Original subtitles

Is it Halloween?

Is it a party at the Playboy Mansion?

No. Betsy Johnson, the crazy lady of fashion, rolling out her spring line.

I love Playboy. I love the Playmates. I love the girls. They're gorgeous.

Even if you don't follow fashion, follow the tale. You won't find these models in

vogue.

Betsy Johnson, the queen of freaky, funky fashion, put on a fabulous show

Tuesday night.

29, Slayboy Playmate, hit the runway of JFK Airport this morning.

They arrived to get ready for yet another runway. Only this one isn't for

planes. It's for models.

You'll find this runway at Fashion Week in New York City, where top clothing

designers are rolling out their 2001 spring lines for buyers and press from

around the globe at Bryan Park in the heart of Manhattan.

The talk of the show is fashion guru Betsy Johnson, whose designs have been

invoked since the late 60s and now has 48 stores worldwide.

She stunned 7th Avenue when she announced she would use Playboy

Playmates instead of traditional runway supermodels. Bring that beat back.

I grew up reading Playboy and loving the pin-up girl,

ear, tail.

Bunny costume. They've always been an inspiration to me.

Most designers just put their clothes on the runway. I need the concept.

And I got the idea immediately of setting it up like a pinup calendar, a

pinup girl, a January, February, March. It's just, boom, the bunny, the

playmate. They are...

They are that girl. It was so cool that Betsy asked the playmates to do it

because we got to wear her clothing, which I love.

All my friends were there. Vanessa Gleason and I roomed together.

The Dom Triplets were there.

Victoria Silverstead, Carrie Stevens, all the girls, Jennifer Rivera, Christy

Kwan. All of my friends were there. I had so much fun.

Betsy Johnson meets Playboy.

Here's what it takes to put on a great show. It's basically concept, then you

design the collection, then you start very early hiring your girls. It was

easy for me because I knew it was the Playmates. Then you fit the collection.

Then you find a space. You get your runway, your seats, your lighting.

Then you figure your invitation, your program, ultimate best, best, best hair

and makeup people. Your music is crucial to a show because I tell the girls to

dance, to play, to do the music. And you have to time the show. Ten seconds,

every girl, ten seconds.

Fabulous dance music backstage.

Lots of great food for the girls. 2,500 invites out.

2,000 people responding.

Another 1,000 people that want to get in the door.

And it's showtime!

I've been modeling in Paris, Milan, Miami, Stockholm, and I really love it.

Modeling has given me confidence.

Victoria is, to me, the ultimate icon playmate.

I mean, she is bigger than life.

I mean, take over the room when she walks in it.

Safe landing.

She bounced right back out.

Interesting friendship.

Carrie and Victoria, best girlfriends.

Victoria is kind of like Carrie's mother, right? Carrie's like the wild

child. She just got married in June and no virgin bride here.

Victoria as the June bride just sent me to heaven. I tried to make my version of

a classic bunny costume push-up.

decorated with flowers, stretched satin with the big bow on the back and the

corsage and the veil and the pure ear tail bunny costume with Victoria

coming out as the June bride.

I'm gonna be crazy, um, funny.

And sexy.

I do a show where the hair and the makeup and the clothes have to be seen

by that person sitting in the tenth row in the back. So I like strong.

Well, when we created the makeup for the show, I wanted to do something, like,

very, very special for Betsy. And I was really excited that we were going to be

working with Playboy Bunny, too, because this was the ultimate gorgeous girl.

I wanted, like, really strong eyes.

I wanted the whole body looking gorgeous too, like shimmer all over the

shoulders, the cleavage.

Whether it's lip gloss or whether you've just licked your lips, I think it's nice

to look like you've just been kissed.

Lips should be kind of active, I guess.

Transformation was so fun because I don't think the girls go that extreme in

their own makeup.

And I think that everybody enjoyed the process of seeing them just get sexier.

You know what, that hideous expression, less is more, it's just like such

rubbish because less is so not more. It's all about more.

