Zaldy Goco (born 1966),
[. "Zaldy, 38"; . "It was early August ..Zaldy was a preternaturally young-looking 48."] also known
mononymous
A mononym is a name composed of only one word. An individual who is known and addressed by a mononym is a mononymous person. In some cases, a mononym selected by an individual may have originally been from a polynym, a word which refers to one o ...
ly as Zaldy, is a Filipino-American fashion designer. In 1995, he was featured as a model in a British television advertisement for
Levi's
Levi Strauss & Co. () is an American clothing company known worldwide for its Levi's () brand of denim jeans. It was founded in May 1853 when German-Jewish immigrant Levi Strauss moved from Buttenheim, Bavaria, to San Francisco, California, to o ...
.
Zaldy was named one of ''
Out'' magazine's Out 100 in 2006.
He was the costume designer for
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the "King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over a ...
's
This Is It tour,
Lady Gaga
Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta ( ; born March 28, 1986), known professionally as Lady Gaga, is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. She is known for her image reinventions and musical versatility. Gaga began performing as a teenag ...
's
Monster Ball Tour,
and
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears (born December 2, 1981) is an American singer. Often referred to as the " Princess of Pop", she is credited with influencing the revival of teen pop during the late 1990s and early 2000s. After appearing in stage productio ...
's
Femme Fatale Tour
The Femme Fatale Tour was the eighth concert tour by American entertainer Britney Spears. It was launched in support of her seventh studio album, ''Femme Fatale'' (2011). It was officially announced in March 2011, with dates for North American v ...
.
Zaldy designed the costumes for the
Cirque du Soleil
Cirque du Soleil (, ; "Circus of the Sun" or "Sun Circus") is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 Ju ...
shows ''
Michael Jackson: The Immortal World Tour'', ''
Michael Jackson: One'', and ''
Volta''.
He was also the head designer for
Gwen Stefani
Gwen Renée Stefani (; born October 3, 1969) is an American singer, songwriter, fashion designer and actress. She is a co-founder, lead vocalist, and the primary songwriter of the band No Doubt, whose singles include "Just a Girl", "Spiderwebs ...
's fashion line
L.A.M.B. He has received five Emmy nominations, winning in 2017, 2018, and 2019 for
Outstanding Costumes for a Variety, Nonfiction, or Reality Programming due to his work on ''
RuPaul's Drag Race
''RuPaul's Drag Race'' is an American reality competition television series, the first in the ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by World of Wonder for Logo TV (season 1–8), WOW Presents Plus, VH1 (season 9–14) and, beginning with the f ...
''.
Early life
Zaldy was born in Cheshire, Connecticut; his first name is Salvador but his parents called him Zaldy from birth. His grandmother sparked his interest in fashion.
Education
Zaldy was a student at
Parsons School of Design
Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...
in the 1980s, though he completed his studies in 1990 at the
Fashion Institute of Technology
The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) is a public college in New York City. It is part of the State University of New York (SUNY) and focuses on art, business, design, mass communication, and technology connected to the fashion industry. It ...
.
Modeling
Zaldy walked runways for
Thierry Mugler
Manfred Thierry Mugler (; 21 December 1948 – 23 January 2022) was a French fashion designer, creative director and creative adviser of Mugler. In the 1970s, Mugler launched his eponymous fashion house; and quickly rose to prominence in the fo ...
,
Jean-Paul Gaultier
Jean Paul Gaultier (; born 24 April 1952) is a French haute couture and prêt-à-porter fashion designer. He is described as an " enfant terrible" of the fashion industry and is known for his unconventional designs with motifs including corset ...
, and
Vivienne Westwood
Dame Vivienne Isabel Westwood (née Swire; born 8 April 1941) is an English fashion designer and businesswoman, largely responsible for bringing modern punk and new wave fashions into the mainstream.
Westwood came to public notice when she m ...
modeling women's clothing; he also modeled men's clothing in a Japanese advertising campaign for
Paul Smith. In 1995, Zaldy, in drag, starred in a Levi's television commercial. This advertisement was banned in the United States and was only shown late at night in the United Kingdom. This Levi's advertisement was noted as marking a rise in the prominence of drag in pop culture.
Photoshoots and red carpets
Various celebrities have worn Zaldy's clothing in notable photoshoots or on red carpets.
Beyoncé
Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Beyoncé's boundary-pushing artistry and vocals have made her the most influential female musician of the 21st century, according to ...
wore a Zaldy dress on the cover of the November 2005 issue of ''
Vanity Fair''.
Film producer Lisa Maria Falcone, producer for ''
127 Hours'', wore a Zaldy dress to the
83rd Academy Awards.
Kesha
Kesha Rose Sebert (; born March 1, 1987), formerly stylized as Ke$ha, is an American singer and songwriter. In 2005, at age 18, Kesha was signed to Kemosabe Records. Her first major success came in early 2009 after she was featured on America ...
wore a Zaldy dress to the
2012 MTV Video Music Awards.
Chloe x Halle
Chloe x Halle are an Contemporary R&B, R&B duo composed of sisters Chloe Bailey, Chloe and Halle Bailey. At a young age, the sisters performed in minor acting roles before moving from Mableton, Georgia, to Los Angeles in 2012. The two began post ...
both wore Zaldy to the
2016 BET Hip Hop Awards
The 2016 BET Hip Hop Awards were held on September 17, 2016 and aired on October 4, 2016 at Atlanta’s Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre. The nominations were announced on August 18, 2016.
