did. When did you get to Madison Avenue? So
Speaker 1: about twenty years ago, we realized that the day of
Speaker 1: the seventh Avenue first show room was sort of becoming passe.
Speaker 1: People were moving out, people were retiring. You know, most
Speaker 1: of the people's sons didn't want to just be in
Speaker 1: their father's business, like I didn't want to be in
Speaker 1: the produce business. I wanted my own things. So all
Speaker 1: of those companies sort of I said, we need to
Speaker 1: get out of here, and we came up town and
Speaker 1: opened up my first store on sixty five Street in
Speaker 1: Madison ave That opening was amazing. Everybody came from Liza
Speaker 1: Bennelly and Patti LaBelle and Joan Collins and Jackie her sister. Yes,
Speaker 1: I mean it was amazing that people was spilling out
Speaker 1: onto the street and Patti LaBelle and Glorious Martha Stewart.
Speaker 1: It was an unbelievable and we've been there ever since,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's been great. I mean it's been
Speaker 1: you know, COVID wasn't the best thing for anybody with
Speaker 1: the store, but we've you know, people still got dressed
Speaker 1: people and still bought fashion. Yes, now, you know, let's
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about your clientele. That you have
Speaker 1: had the most beautiful women, the most fashionable women, the
Speaker 1: most famous women in the world come through those doors
Speaker 1: into your salon. Movies and here's your You can't say
Speaker 1: how your favorite is the most perfect one out of
Speaker 1: all the major celebrities who and you're gonna say, are yes,
Speaker 1: I can see that it was Mouse Street. How great
Speaker 1: her elegance. She right, she's for a movie or for
Speaker 1: life both. But I did the in The Devil Wears
Speaker 1: Pradoc all of the main coats with my coats, that
Speaker 1: famous coat when she walks in and plays the editor
Speaker 1: of the magazine and throws that coat nitor of Vogue magazine.
Speaker 1: Everyone she we did all those coats, and she wrote
Speaker 1: a beautiful note and thanked me and she and but
Speaker 1: we've done that. I mean, we've dressed j Lo, We've
Speaker 1: dressed Jump Collins, were dressed Elizabeth Tellor. Not only I mean,
Speaker 1: I can't even It goes on and on and on um.
Speaker 1: And they all know you, they all call you Dennis,
Speaker 1: they all love you, they love they love the clothes
Speaker 1: that you've made for them. I mean, you've had an incredible,
Speaker 1: incredible design career. So Dennis the other day, two days ago,
Speaker 1: had a most elegant lunch for about how many people
Speaker 1: were there, seventies sixty six people, all women, all women,
Speaker 1: he calls them girls. And they ranged an age from
Speaker 1: like ninety all the way down to probably nineteen. And
Speaker 1: we do not discriminated. And everyone came dressed to the tease,
Speaker 1: the nines, what do you call addressed to the nine?
Speaker 1: Addressed to the nine, boots, snow boots, uh, spike, heels, flats, jewelry, jewelry, furs.
Speaker 1: Everybody's glad. Everybody had a little for something on in
Speaker 1: honor of Dennis Basso, who is I didn't say that
Speaker 1: in my introduction, but he's also known for some very
Speaker 1: extraordinary fur designs, beautiful coats, scarves, jackets, blankets, so popular,
Speaker 1: and not only real fur because that was well we'll
Speaker 1: talk about the fur problem them, but also artificial for well.
Speaker 1: You know I've been on qvc UH as you have
Speaker 1: in the past twenty This was my twenty na and
Speaker 1: we've had a very successful business there, reaching million, millions
Speaker 1: of women. I mean, what a great thrill to be
Speaker 1: able to do that. That lady out there, look at her?
Speaker 1: Who you are able to do that? How great is that?
Speaker 1: And we just did a faux for a blanket where
Speaker 1: we sold I mean maybe sixty or seventy thousand. You
Speaker 1: told me the day the day after you told me
Speaker 1: you had sold seventy thousand fake for blankets, and those
Speaker 1: of yours you said you'd bring me. Okay, I have
Speaker 1: to do spectal delivery to Bedford. Watch out everybody off
Speaker 1: that night. Oh boy, is bad. But let's get back
Speaker 1: to your first sketch. It was a wedding dress. Was
Speaker 1: a wedding dress, and I think had you gone to
Speaker 1: a wedding by you know, I don't know, you know,
Speaker 1: So we were Italian American and they've been known the
Speaker 1: Italian American parents to take their kids to a wedding
Speaker 1: or a funeral awake. You know, we were very exposed
Speaker 1: and I had a lot of I'm the youngest of
Speaker 1: first cousins. My first cousins go from my age, which
Speaker 1: is whatever way up. So when I was seven, there
Speaker 1: was a group that was in their twenties and they
Speaker 1: were getting married and I saw loving, beautiful things. I
Speaker 1: saw all these brides. So, but what made you think
Speaker 1: at seven seven that a dress could cost five And
Speaker 1: I even asked my cousins, who are all different, they said,
Speaker 1: you always had a very big vision, and when people
Speaker 1: see it, I'm knock wood and thank God every day
Speaker 1: about the wonderful success, which I'm telling everyone out there,
Speaker 1: success only comes with a lot of hard work. Who
Speaker 1: knows better than you work. We're working all the time.