More gloss, more eyes, more lotion.

I've always wanted to do it since I was a little girl, but I'm short.

Yeah, it's my first fashion show. When they approached Playboy and said, you

know, we want some Playmates to do a runway fashion show, I was like, please,

please. Can't wait to walk on the catwalk.

I've dreamed of it for years.

This may, I mean, it could be my only opportunity to ever do it.

Who knows?

Angel Boris is gorgeous.

Nicole is so sexy and so cute.

When we switched clothes backstage, it was so much fun. We got to play this

little dress-up thing with each other's clothes.

I had been eyeing those pants since she walked in, and so I was kind of neat

getting to put them on.

She loved my shoes and she loved my pants. I don't even remember what her

outfit was.

We danced and had a little get-together before the show, and it was really fun.

Clothes reflect personality in most cases.

So if I'm putting on what somebody else likes, then I'm becoming a part of them.

Nice to be appreciated by a beautiful woman, too, definitely.

You know, you kind of feel like there's not that competition thing, like, you

know, I appreciate you. You're beautiful.

I feel very sexy in this outfit. This is kind of like

supermodel outfit to me. I love the way it comes down really low in the front.

And she actually made it even lower.

She wanted to do the belly button, which I love. I love that.

like, low-cut things in the front. And she also lowered it in the back because

of my tattoo. When she saw my tattoo, she made it even lower, which is even

more incredibly sexy.

It's cool that Betsy, like, brought it alive, you know, because we're in the

fashion industry now.

Like, she started this whole new era with, like, the fashion scene.

Like, these girls, they look so good without clothes on. I wonder what they

look like with clothes on.

Betsy just wanted it to be like really fun backstage, which is totally awesome

because it made when we went out there even more fun. I was so excited and I

was so nervous.

Before I went on the runway, I had a little bit of hair pain.

Oh, those hair and makeup people and blow dryers and curlers and hair

extensions. And then the press comes, and it was just like a fiasco.

The press was like leeches.

All over you.

Changes were like that. I mean, you literally came off the stage, and before

you got to your spot where your clothes were hanging, you were naked.

There was like a fever pitch backstage.

There was no skinny, androgynous, dull people around.

Everybody was like larger than life and happy and glowing and sexy. And it was

like, I don't know, it was like heaven and hell all rolled into one. I didn't

know where I was.

It's hot pink, baby.

She's like, if you fall out, just put yourself back in and stretch yourself.

I pushed up to my chin, and it's like barely covering me. If I breathe, I'll

fall out. And they're going to put double-stick tape to keep it on.

Let it loose, turn it out, and just move with the groove, baby.

Let it loose, turn it out, and just move with the groove, baby.

that I put something on that I'm totally busting out of, and she applauded.

Panties?

Panties.

Panties. I love panties.

I love panties.

Panties. I love panties. I love panties. I love panties.

I like panties.

But I don't wear any panties.

You've got to have them in every color, every style.

And the tinier, the better. Definitely the tinier, the better.

Such pretty panties out there today. I mean, my God. Some are just like a

little string and, you know, pretty little bones.

Some are crotch lifts. Some are lathes. I mean, I like it. I like it because it

just completes the whole outfit.

I like panties, and then I like to take them off.

I wear underwear sometimes.

With pants, yes, I usually wear a thong.

It depends.

It depends on what kind of mood I'm in.

excited to be here doing this whole thing with Betsy, and the girls are

excited. The outfits are outrageous, so I can't wait to get on the runway and

strip myself.

Nicole Wood is, she was my trial run bunny that I worked with.

As a New Yorker, she came over and she helped me pre-fit, and she was just...

One of my favorite girls because I needed real personality. The little, the

pink costume with the bunny head on the front and her little panties with the

puffed tail underneath.

I mean, she, I thought, oh, Nicole has a sense of humor and just so is

enjoying this whole process that she will be terrific for these outfits that

need super little performance personality.

