When he’s not on the red carpet, George Kotsiopoulos sits just to the left of Joan Rivers on E!’s “Fashion Police,” reacting with shock and awe at the latest celebrity styles.
But he wasn’t always a fashionista. Skokie native Kotsiopoulos, 45, started in the stock room of Lord & Taylor and was headed for life as an accountant, before falling into the world of stylists and fashion editors.
This issue, Kotsiopoulos is our guest editor, championing arts education and the Skokie Fine Arts Commission. Below, Kotsiopoulos talks about growing up in Skokie, his new fashion book and why Jennifer Lawrence says dumb things.
Q: For much of your career, you were a stylist. For someone who might not know anything about the fashion industry, can you describe what a stylist does?
A: A fashion stylist essentially does lots of different things. When I first started working in fashion, I was an associate fashion editor at the New York Times magazine. And I did that for about eight years, living in LA. So I had a New York job, but I lived in LA.
A fashion stylist does things like: You can work for a magazine and you arrange the clothes for the photos, like in an editorial fashion story. You can dress the people for television commercials or for print ads. There’s also personal styling: You can go into someone’s closet and help them buy clothes and put their looks together and tell them what to keep, what to throw out, what to alter.
And then of course there’s red carpet dressing, which is the same thing essentially as just dressing a normal person, except everything is borrowed, for the most part. You just call designers and they loan you clothes to put on celebrities. It’s in exchange for them walking on the red carpet, or being at a party and getting photographs taken that the designers can then distribute to the press and the media.
And then they do all the press for that, so a 12-year-old girl can see Jennifer Lawrence and read about her perfume. Because they can’t buy the $5,000 dress that she is wearing, but they can buy the perfume.
Q: You mention Jennifer Lawrence. She was a fan of “Fashion Police” and then not a fan of the show. She had said that “Fashion Police” was one of the reasons that people have body issues.
A: I’m sure she is a lovely girl. I have no idea. It is just kind of dumb when you’re making statements like that and you have a stylist at a shoot and you spend hours in hair and make-up. You have trainers and nutritionists and all these people like getting you ready so you can be naked in the X-Men movie, in your blue suit. And you’re being retouched in all these ads and then you’re going saying that “Fashion Police” — which critiques fashion — that we’re the cause for women having bad body issues?
It’s just stupid more than anything else.
I also think the public isn’t stupid. I don’t think that girls, particularly young girls, are looking at ads and they think that’s real.
Q: Well, George, let me ask you to police yourself. You know, is there a photo that your family has or a look that you remember in horror? What’s up on your mom’s mantle that you makes you cringe?
A: There’s nothing. Are you kidding? That has been removed. I’m the one who edits those photos up there. It’s like, “No!” I give her the photos with the frames.
It is funny, when I first got on the show, we did these flashback episodes. So I did get something from my high school and my hair is all stupid and I had bangs. But then I look in the yearbook and every guy had bangs. In the past, I kind of looked at it and I was mortified: “Oh God. How could I ever look like that?”
But the older I get, the more I just kind of accept it.
The bangs were ridiculous. But I was also voted “Best Dressed” in my high school, which is kind of funny. It never even occurred to me that I could have a career in fashion, at all. Like, never once. So I guess you kind of predict your future in a way.
Q: What were the formative influences on you in Skokie? For instance, you used to work in the Lord & Taylor stock room, right?
A: [Laughs] Yes, I did. I applied for a job there when I was 15, and you had to be 16 to work, so I just lied. I just wanted to make some money. And it came back to bite me a year later. I got called down to the manager’s office. But that was fun, you know?
But I remember that I had a manager there, an assistant store manager who literally told me that I had “delusions of grandeur.” Not in like a joking way; he was serious. That’s like one thing that I always remember about Lord and Taylor.
First of all, why do you tell a 16-year-old that they have delusions of grandeur? You want to be supporting them and allowing them to grow. And then on the flip side, I’m just like, “Yeah, [expletive], look at me now!” [Laughs]
Q: Did that exchange help propel you?