Speaker 1: We work. We work night and day and weekends, and
Speaker 1: that's what's so. I think I just wanted to do
Speaker 1: something special, but that price, and then there's the comma,
Speaker 1: and somebody had it put the comma. I can't imagine
Speaker 1: that I knew where the comma went. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Teacher wrote, so just is not proponed to that the
Speaker 1: teacher ten years ago, set me this letter. How many
Speaker 1: students do you think since nineteen sixty one? How many
Speaker 1: students did she have that she remembered me and wrote
Speaker 1: this letter. Isn't that nice? It's unbelievable. This is cree. Well,
Speaker 1: you're like me. Miss Wire, who was my third grade teacher,
Speaker 1: came on my show. I invited my teachers on my
Speaker 1: daily television show, and we were the ones we could find,
Speaker 1: you know, some words. Some had passed away, but but
Speaker 1: the ones who were alive all came to my show.
Speaker 1: And it was so much fun to see them because
Speaker 1: I loved my teachers. Did you love your child? And
Speaker 1: I was about happy? Did raise my head? And you
Speaker 1: were a good student. You were a good student, and
Speaker 1: you understood the value of a good teacher. Yes, I
Speaker 1: loved it. I loved school. I mean school, I like
Speaker 1: to go out. In my mind, I viewed school it's
Speaker 1: going out go. It was like, you know, it was
Speaker 1: the greatest thing, get away from the daily chores. Say
Speaker 1: you were only child, You're lucky. I was the second
Speaker 1: eldest of six, so my I had chores. I had
Speaker 1: chores from the minute I got up in the morning
Speaker 1: till the minute I went to bed at night. You
Speaker 1: are one of the most disciplined people I have ever met, really,
Speaker 1: and what I like about what I like about people
Speaker 1: like you, I also put in that same category, put
Speaker 1: people like Stephen Sills. I put Christopher spitz Miller, who
Speaker 1: makes laughs, but he is a disciplined human being. And
Speaker 1: they are also very industrious. I used the word industrious
Speaker 1: to apply to people like you who have worked, uh,
Speaker 1: started their own businesses, been very successful and remain good
Speaker 1: friends too. Many also enthusiastic. Um, that's all right, not jaded.
Speaker 1: But you live beautifully. You know how to live beautifully.
Speaker 1: You know how to entertain wonderfully, and you know what,
Speaker 1: It goes a long way because we all appreciate it
Speaker 1: tremendously well. I think you know it's so for like
Speaker 1: minded people like ourselves. Entertaining I mean eight for dinner
Speaker 1: is like having dinner, right, I mean, it's like I
Speaker 1: always say, it's it's just as easy to make a
Speaker 1: recipe for six or eight than it is for one.
Speaker 1: I mean easier, easier. When I'm home alone, I invite
Speaker 1: my security guard as well as my driver to come
Speaker 1: and have dinner with me if they're still around. You
Speaker 1: have to. You have to. It's very important to have that.
Speaker 1: Have that, you know, you know what it took to
Speaker 1: get to where you are, and you haven't forgotten the struggles,
Speaker 1: and you haven't forgotten the journey. And next shows Dennis,
Speaker 1: it really does show. Well, you've called your mother and
Speaker 1: your sister and her sisters, not your you don't have
Speaker 1: any waters but your mother and stylish. What kind of
Speaker 1: clothes did they wear? Do you remember what they wore? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, yes, I mean when I think back, it
Speaker 1: was the end of the fifties, so they were still
Speaker 1: wearing a lot of dresses. I could remember. I'm going
Speaker 1: to check something. I was taken to have my tonsils
Speaker 1: out and I was I lived. I lived through that
Speaker 1: and I was in the hospital and my parents came
Speaker 1: to see me that morning before Dr Lewin took them out.