When you walked out on the runway, it was just like, pow!

It was amazing.

Like, every girl just felt like a superstar.

I've always kind of been a nudist, so I never really cared.

There was this one party that I was at. It was really boring. I just wanted to

liven things up, so me and a few of my friends would just walk downstairs naked

and see what people did. It kind of just shocked them. It was pretty fun.

to go hiking or something like that. It's kind of fun to go skinny dipping in

the wilderness.

I just like to get naked sometimes.

It's free.

Brooke Berry had the most kind of innocent, devilish kind of sexiness.

Hair and makeup, realize that you're losing your girls for 20 minutes.

We're going to do a fake.

Run through. Not in our clothes, not with our numbers, not in the exact

lineup. We're going to walk the runway the 84 times, though, just so you get

the feel of the pacing, the timing.

Regular models, I mean, they're sexy.

They're great on the runway. They each have their own style and walk.

But I don't think they can be themselves.

I don't think they can put on the personality that the playmates put on.

They told me many times backstage, don't worry, Betsy. We do sexiness.

That's why you get, you know.

more glamorous girls like Ava, her walk compared to a cuter walk, like Nicole

has a sexy, hot, little, adorable walk you'd want to follow down the street.

And regular models, you just can't get that range.

They're just not supposed to have that much personality.

I mean, to me, doing a show with the Playmates was to say, I love the

Playmates. I love that they...

love being sexy, and they love being sexy for men and for women and for each

other and for themselves.

Fashion has always been in my blood, and I used to go into my mother's closets

all the time and put on her high heels and fishnets. I thought it was the

coolest thing, you know.

I was a Playmate in 1986, and Playboy's the best. I mean, they're always...

He'd always have his books on something really fun and exciting.

That first step when you walk out on the runway was the most energetic part.

And the second I saw Donald Trump, Steven Tyler,

Cindy Lauper, my heart just started pounding really hard. But their hearts

were pounding pretty hard, too.

They've seen, you know, boobs and asses and legs and, you know, full-figured

bodies.

I like to be totally naked and on a nice bed with nice sheets.

That feels sexy to me.

For the nice man.

Or a bad man.

I adore Ava Fabian. She is, to me, the emotional, most gorgeous

essence of a sexy, glamorous, confident woman. She's

got an old world kind of heavy-duty

knowledge of what sexiness is all about, like Sophia

Loren.

I love my body. I love to show it off.

And I love to be draped in sexy, long, beautiful fabric.

Shoes make you feel tall and superior and dominant.

I think feet and high heels.

You know what? It just screams, I'm a woman.

I live in these year-round, my little... Fuck me shoes.

That's what they're called.

They've been around since Maryland.

Fuck me shoes.

Fuck me shoes.

Yeah, so we'll do a whole thing with shoes.

Betsy's shoes will be here, you know, relatively soon.

Yeah, well, this is the leg, girl. I love your leg.

Yeah, our toes are perfect.

I have men come up to me when I do glamour cons and things, and

they say, I want to see, you know, pictures of your feet and sexy shoes.

Apparently, there are men and women as well who really enjoy a pretty foot.

I'm sorry. Now, but tell me this. Is it just the feet, or did they want to see

the feet attached to you?

Or if you gave them just a shot of your foot, would they be happy? I think if

they know it's mine, they're going to be tickled pink.

You know, you don't want to try and sneak someone else's foot there.

My feet.

Oh, my gosh.

You know, I used to always think my feet were kind of ugly.

But I've kind of...

I take better care of them now since, you know, it seems to be this fetish,

especially with Playboy fans. They love feet. They have this thing for feet. So

now I'm a little more cautious about, you know, I paint my toenails. And I

think I have actually long toes for such little feet. But I'm glad my feet are

not, like, really big because I think little feet are really cute, like really

sexy, like little tiny feet.

Hey, so what size shoe are you?

I'm an 8 1⁄2.