A: I think that did encourage me grow out of my circle.
Q: Did you have a particular teachers or mentors who had an impact on you?
A: Yes, my art teacher, Mrs. Bruce. I had her in kindergarten and I think I had her in junior high as well. Those were my favorite classes. You could do no wrong in an art class, which is why I support a lot of art education classes. But unfortunately, so much funding is been cut for the arts.
Q: For you, why is funding the arts and art classes are important?
A: I just feel like if you allow a child to have an open mind, you’re not going to raise a bunch of [jerks]. [Laughs]
It does broaden your horizons, open your mind, and open yourself up to new experiences that you might not have. My parents were Greek immigrants, and they enjoyed my art, but once I got into high school, it was kind of like, “It’s time to get serious. You need to become a lawyer or a doctor,” or whatever. So it was nice to have an art class. Even the students that are super studious, they kind of need to calm down a little bit and express themselves. And I think that’s important for a lot of kids.
Q: On Instagram, you had a touching post for Pride Portraits, which was a photo of you with your mother. You wrote, “As difficult as it was for me to come out, it was just as hard for Momma Kotsi.”
A: Anyone who is gay and is dealing with telling their family, I wanted them to just understand immediately.
Q: When did you come out?
A: I think probably around 23. For me it was a long process. It’s like you kind of tell one of your friends and then you tell, you know three more friends. And then you tell more friends. I think, to my family, I was probably 24 or 25? Something like that, I was old.
Q: And the response was not immediately supportive?
A: My sister was supportive.
Q: I read someplace that you secretly went shopping with your older sister, because she trusted your opinion.
A: Oh yes, totally. I loved going shopping with my sister. It was fun. She would like try clothes on and would come out and show me. She is eight years older than me, by the way. We had to not let my dad know that I was going. He wouldn’t have liked that.
But it was one of those things — it is kind of funny. She was surprised when I came out. It’s like, “Really, girl? We used to go shopping together. Like, really? You’re that surprised?”
Now, my mom just says, “You know I love you no matter what. I just want you to be happy.” And I think that’s really what it comes down to. As long as a parent knows that their kid is happy and loved, I think that is all that matters.
When I was growing up in Skokie, I didn’t ever think that I would ever be able to live my life as an “out” gay man. It didn’t even seem like an option back then. Like, not at all.
Q: Well, what changed?
A: I think just moving to LA changed things. I don’t know if I would have been able to come out in Chicago. Because I just would have felt like there were just too many relatives here, and what if a relative sees me, and all this crazy stuff. And now, I am an old man. I really don’t care.
Q: Your new book, “Glamorous by George: The Key to Creating Movie Star Style,” seems like it’s not only a fashion guide but your guide to life.
A: I always talk about production designing your life. It’s one thing if you have beautiful clothing but then you go into your house and it’s a fricking mess? They can’t afford their rent because they just went and bought a $2,000 blazer, which I never did.
It’s a practical guide that’s also not going to break the bank, you know. You don’t have to be rich to look and act like a movie star. You can totally do it on a budget and it is easy and it is assessable.
Q: From reading the book, it seems that hell to you would be tracksuits and Ugg boots. What else do you have a distaste for?
A: I just can’t believe what some people go out in public wearing. For younger girls now, I’ve been seeing a lot these super-tight, micro-mini dresses. They are constantly pulling them down, because their lower butt cleavage is exposed.
Seriously, are you serious? Why are you wearing that? What is wrong with you? Usually it is also on women who don’t necessarily have the most … it is not the most flattering silhouette for their body. I think a lot of women are out wearing bras that have been fitted improperly.
Guys are the same way though. My friend Neil, who is from Skokie, came to visit. He brought nice clothes. And he puts this jacket on and it’s three sizes too big. He thought that that’s the way it is supposed to fit.
But I think a lot of straight guys think if they wear things bigger, it makes them look bigger and when it actually makes them look skinnier. You look smaller. You look scrawny. Maybe he’s hiding something. I have no idea.
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