How photographer and stylist Maripol influenced 1980s culture and style
Madonna’s iconic Like a Virgin white wedding dress may not have happened, had it not been for photographer Maripol. Here’s why the stylist was known as the “gatekeeper of celebrity and club culture” in the 1980s.
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Pioneering photographer and stylist Maripol was the gatekeeper of celebrity and club culture in New York in the 1980s.
Her Polaroids of Madonna, Grace Jones, Debbie Harry, and films with artists Keith Haring and Jean Michel-Basquiat, captured the new wave-punk-rap culture clash of the times, while setting a style agenda for most of the artists she ran with, especially Madonna.
Maripol, who also made jewellery and accessories, styled Madonna’s most iconic looks; the leather and choker wearing blonde, heavy with bangles, for her first album; then the wedding dress innocent for Like A Virgin.
“We met at a club called the Roxy,” Maripol says.
“(The rapper and artist) Fab Five Freddie asked me if there were any cute girls in the club who could dance on stage. Madonna was wearing a nice bra, so I asked her if she didn’t mind taking off her T-shirt, and dancing.
“Madonna has said when she first met me I decorated her like a Christmas tree. She thought I was out of my mind,” Maripol says, laughing.
She says the aspiring pop superstar was “so cute, sweet and natural” in the early days.
“I always thought she was a hard worker,” Maripol says.
“In her mind, she wanted to make it … but I knew in my heart, something great was lying in front of her. I was happy to participate with the style that I gave her.”
The first album look was a mix of punk and rock and sex, but Madonna was concerned about portraying purity on her next album.
“Listen,” Maripol told her, “if you’re singing about being a virgin, we should go for it. Wear a wedding dress!”
Maripol will be a special guest at the National Gallery of Victoria’s gala event, on November 31, for the Crossing Lines exhibition.
Crossing Lines, which opens on December 1, will feature the work of influential New York artists Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat.
The exhibition will include works from each artist’s first exhibitions, their collaborations with each other, as well as with the likes of Andy Warhol, Grace Jones and Madonna.
It will also present some of their most acclaimed artworks, including Basquiat’s crown and head motifs, and Haring’s radiant baby and dancing figures.
Maripol directed a doco, Crack Is Wack, about Haring’s work, and was producer on Downtown 81, a film featuring Basquiat and Debbie Harry.
“My Polaroids and films were a tool, as a voyeur, as a journalist,” Maripol said. “I was constantly archiving … and it was instant. That was the magic of it.
“The best thing with taking Polaroids is, it’s non-aggressive and non threatening. You don’t have lights, umbrellas or five assistants. People didn’t mind having their picture taken,” Maripol says. “We didn’t have celebrity s--- back then.”
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What does Maripol think of celebrity culture today?
“I think some celebrities should use their power to educate women, instead of flaunting all these other things,” she answers. “What about reading? What about poverty? What about equality?”
She laments the only messages that resonate are hollow scenes on a reality show or sponsored posts on Instagram.
“Now, so many girls want to go to a surgeon to change their face, and straighten their hair, and change their breasts and butt to look like the celebrities. Nothing else.”
KEITH HARING AND JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT: CROSSING LINES, NGV INTERNATIONAL, DECEMBER 1-APRIL 13.