THE INSPIRATION PLACE PODCAST
Tziporah Salamon: By then I was showing up on Instagram and for a living. Okay, I have of course called the Art of dressing masterclass. Museums hired me. Fashion Council of Chicago hired me. Savannah hired me. I became a model when I was 63. And I said, and I teach this course and I have 135,000 followers on Instagram.
Speaker 2: It’s the Inspiration Place podcast with artist Miriam Schulman. Welcome to the Inspiration Place podcast, an Art World Insider podcast for artists by an artist, where each week we go behind the scenes to uncover the perspiration and inspiration behind the art. And now your host Miriam Schulman.
Miriam Schulman: Well hey there, it’s Miriam Schulman and welcome back to the Inspiration Place. You’re listening to episode number 363, and I did something a little bit different this time. I did sacrifice a bit of the audio quality because we’re using my webcam, but I wanted you to step into my studio just as I did with our guest today. If you’ve ever struggled with self-expression, confidence, or just want to look and feel fabulous, this episode is for you. I’m joined by the legendary Zipporah Solomon style icon, storyteller, model, and the original fashion philosopher born to Holocaust survivors. She traveled the world, worked at Bergdorf’s, waitress at Jezebel’s, and Vintage Couture. Her journey is a masterclass in finding your voice and finding your purpose. And let me tell you, this episode is a lot more than what you wear. It’s about who you become when you’re honest EST and authentic. Let’s dive into this conversation.
Tziporah Salamon: Here on camera. Okay. Hi, everyone. So I just came, right? So so many things. So I actually biked up here. I live on 72nd Street and Riverside.
Miriam Schulman: I want to tell people that. Yeah.
Tziporah Salamon: It’s okay. So I biked up here.
Miriam Schulman: Everybody knows where I live.
Tziporah Salamon: And I came in and I noticed the lobby and how beautiful it is. And I realized that I have to do a piano, which is a blessing in where something good happens or something for the first time, or you’re seeing friends for after you haven’t seen them in a long time. So you say this lesson piano. You’re basically at thanking God for arriving at this time in your life, in this moment and space and time. So then I came. I God bless miss you. You had this around your waist, and you said that you told me in a text that you were putting on a scarf. Yeah, I was glad I was coming. That’s exactly. That’s exactly it. That’s exactly because she had it around. You had it around your hips. It breaks up overalls. You don’t fuss with overalls, overalls and overalls. You don’t put a belt on overalls. You don’t put a coat on overalls, overalls. It’s that it’s overall the whole overall effect. This in the hair. I mean, there’s so many ways to do it. You could do this. You could do it. Right. I would be playing with this form or. I don’t know what a form is for the dog. You know, the whole thing. Yeah. Okay. Are you aware that my son is. So when.
Miriam Schulman: I go to Israel, I from it.
Tziporah Salamon: Up. I love, but I.
Miriam Schulman: Enjoy.
Tziporah Salamon: It because to me.
Miriam Schulman: It’s like it’s fashion.
Tziporah Salamon: Yeah.
Miriam Schulman: It’s like, how can I look as good as possible? So stick to the rules.
Tziporah Salamon: I love them. Yeah, and they’re the best. This is a gorgeous scar. It’s a beautiful scar. You have to know. This is a lovely scar. Thank you. That is. Johnny was. Yes. Of course. Johnny was so my friend Barbara. It’s her daughter in law. Oh, yeah. Works for Johnny Young. Is on tour. Oh, I love that.
Miriam Schulman: It is for people.
Tziporah Salamon: Who don’t know what the.
Miriam Schulman: Orthodox.
Tziporah Salamon: Women, they.
Miriam Schulman: Wear this under their scarves because it gives them a little more height and it’s more flattering.
Tziporah Salamon: I love that. I need one of the way to get this. Oh, I’m teaching.
Miriam Schulman: You something.
Tziporah Salamon: I love it. Oh, really?
Miriam Schulman: Well, this one I got into a salon, but you can get them anywhere.
Tziporah Salamon: I need what all. I’m calling up my sister and saying, sweetheart, we got to go. Do I have to go shop to the store or. One fits all.
Miriam Schulman: Oh, no. It’s one fit all because it’s like the Velcro in the back. They also have ones that are just a narrow because it keeps it from slipping. So it does both things for you.
Tziporah Salamon: How about you ladies? Okay, lovely.
Miriam Schulman: Now I feel like I am.
Tziporah Salamon: Yes. Ready to meet you. Yes. You’re right. Absolutely right.
