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Dressed: The History of Fashion
Supreme Glamour, an Interview with Mary Wilson (Dressed Classic)
00:43:26
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- [00:02]
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Cassidy Zachary
Please enjoy one of our favorite episodes from the Dressed archive of over 500 plus shows. The history of Fashion is a production of dressed media. With over 8 billion people in the world, we all have one thing in common. Every day, we all get dressed.
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April Callahan
Welcome to Dressed the History of Fashion, a podcast where we explore the who, what, when of why we wear. We are fashion historians and your hosts,
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April Callahan and Cassidy Zachary.
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Today's episode is incredibly special for a multitude of reasons. First, April, this is our hundredth full length episode. Can you believe that?
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No, I think time flew by. I remember when we were doing our demos in the studio and how nervous we were.
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Right?
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And look where we are now. And as you said, Cass, this is our hundred full length episode. That's not including our minisodes because I think now we're past over 150 episodes total.
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Cassidy Zachary
Wow.
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April Callahan
That's incredible. Three seasons of Dressed and we're only getting started. Dressed Listless.
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That's right.
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And we could not have done it without you. Thank you all so much for supporting us and our passion for fashion history. This has been such a pleasure and an honor.
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Absolutely. And because it's our hundredth episode, we brought you someone very special. Right, Cass?
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Cassidy Zachary
Oh yeah.
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April Callahan
Today's episode is all the more incredible, inspirational, incredibly special to April and I because we are welcoming to the show a woman who can only be described as a living legend, Ms. Mary Wilson, bestselling author, motivational speaker and a founding member of one of the most iconic and successful singing groups of all time, the Supremes. Avril, do you have a favorite Supremes song?
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Oh, yeah. Easy. Keep me hanging on for sure. Love it.
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Cassidy Zachary
Oh my gosh.
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April Callahan
Classic.
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I know you can't hurry love. Where did our love go? We all have a favorite supreme song or maybe 10, because there's 30 albums, I think in a span of 14 years, 14 million selling gold records. And I'm actually betting many of you have a favorite supreme song or maybe you have a favorite Supremes look. This group is synonymous with its colorful, sparkling, matching ensembles. To this day, the Supremes remain the
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embodiment of glamour and something today's guest captured beautifully. In her book Supreme Glamour, written with Mark Bego, Mary looks back at her prolific career, providing the quote, inside story of the original pop fashionistas. After Diana Ross left the Supremes in 1970, Mary remained as the only original member of the group until recording their very last studio album in 1976. From there, Mary took it upon herself to preserve the Supreme's sartorial legacy. Her collection of the group's stunning ensembles is the foundation of this book. And we are so honored that she has agreed to join us today. Ms. Mary, welcome to Drest.
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Cassidy Zachary
I am so excited to have Ms. Mary Wilson with me today. Ms. Mary, welcome to Dressed.
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Mary Wilson
Thank you so much. And I'm glad to be with you.
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Cassidy Zachary
This is truly an honor to have you here today. And I have to say I have not been this excited about a guest. Also a book in a very long time. I've read a lot of fashion history books, and this one is so beautifully written, it's so beautifully illustrated, so many stories, so much love and friendship. And of course, there's so much fashion in this book. It's really such a beautiful homage to your time in the Supremes and the clothing that was part and parcel to that experience. So I love if we could talk about what inspired you to write this wonderful book.
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Mary Wilson
It was fairly easy because I had already written books about the Supremes, so therefore it was one of the things where my research was not as it didn't take as long because I had so much research from the other books. And writing about the Supremes in our biography and talking about how much we had accomplished in our career, it was a pleasure to actually sit down now and do something. Not just write about the book, but to show pictures and the looks and what was behind the singing, which was more fashion. So for me, it was really a lot of fun demonstrating what we did in, not just from recording and the music, but how we looked and how we felt when we wore certain gowns. And so it was all about the gowns on tour now, just like we were on tour all those years.