For a third consecutive year, Drake heads the list ...
; their stylist for the event,
Zerina Akers, said: "I always like to use young, new talent, because I feel like we see so much of the same thing in fashion and on the red carpet. I thought it was fresh."
Stage and concert performances
The first stage costume Zaldy designed was for
Lady Miss Kier
Kierin Magenta Kirby (aka Lady Miss Kier) is an American singer, songwriter, DJ, designer, fashion icon, and activist.
During her career, Lady Miss Kier has been the vocalist for the band Deee-Lite, a disc jockey, and solo songwriter. She support ...
, singer of
Deee-Lite
Deee-Lite was an American house and dance music group formed in New York City. The group's best-known single is "Groove Is in the Heart", which was released in 1990 from their debut studio album ''World Clique'' (1990), and was a top-ten hit in ...
; she saw him at a club wearing a catsuit studded with mirrors and asked him to make her a similar outfit. His first time designing stage outfits for an entire musical group was for
Scissor Sisters
Scissor Sisters were an American pop rock band formed in 2001. Its members include Jake Shears and Ana Matronic as vocalists, Babydaddy as multi-instrumentalist, Del Marquis as lead guitar/bassist, and Randy Real (who replaced Paddy Boom) as dr ...
's 2006 performance for the
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (commonly called the Coachella Festival or simply Coachella) is an annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. ...
.
Zaldy later designed the costumes for the Japanese band
Exile
Exile is primarily penal expulsion from one's native country, and secondarily expatriation or prolonged absence from one's homeland under either the compulsion of circumstance or the rigors of some high purpose. Usually persons and peoples suf ...
.
RuPaul
In the late 1980s, Zaldy met the American drag queen
RuPaul
RuPaul Andre Charles (born November 17, 1960; stylized as RuPaul) is an American drag queen, television personality, actor, musician, and model. Best known for producing, hosting, and judging the reality competition series ''RuPaul's Drag Race'' ...
at a night club in
Union Square, Manhattan
Union Square is a historic intersection and surrounding neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City, located where Broadway and the former Bowery Road – now Fourth Avenue – came together in the early 19th century. Its name denotes ...
.
He has designed his drag outfits since 1992.
RuPaul wears Zaldy's outfits in the music video for his 1993 single "
Supermodel (You Better Work)
"Supermodel (You Better Work)" is a song by American dance music singer and drag queen RuPaul. It was released in November 1993 as the third single (but first major label single) from his debut album, '' Supermodel of the World'' (1993). The song ...
" and the Netflix series ''
AJ and the Queen
''AJ and the Queen'' is an American comedy-drama series, created by RuPaul and Michael Patrick King. It premiered on Netflix on January 10, 2020. It was cancelled after one season in March that same year.
Premise
''AJ and the Queen'' follows "Ru ...
''.
Zaldy designed RuPaul's suit for the 2019
Met Gala
The Met Gala, or Met Ball, formally called the Costume Institute Gala or the Costume Institute Benefit, is an annual fundraising gala held for the benefit of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute in New York City. It is popularly ...
.
''RuPaul's Drag Race''
Zaldy designs the gowns for RuPaul on ''
RuPaul's Drag Race
''RuPaul's Drag Race'' is an American reality competition television series, the first in the ''Drag Race'' franchise, produced by World of Wonder for Logo TV (season 1–8), WOW Presents Plus, VH1 (season 9–14) and, beginning with the f ...
''. He has three other team members and an assortment of other craftspeople such as painters, beaders, and graphic designers.
For his work on ''Drag Race'', Zaldy has received five
Primetime Emmy Award
The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...
nominations and three wins, in the category of
Outstanding Costumes for a Variety, Nonfiction, or Reality Programming. He was first nominated for the
68th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards for the
season 8
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In tempera ...
premiere "Keeping it 100!"
and received a second nomination, alongside Perry Meek, for the
69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards
The 69th Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards honored the best in artistic and technical achievement in American prime time television programming from June 1, 2016, until May 31, 2017, as chosen by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Th ...
for the
season 9
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...
premiere "Oh. My. Gaga!"
Zaldy and Meek won this Emmy. He received a third nomination in this category in 2018 for the
season 10 premiere "10s Across the Board".
In 2019 he also won an Emmy for the episode "
Trump: The Rusical" alongside Art Conn, who designed
Michelle Visage
Michelle Lynn Case (nee Shupack), better known as Michelle Visage (born September 20, 1968), is an American singer, television host, actress, radio DJ and producer. She first gained recognition as a member of the musical group Seduction which ...
's outfit.
He also appeared as a guest judge alongside
Kesha
Kesha Rose Sebert (; born March 1, 1987), formerly stylized as Ke$ha, is an American singer and songwriter. In 2005, at age 18, Kesha was signed to Kemosabe Records. Her first major success came in early 2009 after she was featured on America ...
on the
season 9
A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and po ...
episode "Makeovers: Crew Better Work", and made a guest appearance in the
season 12 episode "You Don't Know Me."
Zaldy also appeared as a guest judge on the
''RuPaul's Drag Race All Stars'' season 6 episode "Show Up Queen".
Awards and nominations
References
Works cited
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{{Authority control
Living people
American people of Filipino descent
LGBT fashion designers
Primetime Emmy Award winners
1966 births
American fashion designers
American costume designers