Miriam Schulman: What we have to tell. Yes. Our are our listeners who may not be. Who may not know that Miriam is Moses sister.
Tziporah Salamon: And Cora.
Miriam Schulman: Thank you.
Tziporah Salamon: You’re welcome. And the nickname is Sydney. But the name is separate.
Miriam Schulman: Zipporah as Moses wife.
Tziporah Salamon: Yes. So in the Bible, Moses married to poor. They met at the. Well. I want you to know. So, for those of you who.
Miriam Schulman: Know the Bible, Miriam is Moses sister.
Tziporah Salamon: To.
Miriam Schulman: Him as Moses wife. That makes us sisters, basically. And right now, as we’re recording this, this is the holiday issue for us, which is when Moses goes up the mound and this is.
Tziporah Salamon: This.
Miriam Schulman: Is a big moment.
Tziporah Salamon: My husband’s big moment. My brother. Right. He’s coming down with the Torah, with our Bible, with the Ten Commandments, with a blueprint for us on how to live a life worthy of living a righteous, beautiful life that gives back to the world. That’s the self-development book. Ever the best, the Bible is the best. Everything is the.
Miriam Schulman: Pastor’s.
Tziporah Salamon: Syndrome.
Miriam Schulman: Everything.
Tziporah Salamon: So what’s interesting is that you and I just met. We met at a restaurant called Miriam.
Miriam Schulman: I think that he would be like, we’re related and like, we’re lifelong friends.
Tziporah Salamon: Exactly. Not on Friday. And last year, I called Miriam. I didn’t know about it. My friend emailed me the thing, and she said, you should go.
Miriam Schulman: And this is this is a Jewish event. Not a Jewish friend who emailed me and I said, oh, sounds good, but I’m going to Florida on Friday. On Thursday, I canceled my trip.
Tziporah Salamon: I feel like.
Miriam Schulman: I was going to Florida, and I said, I’m not going to go to Florida. I’m not.
Tziporah Salamon: Going. You knew you were meant to go to this thing. Okay.
Miriam Schulman: Thing I just decided. And so as soon as I decided that, I said, hey.
Tziporah Salamon: I.
Miriam Schulman: Still want to go. And she’s like, yes. And we went and I thought, zippy, I recognized her from.
Tziporah Salamon: So how do you know me? Do you follow me?
Miriam Schulman: Yes. There was like, maybe an article in the New York Times about fashion influencers over 50. I think that’s when I started following you, maybe five years ago. I don’t know, but I recognized I was like, I think. And then I looked at your your Instagram. I was like, oh yeah, there’s the necklace. That’s the same necklace.
Tziporah Salamon: And you came up to me.
Miriam Schulman: I did, and you know, the artist is very good and very interesting. And I have a podcast for artists. And my friends say, well, how come you don’t want to interview her? It’s the conversation that we’re about to have that I’m much more interested in than the conversation I would have had. The artist.
Tziporah Salamon: Let’s go, let’s go.
Miriam Schulman: So this is a conversation about what it means to be a Jewish artist in a post October 7th world.
Tziporah Salamon: Perfect, perfect and perfect for me because of the kind of artist I am, I don’t paint. I don’t sculpt. What else does a painter do? You know, usually that’s what we think of. That’s what I thought of. Okay, you have to know I’m going to tell my story and I’m going to condense it until it quickly. I was born and raised in Israel in 1950. Israel was founded in 1948. Okay. I grew up as the as the country is two years old. So I was there when the busses are first going up. Okay. In little Netanya, my little home town. There was no hospital then. I was born there to take me to Hadera.
Miriam Schulman: Which is where my daughter in law is from.
Tziporah Salamon: Another. Bingo. Okay, so things like this. Let me teach you something to the world. Sure, it’s been shared. God’s favorite game.
Miriam Schulman: He says things never how I say for sure.
Tziporah Salamon: God’s favorite game is bingo. She and I met at a restaurant called Miriam. Mary is my sister in law. Her name is Miriam. Bingo. Bingo. What just happened? I just said Hadera. She knows of her daughter in law. Panera. Bingo. Bingo. Bingo happens all the time. To all of us. All of us have bingo going up. It’s a popcorn boom, boom boom. But you got to be aware of when they go up. Why? When you hear bingos in your life, coincidences and there’s no such thing. It’s God showing up and God saying. Listen up, kids. Who aren’t ringing bells. This is important. There’s an important connection here. Go find out what it is. So here we are. Finding out what it is.
Miriam Schulman: I’m so excited.