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Cassidy Zachary
And many of them are in your personal collection, Correct? You have, I think, in the book. There's over 24 sets of matching on stage ensembles, which is just incredible. So not. Not just one of the dresses, but all three of the dresses. How did you go about comprising this collection?
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Mary Wilson
First of all, we, the Supremes, Florence Ballard, Donna Ross and I would always travel, and when we came home from the road, we'd have to store the gowns. And then we'd, of course, buy new gowns or designers would bring us new gowns. And some of the older gowns that we had perhaps worn on television, we would just store them and they accumulated throughout all the years. Right. And as Florence was no longer in the group, Diane was no longer in the group, and then we had the 70 Supremes, and I became like the keeper of everything and the manager of the Supremes and all those different things. I accumulated the gowns because of that. And whenever anyone would leave, as a couple of them did, I would end up with all these gowns because no one could take the gowns with them because we, the Supremes, as a group, paid for them. And that's how I ended up with the majority of the gowns. Not all of the gowns should be in my possession, but the reason that I can't tell you how many I have is because so many have been not just lost, and I won't say stolen, but things have just disappeared. And then some of the places we had them stored, I couldn't figure out where everything was stored. And so all these years after the Supremes, I have just been trying to recover those gowns that are not in my collection, but it really is my collection, because as I said, when Florence and Diane left, everything was left to me. I also should say that even though they were left to me and I had their set of three, sometimes I ended up with just one. But all three gowns were of the set, were supposedly with me.
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April Callahan
Ah.
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Cassidy Zachary
And you're still, like you said, you're actively tracking or able to still track some of these pieces down? I saw a clip. I'm not sure what the name of the TV show was, but it was on BBC where this woman actually found one of the supreme costumes in a garage sale or something like that in London.
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Mary Wilson
Well, the thing about it is we've bought gowns that some of the fans have called or emailed me. Mary, guess what we have. We think a couple of your gowns are on sale on ebay. And I'm like, oh, really? So then we would try to get together and email each other, and I look at them like that's. It. So a couple of fans actually bought the gowns for me off ebay and got them for me. The ones that you're speaking of in London. The young lady was traveling in, I think it was France, and she saw this sale, like a garage, we call them garage sale. Here they are. I think they call it the boot sales or something like that. And she saw this beautiful gown and she went and she bought it. But she didn't realize it was a supreme gown after she bought it. And she saw the label, it had my name on it. Wow. And that's when she realized, wow, this is. This is fantastic. And somehow another BBC or someone got in touch with me and told me about the story. So we established my coming over to. When I was coming over to England to actually the book was coming out at the time. We set up a meeting and we. I met her, she came to the station, we spoke and she gave me the gown back. Wow, that was really. It was wonderful things. And it was one of our gowns that we wore on the Tennessee Williams TV special. However, what the strange part about that is that it was only half of the gown because the gown was a two piece gown. It had a leotard, like a bathing suit type top. And then it had a skirt that came off. And then there was a hat to it as well. So I don't know where the skirt and the hat is. I'm still looking for that.
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April Callahan
Maybe those surely will show up in the future.
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Mary Wilson
And there is another set that really is a fabulous outfit in the book. Not sure what page is on here is a picture of the pants set. But it was a suit that had a coat, a jacket and the pants. And it was completely beaded in bugle beads. And there were three different colors. One color was gold. I think Diane's was gold, and Cindy and mine were orange. And it was all beaded. The jacket disappeared. And it disappeared from the designer Pat Campano's studio. That one disappeared. And so I have the pants set, but I don't have the jacket. So the jackets are floating around someplace. And it's amazing because a lot of times they end up being in an exhibit. And so we know where certain things are, but we can't find out who gave them the gown.
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April Callahan
Interesting.
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Mary Wilson
But the orange jackets have never shown up.
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April Callahan
You know, who knows? Maybe someone listening will.
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Mary Wilson
Yeah, yeah, that was in. I think that. Yeah, I think. I know it was in San Francisco that they disappeared.