Speaker 1: This is sixty two years ago. And I remember my
Speaker 1: mother walked in. It was in the summer, and she
Speaker 1: had on a lavender polka dot shirt race dress, so
Speaker 1: you don't even raccoon. And then before you had your anesthesia, right,
Speaker 1: I remember that dress. I remember seeing that. I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: and then we moved from that look right into the
Speaker 1: sixties right into the pant suit, and that was a
Speaker 1: big look. The pants sort of took over in terms
Speaker 1: of fashion, and they were tailored, but they were always
Speaker 1: more than stylish. And they were stylish. They were what
Speaker 1: I call an old expression. They were always just so.
Speaker 1: They were just so. There was never a chip. Now,
Speaker 1: there was never anything. It could be a hundred degrees.
Speaker 1: They weren't perspiring. I don't know what it is. They
Speaker 1: were just very very meticulous. You know, no eating in
Speaker 1: the bedroom, no sitting on the bed, no this slip covers,
Speaker 1: no good Oh god, Okay. Some people on my street
Speaker 1: had plastic. We had. We had a couple of old
Speaker 1: relatives that we didn't see too much that had that.
Speaker 1: It's not not a good look old in the winter,
Speaker 1: hot on the summer. What was nice about your parents, too,
Speaker 1: is that they not only encourage your interest in fashion
Speaker 1: and in design, but they also made sure that you
Speaker 1: got the appropriate education. Yes, always right, It was education
Speaker 1: important to that. They were very important. They wanted me
Speaker 1: to you know, when you were an only child, you
Speaker 1: operate as a little bit of a trio. Very rare
Speaker 1: that I meet an only childhood isn't how it didn't
Speaker 1: have an extraordinary relationship with that parents. We will like friends.
Speaker 1: We would do things, the three of us. It was
Speaker 1: like our little family. But your dad do that. My
Speaker 1: father was in the produce business, importing and exporting, was
Speaker 1: business nice, successful. And so you went to IF I T.
Speaker 1: And before if I, where did you study? I studied
Speaker 1: a little bit. I wanted to really be in the theater.
Speaker 1: So I studied speech and drama for a semester at
Speaker 1: Calfolic University in Washington Day and that was fun because
Speaker 1: that is a classic stone ivy up the wall kind
Speaker 1: of a university. And I said, well, let me have
Speaker 1: a little taste of accass. You know, I do like
Speaker 1: the whole buffet, so let me go check that out.
Speaker 1: And that really and I think, you know, show business
Speaker 1: is so difficult and sadly a little bit, and I
Speaker 1: love what I do. I think I would have really
Speaker 1: shined even you could have been in the sopranos exactly.
Speaker 1: So I think that I did that, and then that
Speaker 1: wasn't for me, and came back and went to F
Speaker 1: I T. And it just clicked for me. And I remember,
Speaker 1: I love the school. It's one of the stuff, you know,
Speaker 1: they call it the Harvard of Fashion around the World.
Speaker 1: I mean it is and I became very very involved
Speaker 1: and on all different committees. And Dr Brown, who's the
Speaker 1: president who you whom you Just about eight years ago
Speaker 1: they gave me, uh a doctorate and it was really
Speaker 1: mean more than honorary because it was for time served.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like some universities where you know, I give
Speaker 1: the tennis court, you give me the doctorate. This is
Speaker 1: not This is comes from the governor because it's a
Speaker 1: state university. You know, it's not a lot of people
Speaker 1: think it's privately owned. No, no, And that was great.
Speaker 1: I mean I loved I loved that school. When that school,
Speaker 1: it is so great and they do so much good
Speaker 1: um and not only in fashion, but in manufacturing and
Speaker 1: photography right and keeping keeping so many businesses alive in
Speaker 1: New York City to encouraging. So you went, if I
Speaker 1: t and when did you graduate? So I graduated in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy four, and then then what happened, Well, I
Speaker 1: had it well, to be honest, I mean, I'm happy
Speaker 1: to you know. Years later I wasn't um. I needed
Speaker 1: a few more credits, and they wanted me to go
Speaker 1: to sub school, and I said, listen, I am not
Speaker 1: messing my summer up. I'm coming to Europe with some friends.
Speaker 1: I'll come back. Oh, I said, well, what about the graduation?
Speaker 1: I said, well, you know what, my parents will kill
Speaker 1: me if I don't graduate. Can't you just give me
Speaker 1: a blank diplomash negotiated? Oh my gosh, So I said,
Speaker 1: I'm carrying the flag anyway. So that happened, and then
Speaker 1: I rafted I never finished the world but and so
Speaker 1: I jumped dry. I went right from that b a
Speaker 1: right to the PhD. Okay you your first fashion show
Speaker 1: was about ten years later at the Regency Hotel. In
Speaker 1: that ten year period after after your pseudo graduation, you
Speaker 1: bounced around like where I I weren't. Actually I I
Speaker 1: worked at Bloomingdale's. I was the the creative director in
Speaker 1: the cosmetic beauty area. Really, that was fun. That's when
Speaker 1: pre Michelle had just opened up in Bloomingdale's. Bloomingdales was
Speaker 1: at the height. The Queen had just visited, and I
Speaker 1: worked there. And then I worked at a fabric company
Speaker 1: and I I actually couldn't find myself. The good news
Speaker 1: is being an only child, they were helping me out.
