From the Tiger Beat Archives, January 1967
She sews for the most fabulous boys in the world!
Genie, an effervescent, carefree, 24-year-old young lady, has become the Hollywood center of attention for the clothes-conscious entertainers. She began sewing at the age of two and by the time she was eight, she was making all her own school clothes.
She recalls, “The teachers would say, ‘Oh, what a pretty dress! Where did your mother buy that?’ And I would say, ‘Oh, I made it!’ And they put me in the back of the class for lying.”
At 14 she was sewing for her mother and friends. She never took any lessons, though she has taught many people to sew. After high school in New York she attended college briefly with plans to transfer to a California college. However, because she had finished her high school early, she felt it was too far to come to school here and worked in New York as a salesgirl and that almost every kind of office job imaginable. She also has worked as a painter and an actress.
Here, in her own words, is her very personal story:
The first time I saw the Raiders in their new red costumes I felt like screaming! Some people say, “How can those kids scream like that when they see those rock ‘n’ roll entertainers?” I can understand how, because when I saw the Raiders I wanted to scream too! They looked so cute. They looked so adorable I wanted to hug every one of them 100 times. They just looked so fabulous!
The way came to make the costumes is this–I was making Mark’s clothes. He came to my house one day and said, “Now Genie, we don’t like the uniforms we have because they’re too heavy and we’ve had them for a long time-we’d like to have something new.”
So Mark paid me to make one jacket to show the other boys and Paul. He said it had to be very hip and very modern at the same time looking like something Paul Revere might have worn. So after we drew some pictures and chose a style, I made one up and he took it to the Raiders for comment. We made several modifications on the jacket and Paul said, “Okay, make us up one of piece!” I was thrilled!
They were excited too because most of them had never been fitted and I made the jackets to their exact measurements. When they all put on the finished costumes, they just kept smiling at each other for about 10 minutes. It was a very happy day for all of us!
But the start of my tailoring business started way before this. I had met Donovan through my cousin Phil Ochs and Don ordered a coat which I made for him in one day. Little happened for a while, except that I was making some things occasionally for Phil Spector.
I continued to be a waitress at the Trip and who walks in and sits at my station but the Lovin’ Spoonful. They were very nice to me and as we talked they found out I was a tailor. They gave me a big order and I started making them clothes. I thought I really shouldn’t be a waitress, because I was such a bad one, so I quit my job. I began to meet other singers and they had seen the stuff I’d made for Joe, Zally, Steve, John and his wife Lorey and Donovan and people began asking me to make clothes for them. Business improved 500% when I started making suits for Van Morrison, the lead singer in Them.
I met Mark Lindsay last April, quite by accident. I was hitchhiking and he drove me to where I was going. I told him I was sewing and he said he was in desperate need of some nice what he called Tom Jones shirts. I didn’t have any idea in the world what they were. But I said, “Oh! I can make those!” So he left on tour and while he was away I went to all the men’s stores and found out what Tom Jones shirts were.
The day he got back from tour he called me and we talked all about the clothes I was going to make him. The next night he called again and told me he’d written a song about me called “Magic Genie,” which is going on their next album. He said he got the idea from talking to me on the phone about clothes and that it was one of the best songs he’d ever written.
I made him 15 shirts (this was in June and July) and seven or eight pairs of pants and a couple of jackets. Each time we improved the design. Mark says he won’t wear anything now unless I’ve made it. He has really been my best press agent. In October I started making shirts and pants for Harpo and Fang.
I’ve made clothes for The Mothers and Johnny Rivers. Johnny is very conservative, very careful not to wear anything bright or flashy. He’s very easy to fit and has excellent taste. I made some shirts and pants for Denny Doherty. I make Denny Hamlet-style shirts–a very sensible young man with a lot of responsibility and power.
Denny likes very simple things so I kind of go back to a couple of hundred years after the Middle Ages and put him in very simple lines with beautiful fabrics. He wore one of my shirts up to the Beatle house (it had huge cuffs that stood out and the longest collar points in the world) and he told me they liked it a lot, especially George.
I’m making some things for Drake Levin. Right now we are thinking of very un-modern things, maybe almost American Indian. I charge everyone the same prices, except some people who don’t have anything in the whole wide world I charge less or nothing at all. Like I have known the Hard Times for ages and people used to come to the Whiskey a Go Go not see theheadlining act but watch them. Everyone said how much better they were and they didn’t have any money, but they all wanted clothes. So I made them.
I remember the day Lee Kiefer came over and told me about the job on “Action.” But I couldn’t tell anyone because it wasn’t public yet. Mark called up and I said, “I want you to know that the new band on ‘Action’ are very good friends of mine.” And he said “Who is it, who is it?” I said, “I can’t tell you now.” Then one day Lee said it was okay to tell them, that it had been announced and Mark called up and said “it’s the Hard Times!” And I said “right!” He was as excited as I was!
I have such a great time, because they take me everywhere. They take me to their concert should they call up and say “Would you like to go to the Whiskey?” Or “We are having a party would you like to come over to the house?” Or a lot of times they’ll come over for a fitting and we’ll both be hungry so we’ll go out for a bite to eat.
Sometimes when I was really busy making Mark’s things, and he knew I wasn’t even going to walk the dog, he’d bring me food and cooked dinner at my place. Sometimes they call me up from all over the country or they’ll write or bring me presents. I have a lot of pins different guys have brought me.
Sooner or later most of them get a crush on the Tailor and mostly the reaction is, “I want to marry you so I can get all these close all the time for free!” They’re all very nice and I did them all. But I don’t really date any of them. I have a boyfriend who’s out of town and he writes songs and is very talented.
You find the people who are writing good records and successfully selling them are just really groovy people. It’s very hard to write a beautiful song without having something beautiful inside. Even if it doesn’t show, most of them do and most of the people I work for are not very demanding, very sweet, very cooperative, very intelligent and each one is an individual. Most of them have long hair, but they’re all different.
It’s so gratifying to see a man’s eyes light up. It’s the greatest thing in the world. And I can say without exception all of my customers are out-a-site people and that’s why I’m in this business!
Editor’s note: Tragically, Genie passed away May12, 1969, while on tour with ‘Fairport Convention’, when the van she was riding in crashed down an embankment. She had travelled to London to spend time with her boyfriend, Richard Thompson of Fairport Convention.
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