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April Callahan
And we're gonna talk a lot more about your beautiful beaded ensembles. In a minute. But I kind of am hoping we can go back a little bit to the beginning. Before you were the Supremes. You were the Primettes yourself, Flo and Diana. And I believe that was when Barbara was still in the group.
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Mary Wilson
No, it was actually. Barbara was the second person. Betty McGlon was the original primet with us that made the four. And Betty was a little older than Diane Lowe and I. She got married very early, and we had to replace her. And that's when Barbara Martin came into the group. Yes.
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Cassidy Zachary
And you write a lot about. And this is what's so wonderful about the book, is you take us to the beginning and you take us throughout the career trajectory of the Supremes. So you write about these early times. You're young, you're, I think, 15 or 16. You're all hanging around Motown, hoping for your big break. And that finally comes in 1961, when you write that you signed with the record label. And it's often been said, and you write about this in the book, that Barry Gordy and Motown took the Primettes and remade them into the Supremes. But you also talk about this a couple different times in the book, how you all came to Motown with your own unique sense of style and self. And I'm hoping you can tell us a little bit more about that and where that style came from.
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Mary Wilson
Yes, when we came there, we were already in a stylish mode. But I give the credit to Mr. Gordy and Motown for seeing that we had a certain different kind of style that we were. I grew up watching people like Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge. And one of my favorite people, Doris Day. And so we all wanted to be grown up, so we were girly girls. So we always dressed up. We really did dress up. And I think people made. Some people may have even laughed at us because we really were trying to be adults. And we were clearly very young. But, yeah, so this was something that we did bring to Motown. Our own way of dressing. Our own idea of what worked for us as a group, too, as well. And what was great is that we all had the same type of idea of what we wanted to wear. So it was really, how can I say, our image was our image. And we were not remade or we were not made. Looked glamorous.
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Cassidy Zachary
Yeah, you naturally possess that.
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April Callahan
And I think you write about, too, that yourself and Diana actually made a lot of your dresses in these early days.
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Mary Wilson
Yes, Diana and I. Well, first of all, Diane actually studied dress design. I guess I'm saying the right way. Where she studied, but she. Her school was Cass Tech in Detroit, Michigan. And it was more of a college preparatory type of school. So they had a lot of different kinds of classes in dressmaking and that's what Diane was part of. And yeah, so she, she was really the one who was better at that than I because I just learned how to sew and because we were poor and a lot of times we had to make our little outfits at home or my mom had a little sewing machine. We did a lot of that just at home but also in our school. Back then education was really great because just generally we had home economics and the guys had shop. So we learned things like that in school. Anyway, Diana and I got together and decided we wanted to make our own little outfits and we went to. I think it was Woolworths or wherever and bought Butterwick patterns and made our little dresses. So yeah, we did that. I think we maybe made two. Two sets. Two sets. Two sets, which was really good. In fact, I'm looking here at one at this little postcard. It's a little like the boys baseball cards they used to have. And Barbara's on this and I think that outfit there, we made those, I'm sure. So yeah, so that was something we did. And as I said, Diane was definitely much better at it than I was. But we did it. Foreign.
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April Callahan
Is a bit of a cold rainy day in New York City. And I am happy to report that I was able to pop on my new Issey Miyake raincoat for the first time.
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Or maybe rather I should say new
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to me as I got it on the RealReal.
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- [16:22]
April Callahan
dressed listeners, spring is in the air and this week I'm about to embark on a major wardrobe cleanout. And every time I do this, it becomes quite obvious to me that I do need to replace some basics like T shirts, maybe a few pair of everyday and, dare I say it, unmentionables.
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- [17:01]
April Callahan
And Cas. As you know, I am completely in love with their second set, skin bras and undies. The fabric is so light, sometimes I
- [17:08]
don't even realize that I'm wearing them. And I actually just ordered 12 more pair to refresh my lingerie drawer.
