16 May 2024 |
From the red carpet to the fashion runway, the New York theater producer Jordan Roth knows that all the world’s a stage.
BALENCIAGA
At a statuesque 6ft 1in and with a penchant for avant-garde couture, the theater producer Jordan Roth knows how to make an entrance. “Fashion has always been a vocabulary for expressing myself,” says the 48-year-old New Yorker, who speaks in a very considered manner. “I remember as a child putting my outfits together. I wore a button-down shirt and sweater, and that may not seem so stylish, but compared to the rest of the fifth grade it was.”
Today, Roth, who has become a fixture on the red carpet, including at the splashy premieres of his theater shows (Frozen, Moulin Rouge!, Angels in America), favors more otherworldly ensembles. At his Met Gala debut in 2018, he wore Givenchy’s newly launched men’s couture. To celebrate the museum’s exhibition that year, Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination, Roth wore a red silk evening coat with a red hand-beaded cape. He referred to it as his “Jewish Givenchy cardinal” look. Despite his cheekiness, it was an example of Roth truly embracing himself. In subsequent appearances at the Met he has worn a winged extravaganza printed with a theater stage by the Dutch designer Iris van Herpen and swaddled himself in a voluminous Thom Browne overcoat made from mohair, moiré, and velvet.
MAISON MARGIELA ARTISANAL DESIGNED BY JOHN GALLIANO
Roth found in Browne a kindred spirit when they met at a post-fashion show dinner in 2019. “He is so singular in his aesthetics and emotions. We sat next to each other and went down a rabbit hole of ideas,” he says. Roth has a wide- ranging knowledge of fashion, whether he’s referring to a particular Galliano collection from the Nineties or gushing about younger designers like Willie Norris, the Brooklyn-based talent known for her LGBTQ-friendly sportswear, or Ludovic de Saint Sernin, the Paris-based designer who creates gender-twisting fashion.
But his love for Browne’s designs seems to be profound. “I was wearing one of his extraordinary seersucker creations when I met him. It was all about gender accentuation with a narrow-corseted waist, wide hips, high heels, a visible codpiece, a jacket, and a tie.” Roth, it seems, feels most comfortable when he is wearing a mix of feminine and masculine fashion. “The outfit allowed me to express myself in ways I never had before,” he says.
MAISON MARGIELA ARTISANAL DESIGNED BY JOHN GALLIANO and RONALD VAN DER KEMP
Since that meeting with Browne, Roth has become even more fearless in his dressing, whether that means donning a long, colorful gown by Olivier Theyskens for the opening night of Into the Woods or a Ludovic de Saint Sernin hooded dress encrusted with Swarovski crystals for the Tonys. His inspiration comes from the theater and movies—“I’m always dipping into the well of Hollywood’s golden era”—and from the famed American choreographer and dancer Martha Graham. “There’s Martha Graham, always and everywhere,” he says. And then there is Roth’s mom, the award-winning theater producer Daryl Roth. “I always have an idea of references when I am getting dressed, but then I’ll look in the mirror and think, ‘There’s my mother at a party when I was 10,’” he says. “I talk to myself in clothes. I don’t see them as armor. Yes, clothes can bolster you but the more layers, the more information I am giving, the more revealing I am.”
On Instagram, Roth reveals plenty to his 140,000 followers. This is where he documents his outfits, his trips to the theater, and his family (Roth is married to the writer and producer Richie Jackson, with whom he has two sons). He has also walked several runway shows, including for Batsheva, Thom Browne, and KidSuper. For the KidSuper show, the label’s designer, Colm Dillane, put on a dreamlike production at the Théâtre de l’Odéon in Paris. Roth walked onto the stage wearing an enormous, spinning papier-mâché skirt. “It’s always a challenge, whether it’s the shoe, the headpiece, or say, a papier-mâché skirt,” Roth says. “But it’s always so joyful to see these dreams come alive.”
VALENTINO HAUTE COUTURE and VIKTOR & ROLF
Last December, Roth performed on stage again, playing the role of Mickey in a reading of The Normal Heart, the searing watershed drama by Larry Kramer about the AIDS epidemic. “I always thought I would be an actor after college,” says Roth, who graduated from Princeton with degrees in philosophy and theater. But then he started producing plays rather than starring in them. “Playing Mickey was amazing because he is joyful, rageful. He’s lost and then found. It’s a character that’s been close to me for so long.”
With his feet firmly planted in the realms of theater and fashion, Roth can do no wrong. As president of Jujamcyn Theaters, which oversees five of the biggest theaters in New York, Roth has been credited with reinvigorating Broadway by betting on experimental and unconventional works such as Kinky Boots and The Book of Mormon. This patronage extends to the fashion industry, where he helps designers and artists to find their voice. In Roth’s joyful and exuberant world, there is no fashion faux pas—“If you love it, I love it for you.
SCHIAPARELLI and FENDI
ARMANI PRIVE
Photographers KULESZA + PIK
Fashion Editor MICHAEL PHILOUZE
Talent JORDAN ROTH
Text MAURA EGAN
Hair CYRIL LALOU
Makeup SIL BRUINSMA
Photographer’s assistant ANTON GREBENTSOV
Fashion assistants TOM KIVELL, ALBAN ROGER, BRITTANY LOVOI, and ZACKARY BELHOUT
Hair assistant JULIE COONE
Production assistants ALBAN ROGER and TOM KIVELL
Video JAMES VERNON
Location HOTEL LA RESERVE, Paris
Instagram: @jordan_roth
jordanroth.com
