I was delving through
some old copies of Vanity Fair...( dating back to the late 90’s) when I came
across publicity shots of the Mazzilli family self indulgently highlighting
their quirky appearance as well as their overpriced fashion label: “VOYAGE”...remember it?
I look
back on them now and wonder what could possibly have become of this excessively
self possessed and arrogant family that not only launched an exclusive line
that everybody wanted but alienated the public and the privileged .
I remember the look
clearly being a cross between shabby chic with a twist of whimsy,boho insouciance
and a large dollop of insanely expensive...Obviously everybody wanted a piece
of Voyage...as did I.
On a trip to New
York, back in the late 90s, I was stepping off the escalator in Bergdorf’s and
came face to face with a VOYAGE display...I rummaged, I sweated, I
desired...I HAD TO HAVE A PIECE OF THE DREAM...and came away with a boiled wool
sweater with velvet trim that was crazy expensive for what it was.But as all
devout fashionistas, one has to pay through the nose to thumb up your nose!
 |
| *ROCKY MAZZILLI:SON* |
The
look as well as the label went stratospheric: VOYAGE was suddenly on every
bodies lips and backs and the boutique was opened to the public...until that is
that “Joe Public” became persona non grata...you needed to become a member and
make an appointment to enter. .
Fame does funny things to people, as does a
sudden surge in popularity and fashion
status,the Mazzilli’s simply got too big for their boots and started laying
down the laws of who could enter their shop.When they turned away and
subsequently banned Naomi Campbell.. A collective gasp could be heard
resonating like supersonic airwaves across the globe...Wow!!Gobsmacked.
 |
| *LOUISE MAZZILLI:MOM* |
But then
potential money spenders were also turned away as well as BIG name celebrities
such as Madonna and Julia Roberts.But the one that stuck in my craw was when
they turned away the doyenne fashion journalist Suzy Menkes of the
International Herald Tribune (immediately recognisable by her coif)...She was
dismissed and dissed and when a customer identified her to the proprietor, she
was pursued apologetically..Not that it made a blind bit of difference to Ms Menkes
at that point, who apparently replied:”I have changed my mind.Goodbye.”
 |
*TIZIANO MAZZILLI: POP* |
I remember
nervously walking up to the closed door, needing to ring a bell only to be told
that I had to be a member to gain entrance
or some such nonsense and feeling so irate and humiliated. I also have a
vague memory of actually being in the
boutique and feeling rather like the cat that got the cream...Now that I am “in”...I
don’t want to buy anything and to be honest it had quickly passed its sell by
date.
Soon people simply stopped wanting to come in.Fashion’s arrogance can
gain a public as well as well as lose one,this time it gave birth to a monster
whose outright rudeness and arrogance spiralled out of control creating their demise....as
well as going into liquidation after running up debts of about £3million.
 |
| *TATUM MAZZILLI:DAUGHTER* |
I read a brilliant article by Paul Daley written 2002 called: “London’s rude fashion voyagers hit the rocks” referring to Voyage
as being...”possibly the world’s most pretentious boutique...”
In the article
Paul Daley recounts his multiple attempts at entering the store and being
rudely turned away:
“...I had been
to restaurants where you pay the waiters to insult you.I’ve seen people pay to
be humiliated by stand-up comics. But never had I heard of a clothes shop where
you had to a) become a member and b) make an appointment to spend $2000 on a
pair of crappy,threadbare tasselled jeans or a t-shirt bearing a monogram of a
pink puppy...”
This is what
happens when you bite the fashion hand that feeds you. As Heidi Klum repeats ad
nauseum on Project Runway:
“One day you are
i-nnn... and the other you are a-out”!
