“I Have No Regrets”: Betsey Johnson on the Lessons and Loves in Her Upcoming Memoir

For many women, it’s hard to remember a time before Betsey Johnson. In the ’60s, she was swinging with The Factory crowd at Paraphernalia. In the ’70s, she was the vivacious blonde behind Betsey Bunky Nini and Alley Cat, finally opening her own label with her friend Chantal Bacon in 1978. It was with the Betsey Johnson brand that her neon pink, rose-print, Lycra vision really congealed, dressing generations of women in the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s, and aughts in cheeky, sexy little things to wear to prom, sweet sixteen parties, bachelorettes, and birthdays. Nearly every It Girl—real and aspiring—has a Betsey Johnson story, either about wearing one her dresses (trouble typically would ensue) or desperately wanting one.

Johnson is sharing her own story for the first time in a memoir due out next spring. Simply titled Betsey in Johnson’s own handwriting with a hot pink and leopard print cover, the book will be instantly recognizable to her fans. So will some of the stories, from winning a Mademoiselle guest editor contest in her teens to declaring bankruptcy in 2012. But many more of the stories revealed in the 150 pages will surprise and delight. In signature Betsey fashion, even the most harrowing tales are remembered (and retold) through rose-colored lenses.

Reached over the phone from Malibu, California, where she now lives, Johnson discussed the upcoming book and the excitement in store. “I’m shocked it exists,” she said, laughing. “It was not my idea. I don’t know where to begin!”

Here, edited highlights from our conversation.

Why does now feel like the right time for your memoir?

Basically, I thought my life—big deal!—might be a helpful, interesting, informative story. A long time ago, maybe 15 to 20 years ago, I got hit up by all the publishers. There were so many publishers that came to me about a book, but you really must finance it yourself. You have to pay your writer; you have to pay your photo rights person and pay for the photo rights…. It’s expensive, and when we were in business, we preferred to open another store more than open a book. So that’s what we did!

A couple of years ago, I had an agent, and we went around to some different publishers, and much to my surprise and happiness, Penguin bought the rights to the book. I mean, they paid decent money. Your main money—if there is any money—comes from the book selling, which makes perfect sense. So I said, “Okay! If you think it’s going to work!” A dear friend of mine, Mark [Vitulano], who had worked for us for maybe 12 or 15 years, and I started talking and writing. That was two years ago. It’s just been this ongoing process of yak yak yak into a phone, and Mark making sense of it. Now, it’s going to print, I think tomorrow. It’s like, wait a minute! No, I don’t want my ex-husband’s name to be in the book! I tried to change every name, but God, I forgot.

If it connects to my down-and-dirty customer and to kids in school and stuff like that, that would be wonderful. You know, it’s really about my work life. There are touches of my four husbands and love life and a lot about my experiences with breast cancer and heart disease. It’s about family, and it’s about—you know—you get the gist. It’s my simple story.

I hope people enjoy it and that it’s what they call a quick, easy read because I’m not a reader, I’m a looker. Give me a picture book, and I’m there a million times more than text. It comes out in hardcover. I’m looking at it now, they made a phony fake mock-up for me, but it’s terrifying because it is a book. And it’s going to be about an inch and a half thick, and it has a strange but wonderful serious picture of me on the cover—well, you don’t need all this information, Steff. I can just ramble on and on and on.

I’m happy to have all the information you want to give. I have a PDF of some of the chapters, and I basically stopped working yesterday because I was consumed with the book.

Oh that’s great! It’s a medium that I am just very insecure about. On every page, does it really sound like me? Is that really what I said? Is that the sequence that it should go in? I did my life however I did my life; I have no regrets, but I hope I got it down right in the book.

How did you choose what anecdotes you wanted to include versus what you wanted to keep private?

During the first couple of sessions, basically, we had to decide: Why is this book? The why of the book is to connect with my girls. They will all like the book—I know it!—so I feel I’m guaranteed my true-blue customers. People studying fashion in school, people just curious about how you do anything in a way, whether it’s doughnuts or dresses—it’s all kind of the same thing—might like it.

In the big picture, I’m just telling my little story because I do think that coming from nothing—no money and no connections—and all of those no no nos, here I am! Which is kind of pretty surprising to me, and I just basically, I hope it says: Just go with each day. Just love it; just live it; just do it; just believe in it. I think your passion is the most important thing you have to have. It’s not like you have to have so many years of fashion school because I had none, but I loved sewing. My partner Chantal [Bacon] and I, we were just very logical. Neither of us had any business training. It’s a book about no formula, no rules, no idea; I just wanted to get to New York and be a Rockette, but then I really saw that my focus was more art and clothing design…well, you know! Blah blah blah! That’s the thing. It’s really nice to have talked it all out, and now it’s down in a book.