Speaker 1: They were subsidized. I was a big subsidized and that
Speaker 1: was good. Uh. I you know, I was known to
Speaker 1: be I mean I would. I had my mother's Bloomingdale's
Speaker 1: credit card, and I lived my first department was a
Speaker 1: block away from Bloomingdale's, and every once in a while
Speaker 1: I'd want to entertain. But I had like used up
Speaker 1: all my cash. I go to the gourmet department and
Speaker 1: used that her credit card and be mine patte and
Speaker 1: this and that, and so she really realized that that
Speaker 1: like that like ended. That was not good. That was
Speaker 1: not a good But I did that and then I
Speaker 1: went I um answered an ant in a woman's wear
Speaker 1: daily that started my career, and its working for whom
Speaker 1: It said, just it's important. This is when you had
Speaker 1: to go into a newspaper to find a job. It said,
Speaker 1: wanted designer, shipping, sales, production, pattern maker, basically running an
Speaker 1: entire business, right, But I thought it was the designer position. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I didn't know that. I didn't know that. The first
Speaker 1: day at work, he sent me a ship to boxes.
Speaker 1: So I go, I get this job at his company
Speaker 1: that was by the name of High Fisherman. First I thought, well,
Speaker 1: this is glamorous and I'm there for so I just
Speaker 1: important part of the story. I go to the interview
Speaker 1: and I wanted four hundred and fifty dollars a week. Yes, man,
Speaker 1: I'm in a money suit, and I'm like, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm ready to go. I mean, I'm like going to
Speaker 1: if you were everything I want this job. So he
Speaker 1: hires me. He says, but you have to do everything
Speaker 1: I said, But I want for fifty. He says, I
Speaker 1: want to pay four hundred. I said, I'm gonna make
Speaker 1: a deal. I'm gonna work for four a month. At
Speaker 1: the end of the week, I'm gonna a week. If
Speaker 1: I'm good, you'll pay me for fifty. If I'm not good,
Speaker 1: we'll just part ways and that will be good. I
Speaker 1: am design I'm rearranging the furniture. I'm going to the
Speaker 1: Delhi and buying fake flower fresh flowers and putting them around.
Speaker 1: He would come into this big show whom I had
Speaker 1: moved the furniture around. He could not believe how lucky
Speaker 1: he was. I was selling coats, like crazy for coats,
Speaker 1: gorgeous black mink coats. As I'm with the rage. He
Speaker 1: the bookkeeper who I became from me, but said, he's
Speaker 1: crazy about you. The month is up. I go into
Speaker 1: his office. I said, Mr Fisherman, I just want you
Speaker 1: to know that tomorrow will be my last day, you'll
Speaker 1: last stay. What are you crazy? He said, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: pay you in the fifty I'm gonna pay you the
Speaker 1: pointment to your great I said, oh, number, if you
Speaker 1: want me to stay, it's five hundred. And he gave
Speaker 1: me the five hundred. I stayed there for how long?
Speaker 1: Three years? This is the this is the beginning of
Speaker 1: Donna's about out. The third year, I get a phone
Speaker 1: call from a very close friend of mine who says,
Speaker 1: do you have a fox Jacket host sale? I said absolutely,
Speaker 1: Now I know everybody on the firm market. I got
Speaker 1: to Mr Fisherman, I said, my friend Jimmy wants a
Speaker 1: fox jacket hostel. He says, we don't give anyone hos sale. Okay.
Speaker 1: So on the way home, am I going to this
Speaker 1: guy Bobby, who went a little factory. I said, Bobby,
Speaker 1: do you have a jacket host and? I said, sure,
Speaker 1: it's a Fox jacket it's three hundred dollars host. I
Speaker 1: take the jacket. I got out to Long Island. I
Speaker 1: bring it to my friend. My friend loves said those
Speaker 1: jackets for about a thousand dollars in the store. She
Speaker 1: gives me the three hundred. The next morning, on the
Speaker 1: way to work, I go a Bobby, Bobby, this is great.
Speaker 1: Next day the phone rings, no bones. Of course, you
Speaker 1: know her sister in law wants the same jacket, but
Speaker 1: you don't have to charge her that little good light bulb.
Speaker 1: I go, I bring her the jacket I charged at three.
