Dan Levy Wants You to Dress Like His TV Show Characters For Halloween

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0:37This is The Run Through. I'm Cho Minardi. And today, my lovely co-host, Chloe, is on a much needed vacation. but I'm so excited to be doing headlines with my my colleague Laura Ingham. Laura can you introduce yourself? Hi everyone I'm Laura I'm the deputy director of the global network here at Vogue and basically Vogue's secret weapon I feel like especially at British Vogue I'm like constantly calling on Laura for advice about everything. Oh we work so closely together on all things all things fashion related. Yes yeah we had a good gossip yesterday about some news that will come later. But first, today on the show, we've got comedian and fashion lover Dan Levy, who stopped by to chat with our guest hosts, Hannah Jackson and Margot Ambuba.

1:22His new show, Big Mistakes, is about two siblings who get involved in chaotic organized crime, and it premieres on Netflix on April 9th in the US. And I'm so excited to hear about their conversation. But before we get into all of that, I guess we should recap on the week that we had last week here in London, which was extremely busy. It was non-stop. The big, big moment for us was the Vogue Vintage Show, which was co-hosted by Alexa Chung and Lila Moss. Laura, can you talk about how you were involved in the event? Because I feel like you were basically the mastermind behind all those fabulous pieces on the rack, you and your team.

1:59Oh, it was such a fun sale to work on. And it's the second time we've done it. We had a vintage sale this time last year, and we learned a lot from it. And this time we worked with our incredible team and our lovely editors to kind of curate all of those pieces that you have got on your watch list and you've been waiting to see come up on any vintage site or any sale. and we got them all together and curated them between our own racks and just generally within the sale to kind of have all those pieces, those speed, like LVs, speedies, the Prada lipstick print dress and mini skirt. We also had the kind of hacker project.

2:40Do you remember the Balenciaga Gucci hacker project pieces, which sold really well? I had my favorite, the row loafers there, which we put on eBay Live, which was really fun. The eBay Live was maybe the highlight for me because we were all upstairs screaming at the eBay Live as Julia Hobbs and various editors were selling all of the prized items, including a Rolex watch and a Birkin bag, which went for seven grand, which if you collect Birkins, it's actually a steal. It was a bargain in fashion terms. I know. And sort of so collectible, timeless pieces that you keep forever, passed down from generation to generation.

3:22People were like, should we be handling this with gloves? They were like really kind of amazed that we had it and that we'd sourced it. Us too, to be honest, when it came through, we were like, wow, this is actually really exciting. And it was so fun to, all the editors rolled through the live with their like favourite pieces. We sold them with Julia doing the most incredible jokes as we were going through. We could hear everyone upstairs on the sale, which kind of gave us that impetus to really sell those pieces for as much as we could. So everything in the sale was in aid of Give Your Best, the wonderful charity.

3:54And the Give Your Best founder, Sol, came and she was shopping it as well, which I thought was really adorable. And she was so happy to see everybody shopping. So it's great. I know. So many people said they spoke to her and how engaged she was in the sale. They're an incredible charity that tackle clothing, poverty and fashion waste, supporting refugees. oh yeah no it was really great to see her and it was lovely to see who showed up the rianne from wet leg came and sienna miller came with her entire family her little girl and her her teenager marlo so it was really fun to see to see them shopping on the floor there was a piece that i selected that i bought that everybody else wanted which was really this amazing prada coat you got together it was I got I went out to to a concert later that night so many people complimented me on that coat I was at the Rose Wiley retrospective at the Royal Academy of Art she's a fantastic artist very well regarded in the fashion world she's worked with the likes of Jonathan Anderson at Dior and she's in her 90s and she had this massive retrospective which she covered in the magazine so I went and this woman just came up to me like I just love your coat and then I went to the Lily Allen concert later that night and it was like a feeding frenzy.