- [17:15]
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Mary Wilson
Motown Records was really one of the greatest record companies because they offered us so much in terms of not only just recording music, but they had a department called Artist Development. And in the Artist Development program, they had several people who had been actually professional in their trade. So one was Mr. Maurice King, and he was a big band leader who had retired. So he taught us harmony and things of that nature. For our songs we had Charlie Atkins, who had been a vaudeville dancer, and Honey and Coles he was called with his partner. Then of course, there was Ms. Maxine Powell, who had been a model and had her own modeling school in Detroit. So she and Charlie Atkins were the ones who really gave us what we needed in terms of being professional and how to look in public. What happened was Mrs. Powell would teach us not so much about etiquette because she said, you should learn how to use spoons and forks at home. I'm not here to do that. But I'm showing you how to have inner beauty or to know your inner beauty. In fact, she said to us once, you girls are just diamonds in the rough. And we're here to polish you. So she was that type of a person. Like the Hollywood studios when they trained and taught there. All the people, the wonderful people. So they taught them this. And so we had that same type of training. Motown. And that's really what Mrs. Powell taught us. How to sit on a stool and give an interview. And I even see sometimes now on television. Many females are anchor women now. And they'll sit on stools and they'll have their legs. These beautiful shoes on. And beautiful dresses, short dresses. And they have their legs all up. And this is something that Mrs. Powell taught us very early on. When you sit. And your mama used to taught us this as well. Keep your knees together, but your legs should be very crossed at the ankles. And if you're going to cross them at the knee, then make sure that when you do that, your knees are close together. Those are little things. She taught us how to get in and out of limousines gracefully. And these are all things that we were taught when we were 16 years old at Motown Records. So those are the type of things that, you know, we learned in the artist development department. That's what it was called.
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April Callahan
And in these kind of early years, was there. Were you all still shopping and buying your own clothes? Or was there something like a stylist who was helping you at this point?
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Mary Wilson
When we first started, we actually were our own stylist. In fact, everything we wore, pretty much. We shopped and bought them at either Saks Fifth Avenue, some small boutiques they had in Detroit. We didn't actually start wearing tour gowns that designers made for us until we started doing major TV shows. That was probably 1965. From then on, these various designers that the studios in those days had their own designers there. They would come to us and bring us these beautiful designer pictures there and sketches and boys. Wow. That's when we started actually wearing more of the couture gown.
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April Callahan
Oh, my gosh. And your book is chock full of these incredibly beautiful. Incredibly beautiful ensembles. The craftsmanship, which was really great.
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Mary Wilson
Yes, that's so great. Because the designers that were used were also designers. They didn't just design for tv, but they designed for the movie theaters. And so they were really. They knew what they were doing. In the book. What I tried to do as well, in Supreme Glamour, I tried to do was to give a close up look at some of the gowns and show how intricate it was. There were many artisans who created this beadwork and a lot of them came from Europe. Some of the women have passed on now, but there are a couple who are still alive and I actually had a chance to interview them. But if you'll go on page, I think it's 98. There's a close up of one of our gowns. It's a green gown and it's all bugle beaded. It's all bugle beaded. Right. So the what the beauty of this is that we call them the green swirls because the beading was done on a fabric, a sheer fabric, and it followed the design, the pattern on the fabric. So if you look, you can look closely. That's why I took, I had them take pictures of gowns up close so people can actually see every little bead there. From a distance, it looks like maybe that's just the print of the fabric. But these are beads. There must be millions of beads on.
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April Callahan
It's incredible.
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Mary Wilson
And the artisans who made them, they spent hours and hours beading beads, putting all those little bugle beads on there. So it's really. I was very happy I was able to do that to show the bead because a lot of people only saw us on television, so they never really saw the really beauty of these gowns up close.
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April Callahan
Yeah, so I think there's something like 30 different sets of dresses that you feature. And so the ones you're talking about are designed by Michael Travis from 68 screen printed foul yard gown and screen printed chiffon cape. And then you give notes about when it was worn, who wore it. And then like you just said, those incredible close up details of the amount of artistry and beauty that went into these dresses that like you said, you wouldn't normally see on television.