Speaker 1: Now I keep that. Fifty eight months later, I'm going
Speaker 1: to Short Hills, New Jersey, Alpine Greenwich, Connecticut. Well, the
Speaker 1: natural salesman came out. I would be. I was rent
Speaker 1: everybody in the market New give bass over coats. He's
Speaker 1: having like tupperware parties. This is the God's on his truth.
Speaker 1: I was doing three fair parties and then I hit
Speaker 1: the jack parties. Women in Short Hills came they said,
Speaker 1: we only want to see mink coats. The mink coats
Speaker 1: were host sale of the time dollars. They were about
Speaker 1: five six in a store. And I went there and
Speaker 1: sold eight make coats and made eight thousand dollars. This
Speaker 1: is nineteen eighty three. Oh great. I went to Puerto
Speaker 1: Rico for the weekend. France. Oh he fired you in
Speaker 1: his office and he said, what are you doing. You're stealing.
Speaker 1: I said stealing. At that point, I was like the
Speaker 1: number one. I was the king there. He said, you're
Speaker 1: taking sales. I said, you didn't want to give me
Speaker 1: host sale? We could have been He said, back up
Speaker 1: your desk, you're out. I go to I had another
Speaker 1: FIR party that night. I go and I said to him,
Speaker 1: He says, you know, I have a little studio here
Speaker 1: in the front. Why don't you rent it, go into
Speaker 1: your own business. Here we are nine years later. What
Speaker 1: was that the seventh Avenue, three or five, seventh Avenue.
Speaker 1: I remember, like yesterday my first fashion show. Ivana Trump came.
Speaker 1: She came the next morning after the show and bought
Speaker 1: seven cards. She was still did WoT that is so amazing?
Speaker 1: You did it. You were entrepreneurial and on top of
Speaker 1: being a good designer, on top of being a really
Speaker 1: good salesman. The entrepreneurial initiative appeared, and here's Dennis Basso
Speaker 1: starting his own store. But it was but it was
Speaker 1: a full story. I mean, you designed, you, you made,
Speaker 1: you manufactured, you sold, you developed a clientele. I could
Speaker 1: ship the best box. Yeah, I could wrap a box
Speaker 1: with probably know it was great. I mean, you know
Speaker 1: when young people and I've spoken it up, I t
Speaker 1: I tell everyone, remember every day is in Christmas. You
Speaker 1: have your good days, your bad days. You have to
Speaker 1: be focused. You can't give up, you can't take no.
Speaker 1: For announcer and for a seasonal seasonal. That's why we
Speaker 1: went into we do most beautiful. Look that's gorgeous lace code.
Speaker 1: I measure. Martha Finale helped me finale my show when
Speaker 1: I came down the just a few months ago. That's right,
Speaker 1: I should down there and she gave me a beautiful bouquet.
Speaker 1: I took her by the dog and we did the
Speaker 1: walk of the brand new ballroom of the Pier Hotel.
Speaker 1: So closed are a big part of everything. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: it was um. So you you just you became overnight
Speaker 1: a success on Seventh Avenue. And uh, but when did
Speaker 1: you start designing other things? It was first for I
Speaker 1: went into clothing maybe fifty twenty years ago because I
Speaker 1: was always designing the things to be worn under. I thought, well,
Speaker 1: why were I making these clients right? And then we
Speaker 1: just developed and kept going. So you've been now designing
Speaker 1: for how many years? Forty years? Will be forty years.
Speaker 1: We have a lot of landmarks together. This is my
Speaker 1: forty year of being I wrote my first book forty
Speaker 1: years ago, like two days ago was my birthday of
Speaker 1: my first book, so that I considered that at the
Speaker 1: beginning of my career. Yes, of course, lifestyle and here
Speaker 1: you are designing furs and fashion forty years ago. Isn't
Speaker 1: that amazing? You know? And we're both from New Jersey
Speaker 1: by the way, everyone, so you have a big philosophy
Speaker 1: about dressing and dressing correctly. Um. I know that your
Speaker 1: clientele really goes to you for advice about what to
Speaker 1: wear to what and what to and how to put
Speaker 1: it together. So you're not only a designer, you're also
Speaker 1: kind of stylist to some of the most beautiful and
Speaker 1: exquisite women in the world. You know, how did that happen?
Speaker 1: I just I think that's I think that's like natural.
Speaker 1: I think that's who I am. I mean, I just
Speaker 1: know what even as a child, I mean, I was
Speaker 1: busy doing this with my mother and she's like listening
Speaker 1: to a nine year old. I think it was my thing,
Speaker 1: you know how, like a nine year old to sit
Speaker 1: down and played the piano like chopin and they're like,
Speaker 1: but mom should listen to their kids because their kids
Speaker 1: have a different perspective. Yes, and they knew that I was.