5:07Everyone's like, I love your coat. I was like, okay, I feel less bad for like making sure I secured the bag with this coat. I love that we truly believed in our edit. We did. I literally bought my edit. It was like half of the stuff I bought was like, this is naughty of me. No, I feel like if you authentically love what you buy and you really, really believe in it, then there's nothing better to shop into than that. But it was quite funny to watch people watching, like buying into each other's edits. um also last week our big april cover reveal which was olivia rodrigo co-starring a chair that got a lot of love and discussion on the internet i'm always so curious when people people get very obsessed with what else is going on on the cover i know especially yeah breaking down the shoot i know i love that i love that and also chairgate i mean um i love the conversation why a chair on the beach, the type of chair on the beach.

6:04I mean, I'm here for it. We were talking about it in the office. I think that any engagement and anything that we're doing is only adds to the creative and the impact of the cover. But most importantly, I think everyone just loves that image and that shoot. I think when those images first came in, I remember, do you remember we prepped it? I think it was December. It was freezing. Like, you know, when it's drawing in, it's really dark, gloomy evenings. And we were working with the lovely Jordan Bickham, the stylist. my first time working with her actually I know you know her really well yeah we worked when we were relaunching Vogue.com back in the day she was so great to work with she was really a partner in crime so it's kind of a bit of a of a Vogue reunion yeah it was so nice I love her sensibility and obviously her taste is yeah you know sort of unmatched and she really sort of deconstructed Olivia's style she wanted it to be very personal to her from a fashion perspective with a nod to that kind of Alanis Morissette grungy era, which threw your shared love of vintage.

7:04I know. Well, she basically ended up shooting my Holy Grail item, which is that pink junior jacket, which I'll be looking for for the rest of my life, thanks to Jordan reminding me that I need it in my life. But there were sort of several vintage pieces in it. And I'd never actually met Laura Jane Colson until last Friday. We went and got a very bougie lunch, which was really fun. and she's a complete gorgeous surfer girl but she's from London she lives in East London and I was obviously grilling her about the chair because I was like what do you think about the chair and what was the chair about tell us about the chair and she was just like well the chair was so that I could we needed to sort of capture the those last rays of golden hour and so the chair was to elevate Olivia into the into the light into the light I love that so that was how the chair came about and she was just like when she asked for a chair she just wanted the most basic chair she didn't want like a fancy design chair because I mean it would have been weird if it was like an Eames chair like you know what I mean it would have just like too designy yeah I kind of love that it was like a chair that you get at school or a chair that you see in like a church hall or something like that it was it's the school ref that I love the most I think yeah and I and going back to those like kind of dark nights it was that incredible warm light that when those pictures first came in and hit our picture desk and it was just that warmth and that gorgeous light kind of seeping through sun drenched it kind of took us all away for a moment from our December days and here we are now and starting to see spring so yeah some light here now chilly today but yeah I mean honestly I can literally feel the sand between my toes I love that she was barefoot too on the beach um I went last night to the Schiaparelli dinner which was for the opening of the exhibit which is at the V &A and it was so much more star-studded than I'd anticipated it was like half of Hollywood was there I was excited to hear about this tell us more tell us more yeah so in the morning I did a walk through with Daniel Rosemary who is a creative director of Schiaparelli he's so clear-eyed about his vision of the house and he has he's so articulate in his when he's talking about the story behind every single piece and he can unpack the details on every single collection and every single fabric choice it's quite incredible hearing him talk through it and he walked me through some of the pieces that he designed but also some of the things that made Schiaparelli famous.

9:43I didn't know that the kind of the thing that caused the biggest stir in Paris when she launched were these very simple tramploid sweaters that caused a stir when she wore them in a cafe in Paris. And that was how she launched her career. And I think it's interesting to see what would shock people now because many of the famous pieces that she's known for are in there, including the lobster dress, which was inspired by Dali. and there was a Dali painting that inspired the famous tear dress that she owned in the exhibit and then these wonderful pieces that were made in collaboration with the artist Jean Cocteau.

10:24But it was also wonderful to see Daniel's work for the house in person again. You know, obviously I've seen them at shows, but it's kind of interesting to see his work all together. he often comes with a very different inspiration each season because there's always an element of surprise I remember when he did those fantastic lion heads and then one season and then you know last season he did the scorpion tail which made its way into the exhibit they they sort of decided at the very last minute that they were going to add it because the exhibit had pretty much been curated and then they added that last oh I'm glad they did yeah because it was quite impressive to and then some of his special commissions, what he did for Ariana Grande last year at the Oscars, that wonderful shoe dress, which relates right back to, obviously speaks to The Wizard of Oz and the tribute that she was doing, but it also speaks to the shoe hat that Schiaparelli designed, which was so major and is in the exhibit.