Tziporah Salamon: So. Okay, so I’m in Israel. I’m sleeping. I wake up. Two more clothes. Go back to sleep. More clothes. My mother was a dressmaker. My mother could knit, crochet, sew and embroider so I would have the ones that she knit or crocheted. Right. I would have the little hat that she made or crocheted. I would have the little slippers, shoes that she made or crocheted. Dad was a tailor. Okay, let’s not leave him out of the conversation so he would make the top of coats and the pants and the shirts. So from day one, I grew up and I. Oh, more clothes, more clothes. Equals little boys clothes that my father made. And girls clothes and my mother made. And I was equally comfortable as both. And I was adorable and. Okay, so that would have been enough. I would have been the best dressed girl in little Natalia. Hands down. She wins. Little sippy wins. Oh, God. Wanted to celebrate. So what I forgot to say is that they won. Gary and Jews. Holocaust survivors. Okay, my father survived because he sewed the Nazi uniforms. They needed his skills. Okay? My mother had already left, and now she was in Budapest working as a dressmaker. And of course, Budapest’s most elegant shop. They were from a town called Barakzai. A small little town, right? They knew each other, right? And when my mother learned how to sew, she. Of course, after high school, she, of course, went to the big city where she could get a job somewhere in Budapest. So she left home. And Budapest was the last city that was rounded up, right? So it was her. So first they were put in the ghetto and then the death march. The death march started in January. Now they were already losing the war.
Tziporah Salamon: They knew that. I mean, the Jews didn’t know that. But so night walk, that was their walk. Walk in the winter, in January, February walk. And then walking from Budapest to Vienna. And what saved my mother was that her and her best friend Rory. And that’s a whole other story that we won’t get into. Okay, I’m born in Israel, so Papa is making me a little boy because they already have my sisters. So he makes the boys clothes. Mama makes the girls clothes. But how did God get me to be a thoroughbred? That’s the question. Okay. Dad’s favorite sister. So he comes from a family of ten children. Five survived. Five. Yoli was his favorite sister. So Yoli actually was taken to Auschwitz. Right after Auschwitz, she comes out, so close to Switzerland. And there’s a cousin, a second cousin in Long Island who’s going to sponsor her in New York because the Jews couldn’t just come. You have to have a sponsor. You have to have someone here in America who is going to take responsibility for you in case something happened. So you could just come. The Jews have survived the Holocaust, you know. My parents went to Israel because everybody else said no. So she comes to New York and over to this is such a great story over one dance. There’s a Jewish dance in Manhattan over the weekend, right? And a rich Texan happens to be in town, and he goes to the town and he takes one look at Jolie, who was my daughter, Jolie, and show pictures of them. Pictures. So, of course, she takes it back to Texas, where he is the vice president of Neiman Marcus. Thank you very much. So we go. So when she hears.
Miriam Schulman: Motherland.
Tziporah Salamon: Maybe brother is alive. She didn’t know if she was alive. How would you know? This is after the war. Yeah, she tells me. Well, how does she know if he’s survived or not? I don’t know how she found out, but she found out. So. Is it or is it, you know, her favorite brother? So guess what? She goes shopping and she ain’t looking at price tags. So at least once a month, we will get packages from Neiman Marcus. And my mother would invite all the. I didn’t see all the dressing master class. My mother would invite all with my will.
Miriam Schulman: Put into.
Tziporah Salamon: My book and my class. Right? Yes. So the package is just arrived, right? And there’s clothes and even more kids with my aunt’s incredible line. Not just any clothes. Of course. The best of the best. What do you think? No. My mother would invite all the ins and the uncles in the closet. They would all get probably Saturday night after Chavez, she had baked cake. Of course, my mother was incredible. Hungarian bake. Oh, my. Anyway, so my mother would invite all the relatives Saturday night. She’d bake cake, cake and coffee on the porch. And if he gave them a show, I had all the clothes that just came from from America. And I would show them exactly what I’m doing now in my honor. Except what I did on my memories this morning.
Miriam Schulman: I watched the whole thing. We’ll make sure we link it up in the show notes if we can’t insert it into the video. The whole you’ll get the whole history of this is amazing.
Tziporah Salamon: The outfit is amazing. The shoe? Yeah, just like the shoes. Not just for the show. Yeah. Beautiful. So Poppy is now working at Bergdorf Goodman. He retired from his own store. He was 77. He says to me, you know, I’m retiring. Yeah. And he goes me up to the. I need a job, I can tell. I tell him to Bergdorf Goodman. And it was when the Goodman family owned it. So I was in love. Anyway, so he’s upstairs and I go shop, you know, to all the floors to see what’s in this had just gone. And the color of this. And it’s silk and it’s light and it’s just. So I want it right. And within this town, 30% off. Okay. But I had nothing to wear with it.
