G.T.: And yet you are now on the 15th iteration of these videos? How was that first one made?
S.P.: I shot it, actually, outside my house. I kept my phone on the ring light, and I put it on the timer, and it was, like, 10 seconds a look and then time to run back and, you know, wear those other things. The whole thing took less than 20 minutes or so, with the timing and all and carrying in the stuff.
G.T.: Obviously, there was some degree of preparation. Not everybody can improvise wearing an aluminum walker or carrying an upside-down human as an accessory.
S.P.: Sometimes I would go around my house and think: What absurd thing would I wear?
G.T.: You’ve made other videos that are hilarious. I’m thinking of one where you lip sync over the voice of a frenetic playback singer from a Bollywood movie while dressed in a T-shirt worn as a headdress. That one got more than a million views. Still, the response to “Fashion Shows Be Like” must have come as a surprise.
S.P.: It was such a shock. There have been a few viral videos I had previously, but I never ever got such a big viral video. The most I had before was, like, 2.6 million page views. The fact that it blew up on TikTok in the United States, in the Philippines, in India and got shared so much on Twitter and Instagram was a big deal for me. Actually, it was news all over the world. There have even been fashion critics reposting it, like—Jerry Saltz, I think is his surname.
G.T.: Have you been recruited by fashion labels to collaborate or to attend the shows?
S.P.: I wouldn’t say approached, but people keep requesting me to do more. At the end of the day, this is a trend that will be bound to end. But meanwhile I will try to keep doing it as long as I can, so let’s see.