Speaker 1: I just it was very natural, and even just two
Speaker 1: hours ago, to protect people's privacy. A very very important
Speaker 1: woman who could have anything in the world just can't
Speaker 1: give this after her death and fittings. And she's gonna
Speaker 1: wear this fabulous jumpsuit with feathers and on a big
Speaker 1: Christmas party in pomp Beach. And she said, so what
Speaker 1: should I said, you need to take? She has a
Speaker 1: huge diamond swan pin from graft and I said, you
Speaker 1: pin that right in the middle of the bow that's
Speaker 1: at your waist. She said, oh my god. I bracelets
Speaker 1: and maybe just ear rings and just keep it not
Speaker 1: just but and so that's part of what I'm going
Speaker 1: to call me the pictures exactly. See who's wearing that
Speaker 1: swan pit? How great? So, I mean, I think it's
Speaker 1: part of you know, mean, it's something that I love.
Speaker 1: And the other thing I love is you know was
Speaker 1: the home. I mean, I love not the most well.
Speaker 1: Dennis has one of the most exquisite homes in Southampton,
Speaker 1: Long Island. I've had the pleasure of having dinner there
Speaker 1: a couple of times, but not only the home. It's
Speaker 1: the home, the garden, the table, the collections of table
Speaker 1: where that you own of and he is very proud
Speaker 1: of the tables he sets. So it really is amazing.
Speaker 1: But you really do take you take it from high
Speaker 1: fashion to table fashion. Yeah, it's more than interested in
Speaker 1: you being the queen of home. It is the only
Speaker 1: thing that transports me to another place. When I'm getting ready,
Speaker 1: I think of nothing else. When I'm designing, I'm thinking,
Speaker 1: are they're gonna like it is? Who's gonna wear it?
Speaker 1: Can this be worn by a curvy girl? Can this
Speaker 1: be worn by a particular there was is always a
Speaker 1: second thing going on. When you're in my house or
Speaker 1: on our apartment in New York. I'm just having a
Speaker 1: good time creating, and it's it's an obsession actually, I
Speaker 1: mean we have a lot of stuff. You've been man,
Speaker 1: you've seen eating the same fork in the same plate
Speaker 1: is amazing. Yes, it's part of it's a hobby. Actually
Speaker 1: that that's nice. It is a hobby, but it's also
Speaker 1: a lifestyle and you've you've created a lifestyle that that
Speaker 1: so many people want to emulate. Yes, and that's work.
Speaker 1: As you know, it's never easy. Listen, who entertains better
Speaker 1: than you? You know, to make it good, to make
Speaker 1: it pretty, you need even with people helping you, it's
Speaker 1: still work. It is you have to think, to think
Speaker 1: and have an archive. I mean, don't you call it
Speaker 1: your archives? Your library of things to set a table?
Speaker 1: Are you selling things in the home area now onc Yes,
Speaker 1: some things, but mostly in the faux for blind get
Speaker 1: some the Little Teddy Bears and I did some Christmas
Speaker 1: ornaments and we did some dishes, you know, a few
Speaker 1: items here and there. But the strength is things that
Speaker 1: I've done with the Froe far. But back to fashion
Speaker 1: because I don't want to. I don't want to end
Speaker 1: that discussion. Um, as we heard head into this new year,
Speaker 1: two years ago, COVID began. Now we're kind of out
Speaker 1: of it. Uh, we're still h We're still a little worried. Um.
Speaker 1: Many people are looking to approach their wardrobes in a
Speaker 1: in a different way. What do you see? What trends
Speaker 1: are you seeing? It's a designer to the stars. I
Speaker 1: think I think we've come out of it. Wanting to
Speaker 1: be stylish. People want to get dressed up again. People
Speaker 1: are focused on that, but people don't want to give
Speaker 1: a comfort up. So there's a little bit so apropoached
Speaker 1: the luncheon we have the other day. At another given time,
Speaker 1: every home would have really come in some sort of
Speaker 1: a suit, a lady suit, skirt suit that look a
Speaker 1: little tight, a little pushed in. Now people were wearing
Speaker 1: a beautiful pants and Cashmissweather is beautiful, beautiful dressed up.
Speaker 1: But I think we've revisited how we dress and how
Speaker 1: we look. I mean, if we just let's just jump
Speaker 1: back twenty years today, if I was coming here, I
Speaker 1: would only have been probably coming to do this in
Speaker 1: a dark suit and a white shirt and a tie.