Did you keep any journals or photo albums that you could reference?

No! Nope. I do have my life saved, editorially, press-wise, I have shopping bags of press. I have all that stuff. I have all my old videos, 35 years of my fashion shows on video, so they’ve been fun to reconnect with. It came more from photographs and bits and pieces that I have around that reminded me of different things: Hey, I remember that leopard printed pink hairdo! Hey, I remember those implants! I remembered as much as I could, and that’s it—what more could you do?

Long story short, we roughed out the time zones [of my life], and then we roughed out what was the main thing to happen in a time zone. We were just going chronologically over the time zones, and I tried as hard as I could to remember. One of the hardest things about the book was I would get so frustrated and mad at myself like, why can’t I remember that? And why do I have such off-the-wall, oddball memories when I should have, you know, basic memories?

Now the crazy thing that happens for me is I’ll be anywhere and go: Oh shit! Why didn’t I put that in the book? How could I forget about that!

Did you contact anyone from along the way to get their insight or their take?

I blocked out the people that I wanted to connect with again and just go over the good old days: My first and best ex-husband John Cale, originally of the Velvet Underground and now on his own, and my partner Chantal, who is huge in terms of the book. She was my business partner, I was creative, and it was just the two of us learning how to do this. She loved my work; she wore my work. I felt like if there are more girls like me and Chantal out there, we could do something! It’s just like you live; you make sure you have the money for your rent, your food, your electric bill—we approached it very simply like that, and we learned along the way.

I only realize now, and maybe over the past five years, how many customers I had and how they got very attached to the brand and what it meant. The process is very different from the thing you end up with; I just had no idea what I did with my life. The book and my appearances and all the things I still do, it’s just shocking to me. People will come up and say, “Betsey, I still have the dress; I can’t fit in it anymore, but I would never part with that dress.” My work now has been about the thank you stories from my girls, and the book is like a thank you back in a way.

One of the things that make the excerpts so enjoyable to read is how happily you can look back on your past—you’re not jaded or bitter in any way, even about the tough stuff.

Oh that’s great! That makes me feel great. When we were talking about starting the book—I’m no reader—Mark told me to read Anjelica Huston’s memoir and some others. I was not into that idea because by the end of those kinds of books, I didn’t end up liking the person or their slant on life that much. I thought, oh my God, don’t tell me it’s going to get serious like that. I simply and lightly wanted it to be optimistic, encouraging, interesting, fun, that kind of thing. Now I’m thinking I should have approached this a little bit more seriously, but I’m happy that you think I’m nice!

I really tried to treat my people nicely because I think a very important thing to know is that you’re only as good as the people helping you. I think there are some nice, basic ideas about how to do things, a good way and a bad way, in the book. Within the company we built, we never had a rotten apple. Girls are still in the little pink sorority club. It’s been a life for me and the people in the company. They grew up in it. And it makes me feel good that it was based on being nice, which really seems kind of lightweight and silly, but I just think that being nice is the secret.

Once the book is announced, you will be doing a lot of press and a book tour. Could you see doing a multimedia project, like a documentary or a podcast?

I don’t know where it’s going to go; I just hope I look fairly fucking decent in eight months! [Laughs] I feel great, and I think I look as good as I can at my ripe old 77. But it is kind of scary to think: Oh my god, something new is about to begin. I just want to really enjoy it. I’m very glad that I’m healthy and strong and happy with my grandkids and my daughter living up the hill behind me and a few really wonderful close friends. I just love living in Malibu! There are a lot of Malibus to Malibu; it’s not just the Malibu you think of with movie stars living out here—I haven’t run into one!

I’m also so happy to finally really connect with my customers in a way I couldn’t with my clothes. The idea that, at my age, I can still do my appearances, meet my customers, meet my friends on the street that still have my clothes in their closets. To me, all the words in the world aren’t as strong as that girl who comes to my appearance, and she’s wearing her favorite dress from 1982. You just feel a kind of timeless ageless life, rather than remembering that you’re this old or that old. It’s really a great feeling.

The next thing I’m definitely going to do is record an audiobook. Then there is another possibility of a young, hip, cool, groovy television show. I could see that happening. It could! [The story] has all the stuff in it, in a way. There’s another possibility of a movie. But I don’t know. Who’s going to hold my hand through that?

Originally Appeared on Vogue