Maripol: We lived uptown for three years, from 1976 to 1979. We had an Harley Davidson and people always called us the punk of downtown. We decided then to move downtown because we needed a big space and we found a really rundown loft and that was the beginning.
So we got the space and that was the best thing. We started to have parties, happenings and also photography and my designs.

MadonnaTribe: How did you meet Madonna for the first time? I think it was through your common friend Martin Burgoyne, right?

Maripol: Yes, Martin. I remember she came to my loft because she wanted me to work on a new look for her but actually I met her before that day, at the Roxy, as she said in a television interview in Philadelphia. She said "I met Maripol at the Roxy and as I was wearing a nice bra she asked if I wanted to go on stage" and I thought she was absolutely out of her mind.

MadonnaTribe: So that was your first impression of her?

Maripol: My first impression... Five Fab Freddy wanted me to get some girls on stage with him, he was rapping and I saw her standing out so naturally cute!

MadonnaTribe: Let's talk about Madonna's Virgin look - how was it created?

Maripol: She came to me and I just styled a bunch of things on her. I was already making the rubber jewelery and I was already making the crosses because of my love for the punks. So it was perfect for her. And talking about the clothes, Erika Bell used to make a lot of her clothes, I would give her clothes from Fiorucci and it was a mix of everything. And for "Like A Virgin" I was really hired as her stylist, to be with Steven Meisel and work on the look of the album cover.

MadonnaTribe: What memories do you have of that Like A Virgin cover shoot with Steven Meisel? I think it was done at the Saint Regis Hotel.

Maripol: Yes it was uptown, at the Saint Regis. And I remember everything. I remember the blue satin sheet she used to cover herself with [the photo later used on the european cover of the Material Girl single]. We did a bathroom shoot and there are a lot of photos that we never used.

MadonnaTribe: Was there any funny thing that happened during that photoshoot?

Maripol: Yes, at the beginning there was an art director, she wanted everything to be Madonna in black, a heavy rock "Black Sabbath Madonna". And I didn't think that it fitted very well. I said why don't we bring out the aura of the "Like A Virgin" song, we can play with that. And it was rebellious since who was going to believe she was still a virgin!! She agreed and we got along very well.

MadonnaTribe: Did you design the "wedding dress" for the "Like A Virgin" video?

Maripol: No, the veil was designed by my friend Katsuko and the dress was one we bought. I was in Japan doing a collection for Fiorucci and I missed the whole shoot but she stayed "street Madonna" and used some of my jewellery in the parts of the video on the bridges of Venice.

MadonnaTribe: And then came the MTV Awards performance...

Maripol: The idea of that performance came from an kind of a vision I had. We used the exact dress she is wearing on the album cover. We were right there. It was incredible because nobody expected it to be so raunchy. Cindy Lauper was there and was going to be star of the night and then Madonna came out. During the performance the camera shooting live, went right under her skirt and I remember Freddy De Mann saying: "Never again will I let her being shot live".
But that "did it". I remember all the photographers running to the press conference right after she went off!!!

MadonnaTribe: Did you have the chance to see how that performance was re-created on MTV with Britney and Christina twenty years later?

Maripol: Yes, she also had Lourdes on stage with her wearing the same look.

MadonnaTribe: How did you came up with idea of using rosaries and crosses as jewellery. I understand you did that before "giving" it to Madonna.

Maripol: Yes, well for Madonna it was meant to be something very spiritual. I was also raised catholic and Madonna and I both rebelled to that. My mother didn't like it. It was a way to say "why if I wear it on the ear it makes me a lesser good catholic girl??".

MadonnaTribe: You already founded your company Maripolitan Popular Object LTD that was also in charge of the merchandise for the Virgin Tour. Did you work on any of the tour outfits as well?

Maripol: No that was Marlene Steward. I went to Los Angeles and Madonna was showing me the concepts and the whole feel was very "Prince". Because of "Purple Rain" just released I said to her "are you Prince or are you Madonna?"

MadonnaTribe: And what about the "wannabe" phenomenon?

Maripol: We had a look-a-like contest at Macy's. Andy Warhol and I were the judges. So much fun with hundreds of kids, some of them pushed in by their mothers. At the end we made sure that the girl that was more similar to Madonna was the winner. But it was really fun. I have many letters from the kids from back then. "To Madonna's jewelry designer".

MadonnaTribe: Do you remember what was Andy Warhol thinking of Madonna?

Maripol: We went to the wedding of Madonna to Sean Penn together. He saw Madonna as a phenomenon and he loved her.

MadonnaTribe: And what about that "Boy Toy" belt? Did you design that?

Maripol: No, everybody had those, but I did the one for the cover of the Like A Virgin album.

MadonnaTribe: Are there some pictures in your new book that you cherish more than others?

Maripol: Actually I love them all.

MadonnaTribe: What is that make a Polaroid photo so special to you?

Maripol: They do have something special, it's just that they capture the instant. That's it. You do it, you see it. You don't have to go to the lab to have it developed. It was digital before the digital. And now its over I am reclycling!!

MadonnaTribe: So you think digital is something like the new Polaroid now?

