(En Vogue)
I think we could all use a quick break from drugs and debauchery, so I present the tamest, and cutest, chapter in the book. I grew up with En Vogue as MTV/radio background score to my life, as I’m sure many of you, dear readers, did as well. Enjoy!
We weren’t the wild and crazy girls, but I do have a good story. It was 1993, and we were on tour supporting Luther Vandross. One of the first things he said to us was that we weren’t allowed to wear primary colors. That was the big one but also nothing too glittery or glitzy. We’re like, “Uh…alright Luther.” He never even gave an explanation for it. The only thing that we could come up with was that since we went on before him, it might seem like we were outshining him in the fashion department. But how could we do that? He was Luther Vandross! He was the headliner, and we were the opening act. It was our duty to follow the rules. He was very flashy and well-dressed on stage, which was kinda his thing. Luther and his backup singers looked absolutely stunning every night.
Before we hooked up with Luther, we had about two or three wardrobe changes during a show. When he laid down the rules, it changed the whole trajectory and flow of our live show. We were totally stumped as to what to wear. We had a show coming up in Houston, which was my hometown. Maxine [Jones] and I decided we were gonna break the rules because we were so drab on stage under the new orders. We all were wearing one boring, non-primary color or flashy outfit the entire set. Once we got to Houston, I said to Maxine, “You know what? We’re in my hometown, and we gotta go out looking fabulous tonight!”
Me and Maxine hit the town, with only about two hours to go before we needed to be at the venue. We get to the Galleria, which was the huge shopping mall in Houston. At first, we were playing it safe, running around looking for halfway decent, non-primary clothes. We couldn’t find anything because you can’t really get around primary colors! We were shopping for the other two girls in the group as well, so we were literally sprinting from store to store. Max and I finally got to the Gautier store, but you’re not gonna believe what happened.
We run right up to the glass doors of the store, but the doors are locked and the store looks closed. We start pounding on the doors like crazy people, and guess who hears the commotion and stares right at us? Luther Vandross and his people. He had closed the whole store down so he could shop. Max and I are standing outside the doors like deer in headlights, just peering in through the windows. We slowly started backing away because we were just gonna make a run for it.
They open the doors, and Max and I tried to play it off. “Oh, hi Luther! La-de-da, we’re just out shopping!” We walked into the store, and it’s Luther, his wardrobe guy, and another stylist. They knew exactly what we were up to, and they were getting the biggest kick out of it. Luther says, “Hi ladies! Just out shopping, huh?” We’re like, “Oh yeah, we’re just kinda looking around.” Luther says, “What are you shopping for?” He’s already nailed us, so we’re like, “Oh, nothing special. Maybe just some shoes.” Luther’s wardrobe guy says, “Better not see you in any primary colors tonight!”
We found some amazing boots for Dawn in Gautier, which had to be inspected by Luther and his team. They ended up telling us that we couldn’t get her the boots. We left and rushed to the venue. When it was showtime, we had to walk down a different hallway to get to the stage. We weren’t allowed to pass Luther’s dressing room door. As we’re walking, Luther’s wardrobe guy was waiting for us in the hallway. He was leaning against the wall, his legs were crossed, and he had one finger on his cheek. You can picture it, right?
He says, “Well ladies, you all look amazing. And look, there’s the boots!” What he didn’t know was that we had bought the boots for Dawn after we were told we couldn’t. It’s funny now, but I can assure you, it was torturous at the time. We weren’t really offended, because we were so in awe of Luther and were huge fans. We just laughed it off and walked right on by the wardrobe guy. That was a big tour for us, and we were just really happy to have been invited. Like I said, we were boring. We went right back to the hotel after the show. We never went to any parties, and we don’t drink. Not being able to buy boots was about the worst thing that happened to us!