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Mary Wilson
If you were to try to buy one of these gowns now, oh my goodness, you couldn't even afford it. And I looked at, I look at some of the Academy Awards and the Grammys and places where the young ladies are wearing these fabulous gowns now, and I'm sure they're worth so much money, but these gowns, you can even buy this today and the amount of money it would cost. And the beading work sometimes is done not by hand, but yet still you're paying a high price out there with these. They're all done by hand. Nothing is machine made. Yeah, right.
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Cassidy Zachary
And you mentioned 1965 is when you had started appearing on TV. And by 1966, the Supremes had released their 10th studio album. You were already an international sensation, I think, traveling the world at this point. And you write in the book, just as we've discussed, that high fashion really paralleled that rocket to stardom and you started wearing more and more haute couture. And you actually write that quote. You were fashionably attired, nicely made up and in full supreme mode 24 7. And you write about your trademark three part harmonies in the book, but also your trademark style because you all really did become known for what you wore. And it was, as we've just discussed, these identical elaborately beaded or fringed or sequined floor length gowns. And there is actually one designer that I just mentioned that I was hoping that maybe you could talk a little bit more about. Because this designer, Michael Travis, I think you said, was at one point your personal designer, designing specifically for the Supremes. Beginning and I think the late 1960s.
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Mary Wilson
We started actually wearing gorgeous gowns in 1964. We were purchasing them from various places like Saks, I think I mentioned that earlier, and traveling around the world in these great gowns. That was 1964, when in 1965 or so, we started obviously doing higher end shows like Ed Sullivan show, things like that. And we did the Top of the Pops in London, England. So we were wearing all these beautiful things. And when we met Michael Travis in New York, he was in New York at the time he started designing for us. But Michael Travis was actually prior to Bob Mackie. So what happened was he also designed for many other people. He designed for Dionne Warwick, Nancy Wilson, Liberace. So he was not our personal designer, but we used him because he always brought the right things that we liked. Then when I'm not sure if he moved out to LA or we were traveling so much and doing different shows, we did shows out in Los Angeles, Hollywood. So there were other designers that came aboard. And that's when we met Bob Mackie, who then created more gowns for us. So it depended on the time frame in terms of where, what TV shows we were doing. And this is really where we really ended up meeting the majority of our designers was whenever we did a TV show, we would meet someone new and they would bring some other type of looks for us. Another person that designed there was a woman that design for us very early on and she. We met in San Francisco. It's coming up a lot. Lavita was her name. And she came up to us, we were working at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco. And usually back in those days, we would do show. We would be at one club for a week, maybe two weeks, maybe three weeks. And so lavita came to one of our shows, and she came. She said, I have some designs I want to show you. And so she did, and we liked what she did. And so we used her for a couple designs. It was really great because she was in couture, too. So all of our designers make couture. Lavita was one of the only female designers that we actually used because she was very persistent. And I think that she also designed for one of the presidents, one of the president's wife. I'm not sure which president it was at the time, which wife. But anyway, yeah, so we used a lot of different designers. And Michael Travis was one of my favorites. All guys were my favorites, actually. But he designed probably more gowns than most of the other designers for us.
- [28:00]
April Callahan
And I'm so glad you mentioned La Vida, actually, because that. I think that was definitely one of my favorite looks in the book. It's really hard to pick favorites, but you have these yellow trench coats, Moire taffeta trench coats that she designed that are fabulous. They're so beautiful.
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Mary Wilson
Yeah, they. There's actually. It's a three piece. Let me see. One, two. No, it's a two piece. And everyone thinks that they're yellow, but they act because they've faded over the years. But they actually are a lemon color. And they're satin coats that she designed with the work on the lapels and at the bottom, the hemline and the sleeve. But the gowns that go with the coats were wool. They were very lightweight wool. And they were pleated, which is actually nice because on the outside of the pleat, there beads all the way down to the. From the waist to the floor. And then the top is like a halter top with completely beaded. And yeah, it was really fun to wear those. But, yeah, it has faded over the years, so it does look a little. The color is not the same. They really were lime green, and the beading was also green. So there you go,
- [29:20]
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- [30:22]
April Callahan
Do you have, looking back over all of these dresses that you wore, do you have a favorite dress or ensemble that you wore? Is it just too hard to pick?