11:26All of those quirky, surrealist references that she used make their way back into his work, but it's not like a direct homage it's much more kind of it is very subtle you can sort of feel that I got to know Daniel really well mainly throughout Covid he was like really present we were doing our zoom calls directly onto he was in the studio and place fondome and he would like talk through what he was working on at the time and he was quite new to the house at that point but he always sort of evokes that spirit of Elsa and scap so authentically and that play on surrealism and everything that you've just all those unreal references I'm actually going this evening to have a look at the exhibition I can't wait to see it oh it's so fab and what was great too it's interesting that you talk about the pandemic but he talked a lot about what it was like coming out of the pandemic and those first dresses that he made and those first fashion statements that he made because Gaga who wore that fabulous dress for the inauguration of Obama at the time and then there was that amazing dress that bella wore a lung dress which he says is one of his favorite dresses of all time yeah sort of inspired from that moment of crisis and then something so beautiful that he created from it and i remember when we first saw that piece i think it was probably on a zoom preview we couldn't believe that when you didn't you were like wow this is so beautiful looks like obviously everything is resembles a jewel or a piece of jewelry and then he was talking about the lungs and how central they were to everything that we were you know had just been through and were going through at the time and so I'm glad that it's part of the exhibition that other people can see it as well because I think one of my highlights in Paris is going into that showroom and really seeing his work up close.

13:10I think he came out of Covid with this instinct to bring beauty and that was a very meaningful time in his career and his life so I think you totally nailed it because that's exactly what he was saying he's really built this world hasn't he around like this dormant sleeping brand it's sort of unbelievable to see what he's put pulled together in such a kind of a relatively short period of time like all of those like last night is testament to everything that he has done and he is so thoughtful about everything that he produces and puts together i love talking to him about how he puts together his collection his inspiration his like how many looks and then his focus on personalities and vip and celebrity has been so intrinsic to his success and he genuinely has the most incredible rapport with all of these women around him he sure does and guess what they're all clamoring for him to do i'm sure they're all clamoring for him to do of course dress them for the met and i asked him and he was like i don't want to talk about i think he's under a lot of pressure um oh i mean there've been a few big big collabs yes that have news of the big collabs that have dropped this week so willie shavaria's collection for zara dropped today and i had a quick whiz through it um i was trying to figure out what i was going to get what do you and there's also that big news about john galliano who is reauthoring i know the reauthoring i love the reauthoring which i thought was very cool very john yeah very john yeah tell us what you think about those two big pieces of fashion news that dropped this week.

14:44I know big news for Zara this week. I'm excited. I worked with John back in... I know, I was going to say that in your days at Dior. At the very beginning when I started, he was creative director of Dior and I was working in the press office here in London for Dior working through his studio via fax, which was kind of wonderful. I sort of wish I'd kept a lot of those handwritten faxes that we used to receive from him and the studio asking us to source books and all sorts of things and archive pieces and buy things back from Christie's. It's so wonderful, such a fun time. I'm excited to see him in a completely new space.

15:23I know there's been a lot of chatter about this, but of course, all of his work celebrates vintage and archive. When he was at Margiela, he was buying back the most incredible archive pieces from all of the brands, all of the big brands who are, you know, competitors to Margiela. And he was taking them and he was deconstructing them and then he was repurposing them and then creating these kind of unbelievable bespoke creations from them in his kind of regular period that he had at the brand. So for him to go back into all of the archives at Zara and to put his take on it, knowing how he works and what his process is like, which is so complex and so like he's such a cerebral thinker.