Miriam Schulman: I’m going to help you.
Tziporah Salamon: So go ahead.
Miriam Schulman: And the pants.
Tziporah Salamon: Or the pants.
Miriam Schulman: Got it off of some a tablecloth. Like like like Scarlett O’Hara. She saw the tablecloth and said I want this.
Tziporah Salamon: To look at it. Look, look, look how beautiful. You see that? The gradations of the color. I mean, it’s an amazing. And the shine of it, it’s so gorgeous.
Miriam Schulman: And then tell, tell the tell.
Tziporah Salamon: Anyone.
Miriam Schulman: Who needs to know this that I.
Tziporah Salamon: Didn’t know this.
Miriam Schulman: Watching you this morning. Yeah. Where should we be? Hemming our pants.
Tziporah Salamon: Okay, so the ankle bone has to show. Girl, I don’t care what they tell you, I don’t care. I don’t care what InStyle magazine tells you. I don’t care what Vogue tells you, I don’t care. Listen to me. Yves Saint Laurent knew that you got to. And every well-dressed woman who’s really chic and man knows this. If they don’t, if they don’t, I’m telling you, that’s what it takes to be chic. You got to show the ankle bone you do. You just do it. Just so much chic in that way.
Miriam Schulman: Now that we’ve had so much fun, we do have to get to the show. Why are we here?
Tziporah Salamon: Okay, so for me. So what am I meant to. Okay, so of course you are some of the best dressed girl from from day one. Always, always. But I never thought to do anything I was this morning, you know, I, you know, a small Jewish girl. Okay, so we came here. We left when I was in the third grade. I was nine years old. It broke my heart. We came. They didn’t ask me. I had no say in it. In fact, I begged them. I said, please leave me. He was getting a PhD and was already seeing I was in my second year. It was a three year program, was already seeing clients families. When I knew I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t say to them, I’m so sorry our time is up, because that’s what my therapist would say to me, because I have to be a therapist. It was I was just starting, you know, I was just starting to cry. And she was. So I couldn’t do it to the clients, you know? So I would let.
Miriam Schulman: It always just start to cry the last five minutes. It’s right because it takes that. So I knew.
Tziporah Salamon: I couldn’t be a therapist because my supervisor would say, well, you have to learn to make boundaries. You have to learn to make boundaries. And I couldn’t make boundaries, so I quit all that. What was I going to do now? I’m 29 years old. I don’t want to be a teacher. I don’t want to be a therapist. What my my poor parents don’t. My father said, what am I going to tell the customers. I’ve been telling them you’re a doctor. So I keep telling them they’ll never know the difference. Horrible, horrible thing to say, but I didn’t know. Okay, so then I decided to take the pressure off. Just observe. Witness your life. Get to know who you are, what you like. And I realize that twice a week I would go to a local boutique just to let the clothes. I wasn’t buying any of it. I didn’t have that kind of budget and it was like a light bulb hit me. Fashion. There’s a whole career called fashion, and it’s in New York, where your parents still are. So maybe the universe is saying, go back. I was coming to try out New York. I sold the apartment for the summer, and I was coming to try out, you know, whether I want to move back to New York. I’m 29 a week before I’m coming. Anyway. I have the tickets. I have the tenants ready to move in. My father calls me up and just get in the next play. Mom has cancer, so all points. You know, God always gives you clues. This was a big clue. So I moved that. We extended her life. She became macrobiotic, so she lit. And then my mother, who was a cook, so she for herself, she made macrobiotics for my father. She made like tonight she would have made the blintzes. Thank you very much. Because we eat theory and the theory of the sour cream with cherry soup. That would have been first a chilled sour cream with cherry and then balances as many. My father would eat 30 at least, you know. And the blintzes had three different fillings, you know.
Miriam Schulman: Right.
Tziporah Salamon: Anyway, so I lost my mother when I was 31 and she was 62, and my mother was 31 when I was born. So we had 31. Which 13? Which is a bar mitzvah, and very much into signs and things like that.
Miriam Schulman: I lost my father when he was 31.