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Mary Wilson
I have 11 grandchildren, so it's something as a mom and a grandmom, you don't. You can't say your favorite, but there are some that, yes, wonderful. The memories and what they meant when we wore them was so that you can say that one was definitely one of the ones that stand out. And that would be our Queen Mother gown that we wore at our command performance in England for the Queen Mother. Wow.
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April Callahan
And what I find so wonderful about many of these dresses is they're really designed to move with you. So much of what you guys did was these choreographed movements and you have gowns with butterfly sleeves and dripping beads and fringe coming down. And you can tell the designers really took into account what you were going to be doing when you wore these dresses. They were really meant to just floor you.
- [31:16]
Mary Wilson
I think I mentioned earlier our choreographer, Charlie Atkinson, who had a lot to do with that as well, because he gave us the type of movement that really brought out the movement of the gowns. So whenever he would choreograph, say, Stopping the Name of Love or Babylove, the hand movements would be the main thing. And if the gown was tight, he would have us moving in such a way where it really showed off the lines of the gown. He and Ms. Pierre, Maxine Powell worked in concert with us on those kind of things because she would say, well, I don't want the girls to be bending over too much and showing their buttocks. She had a really funny way of expressing herself. And we always, at 17, we would laugh at her, but we knew that she knew what she was talking about. We were just kind of being teenage girls and we would laugh at her behind her back. She proved to really give us something that has lasted me all my and I'm very proud of that. But, yes, it was between the two of them, Charlie Atkins and Maxine Powell, that showed us how to really move gracefully in the gowns.
- [32:30]
Cassidy Zachary
So I just have a couple more questions, because you write in the book that what the Supremes wore truly mattered, and the Supremes inspired this entire generation of young girls and young women who grew up watching you. Right. And Whoopi Goldberg actually wrote an incredibly moving preface to the book. I'm just going to read a couple lines from it here. She said, quote, everything about the Supremes, all those gowns, all those pantsuits, all those caps, gloves, furs, the makeup, the eyelashes, the wigs, made me believe they were speaking to me. I, too, could be well spoken, tall, majestic, and emissary of black folks who also came from the projects. And then she goes on to say, I look back and wonder if they had any idea that they taught me and a new generation the pride of being black. Diana, Mary and Flora. So did you have any idea at the time, Ms. Mary, what the success and visibility of the Supremes meant?
- [33:26]
Mary Wilson
First of all, when I asked Ms. Whoopi Goldberg to write the foreword for my book, I wanted to have someone who was there when we were going through our career. And what Whoopi wrote was exactly what we didn't really realize at the time. I can't speak for the other two ladies. I can't speak for Diane. Florence passed away in 1976, so I can't speak for her. But the thing that I felt was that we, as three black girls who had grown up poor, but had a dream, accomplish our dreams. And those dreams were not easy to accomplish because we're talking about a time when, especially in America and even worldwide, blacks just were not considered to be equal to anyone else. What we're going through here now, when certain people are being oppressed and treated badly. So it was back then, it was the black people's time to be treated badly. And we became stars, we became divas, and we became citizens almost within the same year. That was 19, what, 65. Civil Rights Bill. 64. 65 during that time. And we didn't know exactly. I'm speaking for myself, I should say I didn't know exactly that we were reaching people in that manner, the way Whoopi explained it. But I did know that from what my mom and my aunts and everyone in the black community felt, and that is that we were not as good as the next person. So when we became famous and started traveling the world and we were Treated like royalty. And then even here in America now, we were treated differently. I remember a young, beautiful Jewish lady came to see us in Puerto Rico. I think it was at the Eden Rocker Hotel or Fontainebleau, one of the two. And after one of the shows, she came up to me and she said, I'm so happy to see you guys. And I just want you to know that I allow my