16:12So it's sort of wonderful to think of him in this very different environment and what he's going to take and what he's going to choose and how he's going to reauthor those pieces. And then I'm so happy for Willie as well. I mean, what a great collab. And, you know, I've always wanted to buy into those wide leg pants. So they're certainly on my wish list to shop into today. and he as well is also all about community and you know Zara's about that that's about you know we've got to extend the fashion community and I think that's a really positive thing for all of us so I'm intrigued to see how it plays out in the next couple of in the next couple of months I mean there are also some other exciting news that that is breaking today is that um our our dear friend designer Christopher Kane is is going to be creative director at the House of Mulberry which is so exciting very exciting for the UK to have Christopher at the helm of another great heritage brand which yeah hasn't for a long time shown ready to wear and I think it's having a bit of a resurgence on the accessory side and I think it'll be so cool to see what he does we've been wanting to see him make a comeback for so long we really have we've missed him so so excited to see him back and somewhere where there's so much potential there's been so you know obviously We've seen the kind of resurgence in all of those classic mulberry bags recently.

17:38So it's an exciting time for him to be going in and to give that, you know, Christopher, like subversive twist on his ready to wear in such a storied kind of heritage house. I'm sure his first stop will be their archives, to be honest, as well. So we're going to have to get that request in to follow that process. I know. I know. It's so true. so true it's so funny i ran into him having lunch at chateau voltaire and he did seem especially happy so now we know why oh that's nice yeah it was so nice to get that email from him because like what fantastic news yeah it really is great i can't i can't wait to see where he takes it in his first show the countdown is on the countdown is on so before we go to break i want to remind listeners that The Run Through of Vogue is now on YouTube.

18:30Subscribe today to watch full episodes of the show, and The Run Through will be back in a moment with Dan Levy.

18:57I don't think you're Princeton material. I'm nothing if not open, I guess. I'm Rachel Martin. Watch or listen to Wildcard on the NPR app, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, guys, it's finally spring. I'm so excited. I've been wearing my Penny Lane coat all winter. And while I do love it, I am so ready to be wearing layers and more fun outfits this season. I think Macy's is the perfect place to find all of my spring wardrobe essentials. They have great brands from Steve Madden and BCBG, where I could probably find some of those fun sheer layers I'm looking for. And I've really been into loose-fitting jeans, so I'm going to definitely take a look at what Macy's has in store there too.

19:44I know a lot of people are into barrel cut. but I'm more into a relaxed fit jean. So I definitely will check that out at Macy's. I'm so ready to make the switch to spring and so glad that Macy's is here for it. This episode of the run through is brought to you by Bumble. Okay, so you've set up your Bumble profile. You filled in your prompts and you've added your favorite pictures. But how do you make sure the people you're meeting are who they say they are? Bumble's profile verification features are super quick and easy to use and give you the confidence that the people you're meeting are as authentic as you.

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20:36I was seriously considering taking a beta blocker before this interview. I have some upstairs I just said. I was getting, I was like feeling anxious. I haven't done things like this for a long time. You're with an anxious crew. Great. We can just channel that. We'll hopefully just neutralize each other. No, it'll be great. I would have taken one if I had never taken, but I've never taken one, and I didn't want to be, like, really zonked for this. The first time I ever took a beta blocker was, like, an hour and a half before hosting the Emmys. Stop. And what made you decide that was the right time?

21:10Desperation. I think I was so nervous that I thought, well, it'll make for a great story if I just zonk out. And I think the nerves were actually stabilized by the beta blocker to the point where I still felt incredibly nervous the whole time. Yeah. How could you not? Yeah. But also you didn't seem like you were not James Franco with Anne Hathaway when he was really out of it. Short-circuiting? No. Fortunately, it was like it worked itself out. I was very happy with how it all turned out. But like, you know, I spun the wheel of fortune a little bit and it worked out. Yeah, you're here to tell the tale.

21:52I'm still here. That's crazy. Someone wants to talk to me, so that's good. We definitely do. You do. I'm so happy to be here. Dan Levy, welcome to the run through. Thank you so much for having me. Can you tell us a little bit about what you're wearing today? Just to kick things off. This is fabulous. I am wearing a Celine. We love Michael Ryder. Celine. Represent your old friends. I've known Michael for like 20 years. Oh my God. And this is like a big moment for him and I couldn't be happier. How did y 'all meet? We met through a mutual friend a long, like literally over 20 years ago. And I have like been in awe of him ever since.