Tziporah Salamon: They have another. Bingo. So, you know, while he was young, I was young. How old were you? Five. Yeah, well. That’s it. That’s a whole lot. We will. And we will hear that story. But not now. Okay. I’m telling you how this. So what am I meant to be? What am I meant to be? What am I going to do? I’m pursuing fashion. And my first job was in Soho. And Soho was great. 1979 1980. In fact, I lived in one of the lofts there on Mercer Street. It was amazing. Anyway, and so I the first job was at Victoria Falls, which was an amazing antique clothing shop there in Soho. And then I learned about antique clothes. That was my introduction to an antique clothes, really, and a really good introduction, because you had the best of that. So there were shows like this show. They were, you know, we sold piano shows and stuff from the 20s, be the dresses and 1940s suits, and she had great Chinese, such a great stuff. And I was a salesperson there. Okay. So that was my education in in women’s clothes. From there I went on to Chakravarty, which was here on the Upper West Side, and then they opened up on Columbus and 79th, just Japanese, and they were the first one to bring in the Japanese. So I saw basically Akiyoshi Yamamoto and Matsuda. Matsuda was actually the most brilliant.
Tziporah Salamon: So we’re talking 1979, 1980, 1981. You know, this is the start of becoming a song in 1979 80. I wanted the whole story anyway, so I’m exploding. So I was like, okay, so I worked there at the men’s stores and I was in education in men’s clothes. Miss Sony Through Xenia. Armani. I didn’t know any of this. There. There was Barneys. And Barneys was incredible. And it was a duplex. It was an immense department store, not a Jewish family or a men’s department store. And finally they had the idea women’s. Let’s have some women. So there was a duplex, two floors. Right? And it was all. The architect was a brilliant guy to do the link to her famous woman architect who who designed the the penthouse, you know, upstairs, the two floors. So that’s where I work. Now, again, what’s interesting saying go check out, you know, so Barney’s the women’s duplex, and I’m looking at through the clothes and I choose. I want to try on this. Sweater and this Sonia Rykiel blouse. Right. And there’s a guy there, and he’s watching me, and he says to me, you just picked up the two best things on the floor. What do you do? And I said, well, I’m actually here because I want to be a buyer here. He says, well, you can’t be a buyer because I’m the buyer.
Miriam Schulman: I want your job.
Tziporah Salamon: Right? What I would love for you, but please come as a salesperson. Right. And so, of course, because they knew I understood it, they gave me the Japanese room. So it was kind of a sign. I saw Martha Stewart. She was having cement to you. And Armani suit. That’s what most ladies with money and style were, you know, because that was the norm. Armani, Sonia Rykiel. And so they gave me that room. Of course, as I understood it and loved it. So from there I went, okay, so and my profile was this I sent you to the school so you could make $9 an hour, which is what I was making, huh? And I’m like, dad, just give me time. Give me time. And I’m figuring it out. Right? Okay. From there, I decided, okay, maybe I want to be a designer because I know how to design. I did that with my mother here. Mom and mom would do it. You know, I could show it to her on Friday. We’d go shopping for the fabric, and by Sunday night, she’d be pinning it on me because my mother couldn’t make that. She knew how to make the pattern go work for Norma Kamali. So I got to watch with Norma. Right? And sometimes the one headaches that she would get, you know, phone calls from Milan saying they can no longer get that certain dye or the dye ran and they ruined the blouses and whatever. I said there was chance with that, too, you know? And I’m like, I don’t want them. Me and mom is one thing, but a whole line and know that. I don’t think so. Next, there’s a job called stylist. And I like that. You know, to play with clothes and, you know, put the. Oh, I love that. So now I’m an assistant to a stylist.
Miriam Schulman: So you were styling commercials.
Tziporah Salamon: You that it’s on like. I don’t think so. And so I decided okay. What new people. Creatives, you know, who don’t know what they want to be. They’re waitresses in New York, so maybe I should be a waitress. I became a waitress at tavern on the green. Of course, at beautiful in the garden. Of course, in the summer time, we wanted to exceed our standard vintage men’s tuxedo with the vintage men’s tuxedo shirt and vintage bow tie. The whole thing. My downfall was I didn’t know how to open up a wine bottle in mid-air. I had to put it down the wine bottle had to sit on the table. So we did that until I got caught and then I got fired. So from there I went to Luxembourg as a hostess. And I loved that I loved. And by then I had my own Luxembourg.
Miriam Schulman: We’ll show you what that was.
Tziporah Salamon: Yeah. Beautiful. And by then. And by then, that had already. I was already living. Because when my mother died when I was 31, in 1981, that summer, I went to Israel, to all my mother in Israel. And I met a woman there who had who was dating a man who owned the building. And yes, there was an apartment there that was for rent. And so I was already living on 72nd Street between West End and Riverside. Okay. So I would walk to a cafe.