family, my children, everyone, to watch you when we sit up and watch you on Ed Sullivan every Sunday night. This is my brother who was a Warner. He was. He hates when I say this. He was a wannabe Panther. Black Panther, right? He had been. He was in the Vietnam War, and he was over in Santo Domingo and flew over to Miami to see us during that time. And he was standing there, he says, mary, what does she mean? She allows her family to watch you when she's on tv? I'm like, roosevelt, hey, look, the Civil Rights Bill was just passed a couple years ago. Before that, people did not like to look at black people on tv. For me, it was a compliment. And, yeah, we knew in our hearts and soul, we understood that we had done something or we were doing something phenomenal and that people were watching. But maybe at the time, I think we were just having fun ourselves. And doing what? Using our gifts that God gave us. And I don't think I was thinking about what the people were thinking. I was thinking about what I was thinking, you know, wow, this is fun. And so now some. I'll be 75 next month. And I look back and I'm still having fun. So how blessed and how fortunate I am to have been blessed to have this be in the Supremes and to have this happen and people all over the world know our music. Yeah, Now I see. But back then, I was just having fun, right?
- [36:52]
April Callahan
And that. I mean, part of that being that glamorous and being so wonderful was what was so, you know, wonderful about what you were doing. Representation is so important, and you guys were doing it so in style, I should say, all over the world.
- [37:06]
Cassidy Zachary
Ms. Mary, I just have one more question for you, because Flo left the group in 67. I think Diana left to go solo in 1970, which left you as the only founding member left in the, quote, unquote, new Supremes. But the Supremes actually continue to perform until 1977, where you start seeing all of these fabulous fringed, beaded pantsuits that I cannot get enough of. And as you mentioned, you're going to be 75 next week.
- [37:33]
Mary Wilson
I'm sorry, I'll be 76. I may have said 75. I'll be 76. My fault. It's okay.
- [37:41]
April Callahan
You'll be 76 next month. And you're still performing all over the world. You went on this incredibly successful solo career. You mentioned the multiple books you've written. Supreme Glamour is a beautiful extension of that. You're also a motivational speaker. I'm just curious how it. Clothing continue to form your sense of self into today.
- [38:01]
Mary Wilson
Clothing, for me, I have fun all the time. That's the kind of person I am. But also, I'm. Who I am is like Popeye used to say, I am what I am. That's just who I am. I love to dress. My background vocalist said to me the other day, mary, every time you stand up, you're posing. I'm like, I'm not posing. That's just the way I stand. So I think, and if you see Diane, she's always gorgeous. That's just who we are. We like to look good. I don't know if it's something I don't try. It's just. That's what I. That's who I am. That's what I do. And even my home and my office, I like beauty around me. So that's just my vibe. And you mentioned we were wearing these bell bottoms and the pantsuits in the late 70s. And because time was changing. So we always kept up with the times in terms of changing, but it was always in a glamorous way.
- [39:01]
April Callahan
Exactly. In the most glamorous way.
- [39:04]
Mary Wilson
Yeah. That's just what. That's who we are. That was our image and something you
- [39:11]
April Callahan
carry into the contemporary times effortlessly, I must say. Miss Mary, thank you so much for being here. This was truly an honor and a pleasure.
- [39:20]
Mary Wilson
Thank you. I hope I answered all your queries about the fashion and everything. And I'm very happy that everyone seems to really like the Supreme Glamour in my book. In fact, I have loads of friends who said, I bought five copies and I gave them away for Christmas. And someone said, I say 16. I gave it away for Valentine's Day. I'm like, hey, keep on giving away. Keep on buying and giving them all those gifts, because it is a beautiful package. I remember when Pearl Bailey was telling us that she was an ambassador, and she was telling us how that made her so very proud. And so I'm, you know what? And now I'm an author, and I'm very proud, too. It's really wonderful to have this and give it to people as something to help them remember when they were younger. And it also helps the younger people today to know what we were doing back then. Everyone stands on someone's shoulder and I hope that they can see that we the supreme set Trends back in 1960 and they're still following our model.
