FLY16x9 interview - Raymond McLaren

FLY16x9 interview between world renowned hair stylist Raymond McLaren and FLY16x9’s Romy Tielman. (Illustration by Polina Barskaya)

RT: You were born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland. Why did you make the move to NY?

Raymond McLaren: I basically started when I was 19. I moved to Finland and worked for a hairdressing company there because I was sick of being a plumber.

RT: Why hair?

Raymond McLaren: It’s a lot easier than fixing toilets.

RT: As a child, who shaped your view of women?

Raymond McLaren: It wasn’t really a woman that actually inspired me, it was a photographer. You have very many photographers, from Avedon, to… one of my biggest favorites is David Bailey because he influenced music at the same time. He was involved in probably everything from music to high fashion, which was Vogue. He photographed the Rolling Stones; he photographed everybody.

RT: When did you become style conscious?

Raymond McLaren: When I was about 13, I became a mod. I loved the mod culture of the ‘60s and it really inspired me. I had a paper job delivering papers, and it gave me enough money to get my clothes made by a tailor. We just worked on clips, but it was interesting because at the same time I was watching Sesame Street, and I loved the way that they dressed their puppets.

RT: Was art an important part of your family life?

Raymond McLaren: Well, when you live with 7 people in a one bedroom apartment with one toilet that has no light, and you have to take a bucket of water to flush it, you start to begin to realize how women feel. I can’t imagine how my two sisters felt with a toilet you had to flush with a bucket of water. Especially when they were teenagers, because, I mean, I have a 16-year-old beautiful daughter, and I can’t imagine her not having the privilege of not flushing a tampon.

Art is created by people being poor. It’s created by the want to do something. It’s not created by ‘You have to do something. I will teach you how to draw, I will teach you how to cut. I will teach you.’ No. Art is created from poverty. If art was not on the street, then I would not be hairdressing.

RT: Obviously your hat is a huge part of your signature look. You’ve written ‘LOVE’ on top of it…

Raymond McLaren: I think it’s like, I’ve tried to put it here (gestures toward his chest), but nobody gets it. Maybe someone up there will.

RT: Why love?

Raymond McLaren: Well, if you spell it backwards, it means the same thing. “Evol.” It just depends on how you look at love. I think a lot of people look at love the same as other people do: Do you need it, do you want it? Is it necessary?

RT: Is it something you need in life?

Raymond McLaren: I don’t think so, I think I’ve had too much.

RT: Too much love?

Raymond McLaren: Well, people tend to adore, and that gets kind of annoying. When you want… Mick Jagger said it best, “You can’t always get what you want, you get what you need.” The fact is, what do you want? You can ask me until I’m blue in the face, “Where are you going, what do you want?” I can’t tell you.

RT: You seem to enjoy the connection between real life and fantasy. To what extent do you create your own world?

Raymond McLaren: Sometimes I go outside and I’m very afraid. I’m afraid of people in general. I don’t know what they’re doing. I don’t understand. But I accept it. That’s why I’m not a serial killer.

RT: If you could change the world, what would it look like?

Raymond McLaren: It would look the same. It’s always going to be the same. It’s not up to me. (Gesturing up to the sky) It’s up to him.

RT: Do you think ‘people with character’ are fading out?

Raymond McLaren: I think the media has destroyed character. I think it’s very unfair…. I do hair because I enjoy it. I do it because I want people to look good, and I want to discover how people can look good. The individual face is my goal.

RT: You’re an artist, passionate about what you do. It must not be easy because culture feels so increasingly money-driven.

Raymond McLaren: Nobody wants to do anything for free. I’m doing this for free, and it makes me happy. And it makes me happy because it makes someone else happy. One of my biggest goals that I’m working on right now is making wigs for teenagers with cancer. I’m trying to secure backing, and I’ve raised $350,000 until now, and I don’t want any media involved. I want to keep this private, between the doctors in the hospital and myself. I would ask: “Who’s your hero?” And I’ll cut that fucking wig to look like that fucking person for that kid who’s going through hell. Society is a bitch, you know?

RT: If you were not a hairdresser…

Raymond McLaren: Writing. I’ve always written. I love poetry. When I was in rehab, I wrote one thing and drew the words into a face, and it said, “And in my mind I feel that time is all but just a dream. And when I wake I’ll contemplate this nightmare that I’m in.”