Miriam Schulman: Still the same.
Tziporah Salamon: I’m still there. I’ve been there since I’m 32 because of my mother. And I finally got the apartment because of my mother. Okay, so now I’m in Luxembourg, my hostess at Luxembourg, and this guy comes in one day and he says, what time do you get off Saturday night? I said 11. 11%. Great. I’d like to take you to a restaurant that I know you’re going to love. I’ll see you Saturday night. And sure enough, Saturday night. She comes in and around a 10:45 and sits himself down at the bar, motions that he’s there, but he’s totally fine by himself. A drink. 11:00 I go get my coat and I say, good night. Keep the older sister. This is your last night, okay? Just been fired. My date’s waiting for me. We go to Jezebel. So Jezebel is a restaurant on 45th Street and ninth Avenue. The owner is a woman named Alberta. Right? She had an antique clothing store on Columbus called Jezebel. I read in one of the magazines, I think it was San Francisco magazines, the best thrift stores in New York City, and Jezebel was mentioned on it. It was on 77th and Columbus. John and Yoko would come in all the time. She had the best. She had great stuff. She then closed the shop and opened up this restaurant where my date was taking me to these piano shows. There were 17 tables, and each table the piano shows was the tablecloth.
Tziporah Salamon: Now, of course, they were covered in glass, but should this would be one. The other one would be black with yellow peonies and then pink with red peonies, and then purple with orange peonies. And then I mean it 17 of these tables of these. Yeah. 70 tables over. The beaded dresses were hanging off the exposed beams, the land shades all beaded. It was a maxi of my mini, because that’s how I decorate. I have one table with a piano, so the hats and the everything is all around. Just so it was like taking like the land in Disney, right? And in the right, like like the beaded little beaded bag. They would be off the lampshade. Right. And scarves like that, you know, tying the, you know, the, the, the devices, you know, tying the vases, this little scarf, antique white with the flower. Okay. So now there’s a door and I with the door swing the door open. I’m now in the kitchen and there’s this amazing woman, Alberta, the owner, frying up the okra with this incredible. Do that. And I look with the short beard. Great guide. She looks at me. She says, what are you wearing, dear? And I’m wearing I said, Yohji Yamamoto and I still have it. It’s an incredible jumper. One shoulder will do. And link she What are you waiting for? Turn around, I turn around. What do you do?
Miriam Schulman: And bingo.
Tziporah Salamon: She hired me. Should. This was my best job to this day. This was my best job because we had to wear our own antique clothes. We were four waitresses, all Jezebel’s. Now I have to tell you, they were all African. They were black. Everyone in the restaurant. Alberta. I’m the only white girl. And I never felt more at home. I mean, it was like being an albino with my black sisters. So anybody who was anybody would come into that restaurant in the arts. In all arts. So. Oh, and I failed to mention she dressed Annie Hall, Alberta, so that the clothes for Annie Hall, they were Ralph Lauren, the new clothes and all the ties and the vintage. That’s all from Alberta. So people like Diane Keaton would come in. People. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. Every Friday night. Every Friday night. And Joanne always came before Paul. She never sat idly. She’d take out embroidery. And then as soon as Paul came, she would put the embroidery in a bag. There would, of course, hug and kiss and hold hands and eat dinner. I mean, even Stevie Wonder has his birthday party there. Harry Belafonte had his birthday party there, and it was like. It was like four, you know, 430. It’s like showtime. Like, who’s going to walk through those doors? I love, love, love that job. Loved it. And of course, everyone thought I was Jezebel. Oh, and because I was the best dressed, of course she would bring me. Alberta would bring me her hats from her collection and say, wear this today. Wear this today. And of course, I would take that hat back home and build an outfit for the hat. So I’m still like, what am I meant to be? And I say to my friend Melissa. I love working at Jezebel. Don’t get me wrong. And the money is great and I love it. But obviously what am I meant to do? So she says, ask that question tonight before you fall asleep. Okay.
Tziporah Salamon: Easy enough. I ask God, I fall asleep. The next day I wake up and I remember the dream. In the dream, my roommate and I had a roommate that was the youngest of the Jezebel. She was my roommate. So Deborah handed the phone. In the dream, Deborah hands me the phone. It’s for you. It’s Glenn close. In the dream. In the dream.
Miriam Schulman: The dream. Okay.
Tziporah Salamon: I didn’t want to say hello. I’ve always admired your work. Okay. She said 1984. We’re talking. Okay. 34 years.