Speaker 1: I'm all dressed up, but you look good, and you
Speaker 1: look here's a black turtleneck on and a beautiful scarf
Speaker 1: and a lovely checker jacket. Yes, all dressed up, but
Speaker 1: we've taken it. And you too. You're in a kashmir
Speaker 1: and top that you know. I'm in a sweatsuit by
Speaker 1: Laura Piano. Hello, what is that? Okay? Right? Right? But
Speaker 1: I had a lot of meetings. That's where I apologize.
Speaker 1: I have to get dressed for a Christmas party. Tonight.
Speaker 1: But you'll like, You'll like when I'm wearing I'm wearing
Speaker 1: sequin pants, gold sequin pants and a bright red jacket.
Speaker 1: If you wanted to go tonight with this, you put
Speaker 1: on your big baroque pearls, a small bag. I could go.
Speaker 1: You could go and nobody would think that you aren't
Speaker 1: dressed that right, Uncle Boot, I mean with a heel.
Speaker 1: That's what changed. But that's which changed in fashion, Martha,
Speaker 1: that we're able to do things that really weren't acceptable before.
Speaker 1: So what's your current trend obsession in design? What are
Speaker 1: you what are you designing this accommodating women like like us?
Speaker 1: Because Dennis Bassa was known for occasion clothes. So what
Speaker 1: you're wearing today, you don't need to come to Dennis
Speaker 1: Basso to buy that because they're doing Laura Piano and
Speaker 1: Brunello Cristianity. They're doing the best. You come to me
Speaker 1: for the sequence, Pats, Yes, I do right. So I'm
Speaker 1: just saying, so that's I've stayed people. I think today
Speaker 1: you need to stay in your lane, so to speak,
Speaker 1: of what you do best. You can't do everything best.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna go have hot surgery by a hip doctor.
Speaker 1: You want to stay you want to stay in your
Speaker 1: lane and slowly branch out to things that feel like
Speaker 1: something to you. Yes, you do that. People want to
Speaker 1: be dressed again. So you've been on QBC for how
Speaker 1: many years? Twenty nine years? You're you're the longest performer,
Speaker 1: the longest um um. There's a few others, yeah, who
Speaker 1: have been uh not only entertaining but selling to a
Speaker 1: vast audience on QBC. That was the first really televised
Speaker 1: shopping network in America and uh, and it's still going strong,
Speaker 1: and your business is still going strong. Doing it from
Speaker 1: home or dad, you go down to Westchester home, but
Speaker 1: I'm doing it from home later on and tomorrow. But
Speaker 1: Saturday you're going down Westchester five times. Oh you have.
Speaker 1: I haven't been back yet. But QVC we we really
Speaker 1: do enjoy your performances there because it is a performance.
Speaker 1: You are the penultimate sales persons. You think about exposure.
Speaker 1: It's been so much fun. I mean, I mean, I
Speaker 1: think I remember. Actually December four was my twenty ninth year.
Speaker 1: Amazing and QBC honored you with a documentary. Yes, if
Speaker 1: you go to um QVC h slash Dennis back, you
Speaker 1: see that documents done quite well. I thought. I thought
Speaker 1: they did a beautiful job. And it really does high
Speaker 1: and show the highlights of your career, the funny moments
Speaker 1: that show Michael Pack Oh yes, yeah show the sketch
Speaker 1: is so great. And everybody knows Dennis by his name
Speaker 1: Dennis any other Denis. People know he's Dennis the Menace,
Speaker 1: and he's also Dennis the Menace. So the fun people,
Speaker 1: what's the best thing you ever designed? Do you think?
Speaker 1: What's the one one item of clothing that you would
Speaker 1: hold up and say, I am really proud of this item.
Speaker 1: So it was two things, two different things. I did
Speaker 1: a golden sable coat to the floor and twenty five
Speaker 1: years ago Ivana Trump close the Fashion show wearing that.
Speaker 1: It was just over the tap and the King of
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia bought it. He bought it for his wife.
Speaker 1: I don't know, somebody. It was quite over the top.
Speaker 1: The other thing which I have loved in the movie Chicago,
Speaker 1: the finale number with Katherine's Eater Jones and Renaized Alager.
Speaker 1: They do some big rasbotas number and we did these
Speaker 1: big white capes trimmed white fox. It was so Broadway,
Speaker 1: so Hollywood that there were two fun things that movie
Speaker 1: I loved. I loved Katherine Sada Jones. I went to
Speaker 1: her wedding to Michael Douglas, did you do anything for
Speaker 1: her wedding? No? But wasn't it in the Bahamas or no? No?
Speaker 1: They got married in New York at the Plaza Hotel. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was funny. I sat with Anthony Hopkins. Yeah it was.