22:28And just, you know, when you watch a friend, like, work their way to a place where circumstance and opportunity meet in this perfect synergy and they're right for it and it's the moment and the time. It's that. And I couldn't be prouder. I think he's just doing such incredible work. And it's like just clothes you want to wear. The Office is like in a tizzy after every single one of his shows. Every show is insane. From the umbrellas to the fact, the way that his shoes, the cars. I stole an umbrella. Oh, my God. Good. For sure. I thought I was stealing napkins. Yes, I would. I was like fanning out.

23:03I couldn't believe it was actually happening. How do you steal an umbrella? They're so big. Well, they gave it to me and I just never returned it. It's yellow. Sometimes I wear it down the street and hope that people notice. Oh, this whole thing? Oh, this OG Michael Ryder Celine umbrella from the show that was expected to be returned? Ain't no thanks. I have it. Good. Honestly, I wish you had taken a dozen of them. This is great. They were all good. I couldn't figure out which one to pick. That was the problem. Oh, my God. Amazing. Okay, so we're here today to talk about Big Mistakes, your new show.

23:31Yeah. It was such an entertaining watch. I watched it this weekend. My entire family was giggling while we were watching it. Yes, at different points, too. So I feel like you were hitting a lot of different. We love that. Yeah. I heard, though, it's inspired by real-life events somewhere? Yeah. Well, like, making a TV show, it's hard. But it's committing to an idea that you feel excited by to tell in a long form format is an intense thing. And I have a very irrational fear of being blackmailed into organized crime. I don't know where it comes from. I would never find myself ever in my life in any situation that would lend itself to that kind of opportunity.

24:17But I thought, I think this could be, like, a funny thing to write. Mainly because I think if I were to find myself in that situation, I would be instantly murdered. Yeah. Me too. Deeply, deeply incapable in the face of any kind of criminal operation or, like, high-stress situation. So, yeah. And I called up Rachel Sennett, who, you know, in my head, I was like, Like, she also seems like not someone a criminal organization would necessarily, like, put their trust in. In a good way. That's a compliment. And we just started to, like, brainstorm what that could look like. And the rest is history.

24:59Yeah. I heard that you and Rachel wrote the pilot in one single day. Well, we, yeah. Crazy. Like, we had outlined for months. but like the actual writing of the pilot, we sat down in the morning and we finished the 32 pages by the end of the day. I'd never had that kind of experience writing with anyone before where it was just like, it just worked. And we really kind of, we come from two different schools of comedy, but there is overlap in the grounded nature of it, I think. I'd always really admired her work and I feel like she has such a singular voice in like the comedy space. And then we worked together on the idol.

25:40And I'm Canadian, so I'm not really, like, one to reach out to people because I constantly am, like, questioning my worth and value in relation to other people. But this was a situation where I felt like I think it's a brother and sister comedy. I really wanted the female perspective to feel real, coming from a place of experience. And I just felt like she had such an amazing sensibility to lend itself to, like, our dynamic. So I asked and kind of pitched her the premise. And she loved it. and we worked for like six months together on it. Rachel is having a big moment herself with I Love LA. Were you to guest star on the show, who would you want to play?

26:29I don't think I'm like cool enough to be on that show. Please don't. I'm not saying that to be self-deprecating. Listen, I like clothes, but I don't know. I would be like an anxious boss. Okay. Like a neurotic agent. I don't know. I'm like caricaturing myself at this point. I'm like, what are the scripts I get? Anxious friend, anxious co-worker. Yeah. I mean, yeah. I'm so happy for her. I want to go back to Nikki for a second. Yeah. He is a gay pastor. It's very cool. I grew up in Texas. so I was immediately charmed by the character because of a lot of the like religious background, whatever. But I'm curious, where did your inspiration for him come from and do you have any like relationship with spirituality?

27:24Yeah, anything that you were drawing from. I know you're a Leo. Yeah. I'm a Leo too. Leo Scorpio Rising. Double Leo Scorpio Rising. That is crazy. Hell. Oh my God. I really wanted to tell the story of a character that was very far from David Rose, who was so, like, wears his emotions on his sleeve, was so reactive to, like, any kind of stimuli. And to play a character that was slightly more repressed and, like, oppressed by his circumstances felt really interesting and very different. But I really wanted to honor it, and I didn't want his faith to ever be the butt of a joke. So we had a consultant who was a gay pastor who worked with us through that whole thing to make sure that we were respecting the religious side of this.