RT: What is your motivation to write?

Raymond McLaren: I would like to think it was Charles Bukowski. (Holds up a Bottle of Old Crow.) Writing is a natural instinct for any human being. I really push my daughter right now to write a story called My Father the Bastard so that we can sell it to Oprah Winfrey. She’s been through so much, and… (burps)

RT:  Rehab?

Raymond McLaren: It was about three, four years ago. One month and $22,000.

RT: What was your experience?

Raymond McLaren: (pause) Apart from fucking everything up? Meeting people from all different walks of life, and realizing there’s no shame. There’s no disgust. There’s no one you cannot talk to. I drew a lot. I like drawing. Sometimes my drawings are a bit out of order and I know a lot of people hate it, but I love style. I think the Nazis were the best-dressed army in the world to this day. Apart from the Cubans, you know. Don’t quote me on this, but it’s like… John Paul Gautier or something, the guy that found Grace Jones. He apparently… maybe it was, like, fucking Valentino or something, who designed the whole French army and the CRS. Like, when you turn the corner with a 19-year old boy with a machine gun and he’s fucking decked out, that’s fucking style, man.

RT: Was rehab good for you?

Raymond McLaren: Well, it basically put my head together because I actually realized that I’m not the only one.

RT: I know from speaking with you previously that you admire the director Jan Svankmajer.

Raymond McLaren: He’s a great artist. He uses natural material. It’s like all this (adjusting cell phone, cigarettes, glass), is material. I appreciate someone who can actually do something on their own. It’s a bit like Gandhi, you know? You can’t change the world, but you can change your mind. I don’t understand, but I’m trying. If everybody felt like that, then maybe we’d fucking get somewhere.

RT: What is your connection with FLY16x9?

Raymond McLaren: I admire what they do. I admire that they don’t pay me. I admire why they’re trying to do what they do because it’s better than fashion, and that’s why I give my time to them.

RT: And they also give you creative freedom, they’re not telling you what to do.

Raymond McLaren: No, they tell me what to do. But goshdarnit, I just like them. And you know what, the best thing in fashion, or art or whatever, is when you just like someone. Because you got the work, and you go, “Fuck, that’s fucking great.” No matter what they ask you to do, and they never do, they just give you the complete and utter freedom that you’ve been longing for. And it’s funny. (Laughing) I like them. I like them a lot.

RT: What do you remember about “Cake,” your first collaboration with FLY16x9?

Raymond McLaren: I like Stephen because he sits back. I like Catherine because she’s so, like… they hold back. It’s not like “Blah blah blah, do this, do that.” They’re just there and you’re frightened of them and you love them at the same time. It’s like working with Steven Meisel and Greg Kadel, and Steven Klein, they take one Polaroid and then go back into a little room for 6 hours and come back and say, “See that part on the shoe?” And it’s like, they’re the same way. They’re funny. I like funny people. I want my mummy.

RT: And “Cake” specifically?

Raymond McLaren: You know the funniest part about that? Is that we were laughing at it. Beautiful girls, beautiful hair, beautiful makeup, beautiful set. And then give them a cake. It’s funny. The reason why is when I tell people or show people what I’m doing with these guys, that’s way beyond Italian Vogue. It’s art. Maybe I’ll have a longing for it. They’re more than just that. More than just a picture of some dick. But when someone’s eating a cake, and it’s the size of a fucking newspaper, and then you’ve got a director just coming up with an idea like that and can afford to do that. And I don’t mean money-wise, I mean time-wise. And they can afford to do that, mentally. That’s when it becomes really fucking cool. And you feel like more like you’re in the Factory, in the ‘60s, with the Velvet Underground.

Like my band Flesh Tuxedo. I’m in two bands right now. One’s techno and one’s kind of Southern rock. I’m a singer. I’m a fucking frontman, man.

RT: I would love to hear…

Raymond McLaren: You want me to sing a song? I’ll just say it, I won’t sing it, because it’s more of a poem. “Bubbles go up as I go down. I try to remember your face in the crowd. Mother, I need my father, and you are never around. I crave a gentle whisper, but I hear no sound. Oh, the warmth of your mothering touch, you reaching out to me, and bringing me back up. Because bubbles go up as I go down.”

Tape ends. But the interview continues…
Raymond questions Romy…