Miriam Schulman: Fatal attraction.
Tziporah Salamon: You got. Yeah. Right. So I said I’ve always been. You know, I’m a big fan. I’ve always admired you. She said, Sarah, right. I hear you’re a fashion consultant. I hear you’re the best in the business. I want to hire you.
Miriam Schulman: Hey, if you’ve ever wondered how artists really make a living from their art with maybe without a gallery, an agent, or a hundred thousand followers, then you absolutely need to watch this masterclass. It’s free. And I pull back the curtain on what it actually takes to sell more art and create consistent income from your creativity. Whether you’re just getting started or you have some success and you’re building on that. This class is going to help you stop spinning and start selling. So head on over to SchulmanArt.com slash. Sell more art to save your spot. And now let’s get back to the show.
Tziporah Salamon: That’s it. That’s the dream. I called Melissa, the friend who told me to do this. Melissa will never. You won’t believe this. But the dream. She says to me. I suggest you take your portfolio. And telling Melissa about the dream. She says to meet super. I suggest you take your portfolio and you go to Broadway, where Glenn was appearing in a show called The Benefactors. Okay, so it’s Wednesday afternoon. I get all dolled up. I go, I know there’s a matinee, and I say, I’m here to see Glenn Close. And they say, go knocking on that door. There I go knocking.
Miriam Schulman: Because you showed up like, well, of course you’re going to let me in. Like with that. I’m here to see her some more.
Tziporah Salamon: So luckily I’m here to see this close. So go knocking on the big gray door. Okay. I go knocking on the door.
Tziporah Salamon: This guard comes from behind. Yes. Can I help you? Yes. Hi. I’m here to see Glenn Close. Do you have an appointment? I’m sorry. No. He says. I’m sorry. You can’t see her.
Tziporah Salamon: And I’m about to walk away. I am walking away. What? I’m going to argue. When a woman comes from behind him, he can’t make this shit up. This is real. This is not the dream. A woman comes from behind him and says. Won’t you come in? We’ve been waiting.
Miriam Schulman: Go ahead.
Tziporah Salamon: But obviously they were waiting for someone at 4:00 and I show up. So wait. So the assistant takes me back. I go.
Miriam Schulman: Bingo. Okay.
Tziporah Salamon: The assistant takes me right, and the dressing room that has a sign opens up. Glenn Close comes out and says, why don’t you come in immediacy. Miss close, I am not who you think I am. I don’t know who you expect. They will open up my portfolio. And she’s looking at the clothes and she starts telling me her history with clothes. How she only wore hand-me-downs. Growing up, you know, they were poor and blah, blah, blah. But now she says I really must go because probably the other woman was coming, was here. Right? Then I see this close. You’ve got stardom written all over you with me in your life. You’ll just be a little more glamorous as you get there. That was it. Around two weeks later, I asked you for my card. Around two weeks later, I get a beautiful handwritten note. Thank you so much. I was so taken by the moxie and your pizzazz. But having thought about it. No. Thank you. And really, she really should have hired me. Because I go there. He does not dress well. But. Okay. She didn’t hire her. All right. All right. What did.
Miriam Schulman: You say? I’m ready for my close up.
Tziporah Salamon: Right. But I think he got it right. Yeah. So. Okay. This is so odd. When I went to do a whole lot. When I was 36, I met Zaki. So Zaki is my Egyptian brother. I was in between restaurant gigs. And someone said, go check out the restaurant called Cafe Sphinx. I get all dolled up, I take the portfolio. I became the older sister immediately. And I always wanted a brother. I always said to my mother. Why didn’t you have a little boy after me? I so much would have loved to have a little brother. So at the age of 36, I found my little brother. I was again in between gigs. And there’s always another restaurant job. And so I settled in my apartment and moved to Cairo, and it was one of the most fascinating years of my life. I was the tutor for the 10 to 12 year olds in English. I was their private tutor in my own office and the therapist for the 10 to 12 year olds, and they paid. It was the British International School of Cairo. They paid in sterling. They paid well. I had my own chauffeur. Thank you very much. I lived in this incredible cottage. Where? In Nazareth. And, man, where the pyramids are.