- [40:22]
Cassidy Zachary
Oh absolutely. And the Supremes still remain icons of glamour to this day and will continue to remain that well into the future. And I know that many address listener is going to go out and buy this book because honestly we only touched on a very, very small amount of the wealth of stories and images in this book and I cannot say enough wonderful things about it. So thank you so much for this gift.
- [40:45]
Mary Wilson
Thank you. And we should also mention my writer, Mr. Mark Bego because he was actually responsible for writing most of the text. We did it together, but he wrote it. So I have to give a shout out to Mark Begel. Thank you.
- [40:57]
April Callahan
Thank you both so much.
- [40:59]
Ms. Mary, thank you so much for being here with us today. Cass, what an incredible story and legacy, all the while done in high style, I might say. And we are so grateful to you, Ms. Mary, for preserving these ensembles for us to enjoy today and into the future for generations to come.
- [41:18]
Yes, and I highly recommend getting your hands on a copy of Supreme Glamour Dress listeners. I gobbled up every bit of the text and the jaw dropping imagery could not get enough.
- [41:28]
And if you want to learn more intimate details about Ms. Mary's life and career, she's actually written two autobiographies. One is entitled Dream My Life as a Supreme and the other one Supreme Faith. Someday we'll be together. And her singing career cast as did not stop with the Supremes. She actually went on to produce multiple solo albums with Motown Records, has toured with Bill Wyman of the Rolling Stones, and even served as a cultural ambassador for the United States. And today she continues to make appearances and spread her inspirational message that dreams do come true.
- [42:02]
That does it for us.
- [42:03]
Cassidy Zachary
Today.
- [42:03]
April Callahan
Dress listeners, may you consider consider introducing some Supreme Glamour into your wardrobe and maybe your book collection. Next time you get dressed,
- [42:15]
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- [42:16]
Cassidy Zachary
you're signed up for our newsletter. If you're not already, head to our website@dressedhistory.com sign up for that newsletter where April and I once a month share things from April's armoire and Cassidy's closet, things we're working on behind the scenes, interesting research we're doing or objects we're studying. But that's also where you become the first to know about our online classes and in person tours. And that includes my what women wore to the Revolution 1850s-1920s live online course coming your way in June and then also our seven day fashion history fueled adventure in the world Fashion Capital Paris coming your way August 30th through September 6th.
- [42:54]
April Callahan
Some of you have already signed up but we do still have more slots and we are very excited I will be there now on more or less a permanent basis. I have new Parisian treasures up my sleeve for this year's tour. So yeah, again you can head over to dresshistory.com to look at that full itinerary and we'll be up to this year starting August 30th and then into the very first week of September.
- [43:20]
Cassidy Zachary
And we get so many questions from all of you about our recommendations recommendations for fashion history books. So if you're interested you can always find a link in our show Notes to our Bookshop Bookshelf. So that address is bookshop.org shop dressed and there you can find over 150 of our favorite fashion history titles.
- [43:37]
April Callahan
Do you love dress but you would like to skip the ads? You can now sign up for ad free listening on our Dressed History Patreon. We are also excited to now be part of the Airwave Network and their premium ad free history subscription Airwave History plus, which is available on Apple Podcast. This subscription brings dressed and also 27 other popular history podcasts all together ad free for just $5.99 per month. More information on Patreon and Airwave is available at the link in our bio. Thank you as always for tuning in and more Dressed coming your way very soon. The History of Fashion is a production of dressed media.
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Mary Wilson
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- [45:02]
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- [45:12]
Mary Wilson
I just learned that artificial vanilla flavoring
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Mary Wilson
Good Job Brain.
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Cassidy Zachary
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Mary Wilson
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