Maripol: Little Red Riding Hood

From the moment Madonna appeared on the cover of Like a Virgin, clad in a white lace wedding dress, her body bedecked with rubber bangles and crucifix earrings, the youth of America (make that the world) went nuts for her ragged, good-girl-gone-bad style—a teen craze that reached fever pitch when Madge flashed her garters on stage at the first MTV Music Video Awards in 1984. The woman behind Madonna’s Like a Virgin look was Maripol, a French-born photographer, stylist, art director and designer who moved to New York at the age of 19 in 1976, subsequently landing a job as the art director of the Fiorucci store on 59th Street. Like Madonna, Maripol was a luminary of New York’s underground scene, with friends including Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Debbie Harry, among other Mudd Club regulars. Maripol was also the producer of urban fairytale Downtown ’81 (written by Glenn O'Brien and directed by Edo Bertoglio) and, after launching Madonna in a flurry of lace and sex (and founding her own company, Maripolitan Popular Objects Ltd, to disseminate her innovative rubber jewelry and Madonna tour merchandise), she went on to work on videos for Cher, Elton John and D’Angelo. Fresh from her latest project, a capsule collection of tees and rubber accessories for Marc by Marc Jacobs (released this spring to coincide with the resurgence of all things 80s in the fashion world), she releases Maripol: Little Red Riding Hood. The book, published this month by Damiani, collects her photographs, sketchbooks and inspirational material for the first time. To celebrate, we gave Maripol a call—for her thoughts on Lady Gaga and Britney click here.