Maripol: Yes, unfortunately that is why Polaroid is going out of business, digital world is invading.

MadonnaTribe: But you're still doing Polaroids...

Maripol: Yes I do large ones now 20 x 24". I want people to know that I don't only dwell with the past, I have a life in the present. I produce films, documentaries short and I do photographies, and travel with them all around the world.

MadonnaTribe: Speaking about documentaries you worked for more that 20 years on the "Downtown 81" project...

Maripol: Edo Bertoglio directed it, Glenn O'brien wrote it and I produced it in 1979 and it was shot in 1980.

MadonnaTribe: Then 20 years passed before you could show it to audiences...

Maripol: Well that's because people who should give us the money to complete it went bankrupt and everything went dead. Before he died Jean Michel Basquiat wanted to give me the money to finish it. He really wanted the movie to be finished!

MadonnaTribe: Edo has also completed two new documentary films...

Maripol: Yes one is "Face Addict" and it was selected by the Locarno film festival and touring now in Europe. We went there and it was very well received by the press. There were a lot of articles in the press about it. The other one is about a famous old Bike racer as Edo's love for motorcycle never stops!

MadonnaTribe: Well yes the Locarno film festival is a very nice one indeed and the audience is great. Speaking about the present are you still in touch with Madonna? Did you meet her through the years?

Maripol: Yes, we saw each other through the years. She filmed me for Truth of Dare but then it was cut but the cameraman said it was one of the most truthful moments filmed. She always invites me to her shows.
I saw one in Summer 2004 and the one last Sumer in Paris: incredible. But since she now lives in England we are not that close. I do miss her!

MadonnaTribe: Well she still loves New York, she had a song on her Confessions On A Dance Floor album called I Love New York...

Maripol: Well she's entitled to still love New York.

MadonnaTribe: What are you working on right now? Would you style Madonna again today?

Maripol: Well Madonna went a long way, look at all the fashion statements she did. And I don't do styling anymore today. Sometimes. I am a producer now. I produced Edo's film "Face Addict" and "Downtown 81" took a lot of my time. I'm now writing some features and fictions. I'm always busy. I also do a lot of photo shows. We organized a great show in Paris called "FOB DOWNTOWN 81" at the Agnes B gallery, at rue Quincampoix 44. And it went to London, Tokio, LA now and Hong Kong.

MadonnaTribe: Do you have a feeling of when did you love for photography start?

Maripol: Well it must run in the family. I just discovered that my grandfather, who was in the army during the first world war, was a photographer on the war. I saw the pictures he took. My uncle was a doctor in the second world war same he took genuine pictures of soldiers , they were so sexy ! And my father always took film of us, and photos. He had the Super8 camera and had always the latest gadgets. My brother is a documentary producer.

MadonnaTribe: You spent a lot of time with Madonna, do you have a fondest memory you would like to share with our readers?

Maripol: I remember I invited Madonna to Paris in 1983 for a party we did and she was very lonely from Jellybean back then. Madonna was always truthful to me about the sadness of the loss of her mom in her life and the difficulties of wanting to be an actress and a singer at the same time. And the horror of seeing all our friends getting destroyed with drugs. And I told her if she wanted to be great she had to be "straight". I said that because I was involved with so many people using drugs all the times. But she was always "straight", I never saw her doing drugs. That's what makes people very successful, when they have strenght of their own.

MadonnaTribe: Looking at the past and then looking at the present in what way or aspect Maripol is still the same?

Maripol: I am completely the same. I haven't changed, more bitchy haha, learned from the toughest city in the world I'm still living in that same loft of 1979. The only difference is that I have a teenage boy Lino. Now I see myself through my son. He is 17 years old and I have the difficulty of raising him alone in New York, with all the problems of the big city, and I can only show him the danger because I lived the danger and because so many friends of ours died. So I want to spend some times in good old Europe!!

MadonnaTribe: What does you son say about your past and present career?

Maripol: He doesn't understand why I'm not richer (laughs). He sees everybody I worked with on the top of the world and I'm still me. And he goes: "I can't believe it mummy". And I say: "Don't worry honey, you're the one who's gonna make it big".
Well I believe that the value in life is not only about money. My kid was raised religious . He goes to a French School, so he knows the good of being French as well as American. He is an international kid and he speaks three languages. He wants to be an actor or a director He is the most incredible thing I have achieved so I don't care about anything else. There is a picture of Madonna and my kid in the book and that makes me so happy. She was there for me and she was there for him a lot. He still has the bicycle she gave him when he was 7 years old.

MadonnaTribe: Maripol thanks a lot for sharing your past memories and you present project with us. It was really a honour to have you here on MadonnaTribe.

Maripol: Thank you.

For more info about Maripol and her amazing body of work, please visit
www.maripolitan.com

Maripolarama - Photographs by Maripol , with texts by Glenn O'Brien, Anna Sui, and Diego Cortez
is published by powerHouse Books



All images by Maripol used by permission - all rights reserved.
Like A Virgin album and single covers, photographs by Steven Meisel, courtesy of Warner Music Group.
This interview © 2005-2007 Madonna Tribe.