Plus, new kid on the block Sabato De Sarno, who took the helm in January 2023 after Alessandro Michele bowed out the year prior, struck a chord with the “Heart of Glass” singer, who ripped up the rules of stage style one Spandex bodysuit and dishevelled prom dress at a time in the ’70s. “Sabato can do anything,” Harry enthuses. “A challenge for him is something that he looks forward to. I come from a counter-cultural approach and judging from the things he’s proposed for me, he’s done his homework.”
“When I was younger, I was a bit more reckless,” continues the Miami-born, New Jersey-raised performer, who started out as a go-go dancer and a Playboy bunny before teaming up with her erstwhile boyfriend, guitarist Chris Stein, in 1974 and leaving a trail of hits in their wake. “I’ve become smarter about what looks good on me.” While the emphasis while on the road as Blondie was on making every Stephen Sprouse get-up as rock‘n’roll as possible, Harry says her collaborators since have helped her shift her image with the tides of fashion, while allowing her to always retain that innately special rebel spirit. “As a woman, being part of an evolution and what, in terms of the present day, is right for her, is lucky.”
No one-shouldered Lycra or frosted blue eyeshadow was involved in the making of Harry’s Fashion Awards look, just quintessential youth-centric, party-ready Gucci as it stands today under De Sarno. “I hit myself over the head with a hammer several times,” Debbie deadpans when probed about her pre-stage rituals. “I’m kidding, of course. I don’t know how I do it really, I’ve been doing it for long enough to roll with the punches. Sometimes things get messed up, I expect this to be done very nicely…” The pressure is with the industry’s great and good to reach the colour-pop, give a f*ck heights of Debbie Harry as she brings down the house.