Is that good?

I hear that people tend to like it. I don't know. You know, this is what they

tell me.

Gianna comes in for her fitting and immediately we changed her outfit into

one of the sexiest outfits in the show, the little hot pants.

She just has the most amazing legs and butt and rear end. And we just wanted

to really celebrate her body, and it's just like, ah,

dreamland.

I love panties.

Under the dress, or whatever, you know, outfit, skirt, whatever you're wearing,

you feel that sexiness, and someone may get a chance to get a peek at it.

So, how do you, what do you think about Betsy's clothes? I love Betsy's clothes.

They're very, very sexy. I'm a very big busted woman. I have a very small waist.

So when I buy off the rack, I have to have everything altered.

Everything. I cannot buy a dress, walk out of a store and wear it. And I try on

her clothing and it fits me like a glove.

Look at my breasts like this.

Not bad.

Don't they look so much better like this? I love perky breasts and bras do

it. Push-up bras, amazing.

There's nothing more sexy than slowly unbuttoning a blouse and finding

beautiful breasts.

and slowly and hooping a skirt and having it fall to the floor and have a

gorgeous g-string and garter belts and stockings.

I was so excited to get the chance to do my 50s Marilyn

Monroe look.

They go out where a girl goes out, in where a girl goes in.

I can't do those kinds of clothes unless I have the Maryland body type.

They only wore G-streams. I made the clothes work as underwear.

I made the dresses themselves hold the girls.

Those dresses were structured for playboy body types of Ds.

24-inch waist. We just had to allow for a large breast and more dart and

more shirring and more fabric to cover the area.

I design for breasts.

I love little breasts, medium breasts, and big breasts.

Suzanne Stokes is truly Marilyn and her outfit. And we had these three outfits

that we thought would be right for her. They were like custom made as if

I had hung out with her for a couple of months.

The day of the show we had, like, so much fun. The energy was just amazing.

They had champagne for us. There was cameras everywhere, press from, like,

all over.

I think that Betsy Johnson really makes her clothes to fit very voluptuous,

curvy women, which I have like five of her dresses. Even before we did the

fashion show, she was like one of my favorite designers. Anyway, she's so

colorful and vibrant and like flowery and delicate.

Everything's gorgeous.

She's really a wonderful person and a great designer.

It was

amazing.

It was like a dream come true. Oh, my God. Betsy Johnson, every one of the

playmates were so awesome. I went out there, and I'm just like...

to do that i'm like we're playboy playmates of course you're gonna flash

your boobs when you go out there right of course i maybe would have been a

little naughty in the show but i figured hey playboy playboy meets betsy johnson

you know might as well liven it up a little bit

The description of the hairstyle for me was very much like Brigitte Bardot goes

to Las Vegas.

The look that I wanted to achieve was that she had to have like a flowy,

sexy, just like she has just been like having sex for about four days.

This is my first New York show. I teach modeling back home.

I've done it growing up, doing it in the mall, local stuff.

Man, life.

I love

Pits

and Ass.

I love butts. I love women's bodies.

Oh, Shannon was the ultimate Miss August Centropay.

Look at that rear end for the bathing suit.

I love to see flesh.

I always want people to remember the girl, not what she was wearing.

How does it feel to be working with so many playmates today?

Oh, I'm used to it. How does it feel for you to be working with so many

playmates?

I'm having a blast.

It's just like a dream come true. We're having a great time.

All of the Playmates are here together, and we're all having fun in New York

City. It's my first time here.

So it's just a whole new experience altogether.

Playmates seem to have kind of a sister thing going on, which is really nice.

I've made so many close girlfriends through Playboy, and will probably have

them as lifelong friends.

And seeing girls that you've met once or twice, you still just see them, and

you're like, oh, my God, and you give them a big hug.

I'm Carrie. Carrie was funny backstage because I have champagne backstage,

and I love champagne. Carrie and I are champagne sisters.

