His Bello noche is paying off
It’s 8:30 a.m. The Oscar nominations are out. Designer Louis Verdad’s phone has been ringing since 7.
He’s on his cell now, speaking in rapid Spanish, holding his hand over the mouthpiece, ordering his cutters to move bolts of fabric, kissing a visitor on both cheeks.
Verdad designed Maria Bello’s sultry cream satin column gown for the Golden Globes, his first for a red carpet event. Now Joan Rivers is telling the world that Bello and Charlize Theron tied for best-dressed of the evening. “She’s a tough cookie to please,” Verdad says. “To get a nomination from her is outstanding.”
He has dressed Cate Blanchett, Holly Hunter, Madonna (that tux, the night she kissed Britney Spears). He loaned Cameron Diaz some high-waisted pants. “Cameron Diaz has my pants. I need my pants back.”
But these are the days that could change a designer’s life forever. Dress a star, an Academy Award winner, and your designs garner worldwide attention, shown in clip after clip, looping fabulousness.
Verdad is an American-born Latino who grew up in Mexico. He is short, high energy, warm and flamboyant. He is eloquent in talking about women, the ways of women, the power of women. Who wouldn’t want to be dressed by him?
He just moved Monday to this studio in Silver Lake in the shadow of the 101. “We’re in a mess, a total mess. Everything that is going on is through this little phone,” he says, holding up his cell. “I’m going crazy.”
For the Oscars, he would like to dress Samantha Morton, Naomi Watts. “They are strong,” he says. “The self-confidence they radiate makes me feel they will do justice to my clothes.” But Morton, he says, would be his top choice. She is sleek and sexy, he says. “She needs to be in a gown that is very sophisticated,” he says. “Because she is bald.”
His clothes evoke ‘40s glamour with a Spanish flair. A little severe, a little naughty.
“I come from a society with lots of machismo, where women are treated a certain way,” he says. “I don’t want women to look like sluts. I want them to look regal.”
The phone rings. It’s his publicist. Two more stylists have called.