28:19I never wanted that to be reduced in any way. So, yeah, it was like it turned out to be a really interesting journey to go on. And, like, I'm of a two-faith background. So in Schitt's Creek, we were like a Jewish family. And in this, we're kind of Italian. I'm sort of a Presbyterian denomination on big mistakes. But yeah, it's interesting to kind of explore a completely different area. I love that. Another side of Nikki I want to ask. I don't want to get too personal, but have you ever stolen anything? I stole an Almond Joy from a 7-Eleven when I was like seven. Oh my God. Were you caught? Yes.

28:59My father caught me like walking to the car. Yeah, and I had to take it back in. Was it a childish naivety of like, I didn't know what I'm doing. I just grabbed something and left? Or did you have criminal intent? No, I don't think I had criminal intent. I think I had hungry intent and was like, I want this coconut. We just wanted to eat that coconut. Yeah, I just wanted to eat it and wasn't really thinking about what I was up to. I consciously stole a pair of sunglasses from a gas station on a school trip to Quebec City. How old were you? I was, I want to say, 11 or 12. Were they cool? They were sort of a very cheap spin on an Oakley.

29:38Totally. And I've thought about that crime every day since. Well, that's the blackmail that you're concerned about. Yeah, yeah. It's the emotional. I'm glad you're getting it off your chest. Yeah, and you know what? I'm sorry. And if I ever go back to Quebec City, I will drop off$7.99. Have you? Well, inflation, I'm sure, is quite steep. That's right. It's$49.99 at this point. Yes. You know, kind of in the same vein of spirituality. I saw online that you are into tarot cards or you get your tarot read sometimes. Why are you laughing? No, no, no. I know. Okay. Yes. Keep going. Oh, okay. Well, I saw that you work with Trevor Ballin, who is very big in the— So Trevor— Okay.

30:16Trevor is the person who 20-plus years ago introduced me to Michael. Incredible. Oh, cool. Trevor is my brother and has been one of my all-time closest friends for many, many, many years. And he is an extraordinary card reader. And I can't believe I'm giving him this press right now. But he is not a professional card reader. He is a friend who has had a lifelong love, admiration, and study of tarot. Yeah. Which makes him a very good—I mean, I don't know how you become a professional card reader. I guess you just decide. Anyway, no offense to professional card readers. Not quite sure what you have to do to legitimize yourself in that way.

30:58But he would, every Sunday, he used to live in New York before moving to Paris, he would read Friends. And so the web of Friends kind of grew because, you know, he would read me and then I would recommend a friend and a friend would recommend a friend. And it sort of became this, like, little community of people who sort of would, on a Sunday, go over to his apartment. It's always out of his apartment, which is crazy because I guess some of the people he's read at this point. You know. And then he read Jonathan Anderson's cards. I put Jonathan in touch with Trevor. Stop. You're the leading connect.

31:37Oh, my God. I told Jonathan to go to Trevor. He then started to go to Trevor, like, quite often. Oh, my God. And has been going for quite some time. But I guess this one particular post blew up. He gained like 10 ,000 followers on Instagram over the Jonathan post. Okay. He is now like a name in tarot. He's getting cold calls from like the craziest people. Like who? I can't name names. Okay. But like people. People. People. And I guess I'm sort of like I just never wanted to get to a point where I can't get my cards read. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? I mean, he's getting busy, and that's annoying for me.

32:21Totally. It feels like he should always hold a spot for you. He will. Because you busted the gate open. Exactly. That's right. Okay, back to—and I want to go back to big mistakes. I know that you did a lot of the sourcing for Schitt's Creek for your own costuming. No, I did all the costuming. Like, I didn't costume Schitt's Creek, but I bought— The fashioning, let's call it. The fashion on Schitt's Creek. Because it's not really costume. So what was the approach like for big mistakes? Were you doing the same thing? Very different. Okay, tell me more. Very different. Well, shits we didn't have any money.