We went to see Patti Smith last night at the Intelligence Squared event at the Royal Geographic Hall, (on Virginia Woolf's birthday, Patti told us) and we just adored her. She was considered, inspiring, articulate and funny. Which was more than we could say for her interviewer, but never mind.
She wore: A black, wool man-style jacket, slightly oversized and big on the shoulders. A white shirt, with folded cuffs poking out quite a way beneath the jacket sleeves, they looked as if they had cufflinks but we weren't that close. Black boots and faded jeans with the shirt loosely tucked in. She wore her long wavy hair parted straight in the centre and no make up. According to Style.com, Patti says she only wear vintage or Ann Demeulemeester, so we'd guess that both were the mix somewhere.
She said:
"I always read hundreds of books when I was a child, I could go through a library like a locust in a field."
"I've always loved detective stories, in fact I've been writing a detective story for a couple of years, and it starts here in London, in St Giles in the Fields. It's 68% finished"
What she said when she first saw The Clash "This is it!"
"At 64 I am more conscious of my fellow man than ever before in my life."
On the changes in New York since the 70s…."I believe that it started with the credit card. When we were young, before the credit card, you could only get what you had money to buy, Everything was cheaper, expectations of material things were less, people were more compelled to be a little more creative to entertain themselves.The credit card shifted values and people's expectations".
Robert Mapplethorpe took acid to calm his nerves on visiting Patti's family, her dad said "He's a nice fella, he sure smiles a lot."
For more Patti, check out the IQ2 microsite here and feel the love.
