Isaac hits the Target: Isaac Mizrahi brings his couture panache to a new line of women's clothing for the hippest of discount retailers - culture

Isaac Mizrahi: fashion maven, movie star, TV talk-show host, Broadway costume designer ... discount retail supplier? Yes, and in a big way. In August shoppers at Target stores across America began making fashion history by buying affordable and sporty wares in bright, splashy colors from style doyen Mizrahi. Hoping to dress women in what he calls a "Holly Golightly in a cornfield" sort of way Mizrahi is launching his signature line at Target's 1,191 outlets nationwide.

While Mizrahi's pricey couture and ready-to-wear lines of the past were inaccessible for most, the shirts, sweaters, and pants he's designing for Target customers--not to mention the shoes, accessories, and outerwear--range in price from $9.99 to $69.99 and can outfit ladies from head to toe without breaking the bank. And they can finally say they're wearing a Mizrahi.

The out designer's flair and sensibility is delivering a piece of Madison Avenue to Main Street. "I find that what is generally available at these price points is either so atrocious or so boring," says Mizrahi in his Manhattan studio. "I'm having a lot of fun doing what I always do--just a lot less expensively."

Mizrahi gushes when he talks about the clothes and the impact the line may have on the average American woman. In fact, the designs have come to life through a somewhat enigmatic inspiration--himself.

"The customer is basically 'me'--it's me, the woman," Mizrahi admits. "It's meant to be worn by women. A woman can be 17 or a girl can be 50. [The line] isn't midriffs or full of hoodies. It's really good shirts and colors--it's a lot of problems being solved for a woman."

Mizrahi talks proudly about the solutions his new customers will experience but glosses over the newfound success this deal may bring him, even as his star is once again rising. Quite a change from October 1998, when Mizrahi and Chanel announced the closing of his fashion house.

"The industry is really happy to have him back. There's real interest to see what he's going to come back with," says Eric Wilson, associate sportswear editor for Women's Wear Daily. "There's this whole movement in bringing trends down to a mass level. They're generally unattainable to the majority of the country.

In the early to mid '90s, Mizrahi was the star of the fashion world, creating fabulous clothing lines, with stars lining up to request unique frocks. In Unzipped, the hit documentary about life during one of Mizrahi's design seasons, Eartha Kitt purrs in a private meeting, "I want you to make me gowwwns."

However, all that changed when Chanel pulled the plug. Mizrahi hadn't had a good creative run for a few seasons, and sales had slipped. "When I closed my doom, I cried a few times on the last day, but I felt more excited about my future than ever," he says. "I felt like I was 15 again, [able] to do exactly what I want and not be a slave to something."

In other words, free to design great clothes and not bother with the managerial duties that often bogged him down when he was heading up his own company. "I was happiest when I was overly busy," he says. "I wasn't necessarily thrilled doing personnel and management stuff and things I wasn't good at."

Over the past few years, Mizrahi has excelled at things he is good at--he has dabbled in theatrical costume design (The Women), staged a one-man off-Broadway cabaret (Les Mizrahi), penned a series of comic books (The Adventures of Sandee the Supermodel), and launched, with great success, his own talk show (The Isaac Mizvahi Show on the Oxygen Network). "It's like a synergy of many things that occur," he says. "I'm much happier when I'm overextended." Now, however, it's all about clothes for the mainstream.

"I'd love to design clothes for men," Mizrahi says. "I would probably make the same kind of problem-solving, witty clothes I try to make for women. I've had a lot of time to develop an opinion on what men should look like, and I'm dying for the opportunity."

Bendersky has written for Rolling Stone and the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

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