David Sedaris on extreme fashion, meeting the pope and a second Trump term
David Sedaris has the ability to make his readers laugh one minute and then recognize a strange, shared truth the next. The essayist and author of 'Happy Go-Lucky' (2022) and the collected diaries 'A Carnival of Snackery' (2021) also has a love of avant garde clothing by brands like the Japanese house Comme des Garcons: It's fashion that's just as cutting edge and at times, absurd and specific as his writing.
'When I stand in front of the mirror, all I see are the clothes, I don't see me,' Sedaris, 68, said over a phone call from New York. 'It's not something that's ever too young for you, it's not sexy clothing.'
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David Sedaris: 8 p.m. May 9-10. $136.98-$383.82. Uptown Theatre, 1350 3rd St., Napa. 707-259-0123.
Both Sedaris and his sister, performer Amy Sedaris ('At Home with Amy Sedaris'), are both clients of the San Francisco boutique Modern Appealing Clothing, which specializes in innovative fashion.
The humorist, who divides his time between England and New York, is touring to the Uptown Theatre in Napa on May 9-10, spoke to the Chronicle about fashion, his visit with the late Pope Francis at the Vatican and his thoughts on the second Trump administration.
'Last night I read that 36% of the population didn't vote,' said Sedaris. 'In a way, it was nice because I thought, 'OK, that's who I blame.' Then I googled people who didn't vote so I could just get a picture in my head of who to hate.'
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: What attracts you to extreme fashion?
A: I guess if you looked at the pieces separately, you'd think, 'Oh that's really silly.' Comme des Garcons to me is like (how) the pope should dress. Well, actually papal clothing is really nice. … Last summer when I went to the Comme des Garcons show in Paris, I had this pair of shorts that I bought that look like you're wearing two pairs of shorts and the second pair is falling down. I thought, I'm going to bring them there and give them to somebody, and there was a young man outside of the hall, there's no way he was getting into the show. I went up to him and I said in French, 'Excuse me, are you poor? Can I give you these shorts?' He said, 'Find someone else.' I've worn them once.
Q: There's someone in the world who said no to Comme des Garcons shorts from David Sedaris?
A: Yes, but I found this kid in Chicago who came to one of my shows wearing a Comme des Garcons shirt. We're the same size, so I send him stuff all the time now. When you take it to a thrift store, the problem now is so many people buy it just to resell it, so the person who doesn't have any money is never getting it.
A: No, and I'm so mad. The best dressed person was Conan O'Brien's wife (Liza Powel O'Brien.) I wore this suit that I bought a couple of years ago because I was in London at the time. I should have just gone full, flat-out wild Comme des Garcons.
Q: So many Comme des Garcons pieces already feel papal, so I wasn't surprised to hear you bought a priest's cassock in Rome.
A: It's really well made and a great piece of clothing. I wore it one night going out to dinner. It was so interesting the reactions it got.
Q: Did you wear the Roman collar?
A: Yes.
Q: Did people greet you as 'Father?'
A: No. People who saw me from a distance, they watched me and as we got up close, they averted their eyes. But I was in England, I wasn't in a Catholic country.
Q: One of the things I've admired in your work is how through finding the peculiar detail, you find something universal that people recognize. I wonder if that's the answer to some of our cultural divisions?
A: I was in Hawaii a couple of weeks ago doing a show. I had written in a graduation speech, 'Find one thing to be angry at instead of spreading your anger too thin.' A woman asked, 'What are you angry about?' I said, 'I'm really angry about the way that (Volodymyr) Zelensky was treated in the White House.' So many people came up afterwards, I think they just wanted to be in a room full of people who felt that way. You don't want to preach to the converted.
That's what fables are so good for — you can take a step back and you can write about something that's current, and then there comes a point at the end where they think, 'Oh, that's me.' There's a way to sneak up on people, but you have to sneak up on them because I feel like if somebody says what I expect them to, my defenses go up.
A: I was reading an article in the New York Times, then I looked at responses. They really take care with it. You get the idea that they are auditioning for a job as an op ed editor. Everyone's heard it all, and outrage isn't comforting to me. How many times can you say, 'This person's a dangerous monster?'
I do feel it's interesting right now before we plunge headlong into a recession, that people want to laugh. I don't know what's going to happen if the economy keeps going like this and they won't be able to afford to spend money to laugh, but right now anyway, they see that as a pretty good use of their dollars.
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