Before Cyndi Lauper rose to fame as one of the most singular pop breakouts of the 1980s, she was queen of the cash register at the edgy Manhattan boutique Screaming Mimi’s. The vintage emporium is still a downtown staple, but a little of its spirit comes uptown this month with Cyndi Lauper: A Suitcase of Memories, a two-part auction of her fashion and personal items at the New York auction house Bonhams. On a recent Thursday morning in New York, the singer is sporting seafoam green hair and is in good spirits as she leads a private tour of the collection.
It is an Aladdin’s cave of outfits from her five-decade career, with clashing prints, jutting tutus and statement headwear in every color you can imagine. As she strides around in her platform creepers, she gives a few final notes to the Bonhams team. Is that rainbow fan at the right angle?
And can we confirm that more mirror balls are on their way? The ensemble was originally purchased from her family’s favorite mail order catalog. After leaving home at the age of 17 armed with not much more than a toothbrush and a copy of Yoko Ono’s book Grapefruit, she honed her eclectic style while working at Screaming Mimi’s in between singing at downtown local clubs.
Her fantastic debut She’s So Unusual became the first debut album from a woman to produce four top-five singles upon its release in 1983. Hits like True Colors and I Drove All Night followed, as well as new ventures: she co-founded the True Colors United foundation in 2008 to benefit homeless LGBTQ+ youth and, in 2013, won a Tony award for her Kinky Boots score. After retiring from live performance last year, Lauper says she is enjoying the chance to take stock.
Leading us past the metal bra and headdress from her True Colors video and a red plaid dress she wore to the inaugural VMAs in the early 80s, she seems nostalgic for the freedom of the decade. You know, it would be nice if you could think for yourself sometime.” As well as ephemera such as handwritten lyric sheets, the exhibition features a Raggedy Ann doll from the Girls Just Want to Have Fun video and a multi-colored spotted couch that could have come from the set of Pee-wee’s Playhouse. As we admire the singer’s newspaper skirt from her True Colors album art, a guest asks Lauper if she worried that the fragile-seeming skirt would fall apart.
No,” she replies crisply. I was good.” Last year, Chappell Roan wore a replica of the newspaper skirt while inducting Lauper into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Lauper says that Roan is the one of the few current stars whose creativity she relates to.
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