We just carry down about, you know, the house.

fabulous champagne is and how Brigitte Bardot also believes in champagne.

So, whoa, there's the crotch shot.

I see you didn't edit it.

But no, that got great write-ups. They said, whoa, the crotch, you know.

I got to know Carrie Stevens a little bit because we did television together.

She's just so sweet. She just, you know, said, oh, my grandfather is going to be

so excited to see me, and I've got to call him.

I love each girl's little, you know, they knew at the end of the runway was

the main camera. And I said, please, like, pretend it's the photo shoot at

the end. That's your screen test. When you get to the end of the runway,

perform really big time. All the presses at the end.

What really makes the show for me is seeing every

separate, fabulous personality at the end of the runway.

I can tell the Dom tripled the part because Erica has a beauty mark

here, Jacqueline has one here, and Nicole... Actually, no, I got

that wrong.

I'm Erica.

I'm Jacqueline. And I'm Nicole.

We're the down triplets.

Actually, my boyfriend immediately grabbed Nicole's butt on accident. And

before he realized, you know, it was hers.

Oh, you got the wrong girl.

It's hilarious.

His face turned red as my suit. It's funny because it never, they don't

intend it and it never goes any further than that. So it's more funny than

anything else. Yeah.

Our fingerprints were so alike when we were born.

They had to do something permanent on us to tell us apart.

Kids were all in the bathtub. We always took bathtubs together and babysitters,

and they couldn't tell us apart. So the permanent thing they did was tattoo ink

dots, and they're on our butt cheeks.

I have one dot, and she's got two because she was born second.

They couldn't fit three, so she doesn't have any.

Dom triplets were the only three girls that were exactly the same in their

measurement. Exactly the same. They were like just three of the same kind of

wonderful girls.

We thought we'd have like the same outfit but different colors or walk out

at the same time all together.

We shouldn't really take advantage of us being triplets at all. You know, which

was kind of neat because we could play our own personalities.

I just love it when a guy says, you're gorgeous.

There's something about the word gorgeous that strikes my ear.

Especially when it's a day when you do not feel pretty.

Or you don't have any makeup on or you're in this grocery store just

looking totally natural.

It doesn't really go to our head as being gorgeous. It's just who we are.

So I don't think of it every day as like, oh, I'm gorgeous. I honestly don't

think that. None of us do.

The Dom sisters, the only time we could get the lineup to work that was really

fun to show them all three at once was in Halloween time, in the month of

Halloween, which I love.

The three Doms were first the witch, and then came the Indian, and then the

cowboy.

I don't think I'm going to sell those chaps.

Once you're on the runway, you don't think about anybody staring at you. And

if you do think of them, that all those people are watching you, it adds a

little more to, you know, the way you walk or the personality you get. You can

strike a pose. There's your moment.

The way we say to tell the party, just get to know us, and then you say, God,

they're nothing alike.

We have to do our finale.

It was such a great

experience because you rarely get to work with all the playmates like that

together. So it was great. I got to see so many of the girls that I don't get to

see a lot, but I talked to on the phone.

We were just having a good old time, just laughing and cracking up.

I don't know. It was great.

My clothes are just a hint of what they could be.

And then you get a girl who loves a piece of clothing, just is a sexy girl,

and she puts it on, and it's just, I mean, I'm speechless backstage. When

they really came alive, I mean, to me, what I liked best about the show is you

remember the girls. You know, you remember some clothes.

But the girls and the clothes were just a perfect.

They made my clothes come alive the way I dreamed of seeing them come alive.

Twenty-nine Playboy Playmates brought Manhattan to its feet as they strutted

their stuff on a hot pink Fashion Week runway wearing Betsy Johnson's

outrageous new design.

To the roaring approval of the crowd, they celebrated the glories of being a

woman right on stage.

Johnson characterized the show as perfect.

The world of high fashion modeling has opened its arms to Playboy's Girl Next

Door, and it will never be the same.