Speaker 1: It was a fun fun table. Um. Oh wow, we
Speaker 1: had some and Russell Crow sat at our table. I
Speaker 1: loved Russell bro Yes, I'd say about celebrity people. Um.
Speaker 1: Star Jones when she got married the first time, she
Speaker 1: had a huge wedding at Saint Bartholomew and then the
Speaker 1: world off and she said to me, I'm going to
Speaker 1: sit you with some people that you don't know, but
Speaker 1: you're going to thank me. Go to the wedding. We
Speaker 1: go to the table and I'm seated with Mr and
Speaker 1: Mrs Denzel Washington, Mr and Mrs Samuel Jackson, big time
Speaker 1: movie stars. And then and they knew that I was
Speaker 1: that I had done a white Man code for Star's wedding.
Speaker 1: This was on a Saturday. The store was open on
Speaker 1: a Sunday. The next morning all those girls were waiting
Speaker 1: at my store. They and their husbands have hated you.
Speaker 1: Ever since we have been we have become such close friends.
Speaker 1: They are so great. But I'll tell you I was
Speaker 1: at a party with Southampton Wants a friend of mine
Speaker 1: who was a client. His wife is talking to a
Speaker 1: man and the man says to my friend who's and
Speaker 1: I was the other fellow. Who is that fellow talking
Speaker 1: to my wife? And my friend said to this gentleman
Speaker 1: that conversation is going to cause you about fifty hours. Well,
Speaker 1: you've you've been such such a good mentor to other
Speaker 1: fashionistas of people who are interested in fashion. What one
Speaker 1: piece of advice would you give to a young student
Speaker 1: if I t today uh to encourage them to either
Speaker 1: continue or discontinue their education and fashion. No, I think
Speaker 1: you have to be I think so. I think the
Speaker 1: education is the most important part, to learn the techniques
Speaker 1: of what's going to come forward and how it's done.
Speaker 1: But you have to taste it, you have to feel it.
Speaker 1: It's like you could go to become a doctor if
Speaker 1: you're not interested in the human body and the science,
Speaker 1: no matter how much you study. I don't know how
Speaker 1: good of a doctor you are to be, or an
Speaker 1: attorney or no matter what that field is. So I
Speaker 1: think if you have that knows for it, don't give up.
Speaker 1: You're gonna you have. But it's as master and I
Speaker 1: just said, it's hard work because nothing is easy. You
Speaker 1: need to be focused and work on it and don't
Speaker 1: necessarily take no from an answer. Keep there. You know,
Speaker 1: when when a door is shut, sometimes a window opens,
Speaker 1: and you need to be focused. It's all about being focused,
Speaker 1: and don't be afraid to work somebody who's you're working
Speaker 1: in a company and you're giving them. They're all the
Speaker 1: people that could help you. I've noticed. Know what you're
Speaker 1: doing well. Dennis Basso has a great future still ahead
Speaker 1: of him. A dear friend of mine, Domini blue Hoorn,
Speaker 1: recently had to go to a family wedding in the
Speaker 1: Dominican Republic and she was frantically looking for three evening gowns.
Speaker 1: She went everywhere in New York looking for these evening
Speaker 1: awns and then the friend told her, you know, you
Speaker 1: should really go to Dennis Basso. Dominique has a very slender,
Speaker 1: beautiful figure. She went, she went to your shop and
Speaker 1: found three dresses in one hour, which is on her
Speaker 1: on her of her for Dominique, by the way, but
Speaker 1: boy does she love those dresses and she loves how
Speaker 1: she looks in those dresses and feels in those dresses.
Speaker 1: So I think that Dennis Basso knows he has his
Speaker 1: finger on the pulse of American fashion. You really do.
Speaker 1: And and you also have your your finger on what
Speaker 1: people like. Well. I think that's so important. You have
Speaker 1: to get a sense. It's all about the sense also
Speaker 1: to sort of know what's right for that person. You
Speaker 1: only want them to have something great from you, but
Speaker 1: not just that person, but the public in general. Public.
Speaker 1: I think I think you have that that real good,
Speaker 1: good intuition that that so many other people are lacking,
Speaker 1: and and you can sort of trust Dennis Basso. It's
Speaker 1: always a pleasure to catch up with you, Dennis, and
Speaker 1: there's so much more to talk about. We'll have a
Speaker 1: repeat visit maybe maybe next next spring or summer and UM.
Speaker 1: To find out more about Dennis, please visit his website
Speaker 1: at Dennis O. Basso dot com or follow him on
Speaker 1: Instagram at Dennis Basso b A S S O. UM.
Speaker 1: We'll see you soon. I love you. This was great.
Speaker 1: Thank you everybody for joining us,