Tziporah Salamon: The chauffeur picked me up every morning to take me to Zamalek, where the school was in a very plush little neighborhood. It was like one of my best years of my life. Interesting. Like, I can tell you, nice Jewish girl. And my father. Oh my God. The relatives were right to me. You’re killing your father. I said I was from Israel. And actually, what was interesting, this is really such a timely story is that obviously my student, it was a private school. Obviously, my students were very wealthy. This was to their country home. So there was a pool. There was a lake. There were peacocks walking around. There was an orchestra playing music for the 10 to 12 year olds, and there was a tent with all the food from all over the world to feed an army. Right. And her father. Now, this is the first time I’m seeing the father is sitting there under the tent, is sitting there smoking a hookah. So he’s the prince of Saudi Arabia, right? I’m sitting there. He advised me to sit next to him. Please. You know, I’m the head honcho in the school. I mean, of his, you know, daughters, You know the ten year olds. Right.
Miriam Schulman: All right. Let’s be honest. Most artists don’t struggle because their work isn’t good enough. They struggle because no one ever taught them how to sell it. So if you’re tired of second guessing your pricing, feeling invisible online, or wondering where your next sell is coming from, this free masterclass is for you. I’ll walk you through the five things every thriving artist must have in place to build a real, sustainable business. You can register right now over at SchulmanArt.com. Slash sell more art. And now let’s get back to the show.
Tziporah Salamon: Invite me to sit next to him and he says, tell me about yourself. Perfect English. And I say, well, I was born and raised in Israel. And he says, you know what the solution to the Middle East is? Saudi Arabia, money, oil and Egyptian manpower and Israeli brainpower. He had the solution right there, 1992. That’s where we’re going to come back to by October. So by then, what I was doing was showing up on Instagram and for a living. Okay, I have a course called the Art of dressing master class. Museums hire me. Fashion Council of Chicago hired me. Scad Savannah hired me. It’s a school. Parsons. Atlanta, right. And I’m also a model. I became a model when I was 63, and I said, and I teach this course, and I have 135 at the time when October said I’m having 135,000 followers on Instagram. Once that happened, I could no longer show the clothes. It was like. This is what’s important. My people are being killed. This is not the time to show the clothes. So I kind of didn’t have a voice and didn’t know what to do, so I.
Miriam Schulman: And how.
Tziporah Salamon: Long.
Miriam Schulman: Did you stay in that place? Are you still.
Tziporah Salamon: There? I’m just coming out.
Miriam Schulman: Yeah, because.
Tziporah Salamon: I am.
Miriam Schulman: Just.
Tziporah Salamon: Coming.
Miriam Schulman: Out. It’s like this week you posted almost every day.
Tziporah Salamon: Okay, so what happened this week? Now you also have to know that what happened this week was like there’s a post about it, I mean, yellow. And I finally figured out that the yellow ribbon on both bags. Right. Should I tie yellow ribbon? Go to the outfit because I’m in yellow. So when the ribbons aren’t around me, you know, a scarf and then another scarf. You know, they’re around the two yellow bags. I’m on the bicycle and I’m blasting Yuval Raphael’s music. New day will come and not everyone knows it. I went to the bike shop. Fabulous guy there who helps me out. God bless him. He showed me how to route that song. You know how to make it play over and over and over and over. So that gave me hope. That only started last week, right? So now what I’m doing is I’m doing that also on my stories. I post other people. I post a ton a lot. Today I reposted Noah’s thing. So that’s what I’m saying I know yes no teach me so I can admire. But with this I didn’t know that I was an artist. I was in therapy and it was very hard for me to say I’m an artist because for me, Matisse is an artist. You know, while I was getting the PhD in psychology. I lived in a cottage in Berkeley, and I would be in therapy when I would come home and cry and and all the meditations were around the room. I never lived with the TV, always with mattresses all around the room. And I would, you know, go over the session and what I’m learning it as my eyes are going from painting to painting. Obviously they weren’t the real deal, but the good topic is painting, right? And I read my teeth, sharpened my eyes and made them into diamonds and but it was very hard for me, like, this is my alarm, this is my alarm. Because now I was going to be an Egyptian all the time, and I was becoming like a Jew. I was I was learning, you know, because I didn’t.
Miriam Schulman: Conservative school that is in my neighborhood.
Tziporah Salamon: Which is.
Miriam Schulman: Why we’re like translating.
Tziporah Salamon: And you know, and I.
Miriam Schulman: Synagogue I forget that they Sure. You may not even have that.
Tziporah Salamon: And I really came for the music and stayed for everything. Torah and the rabbis and who they are. Amazing. So I was learning about tikkun olam and being a good Jew and having.
Miriam Schulman: This healing in.
Tziporah Salamon: The world. And how is this mighty? How am I healing by, you know, playing dress up? I didn’t know. Okay, so I’ll tell you what happened, but I will tell you how I got here. So now I’m 49. And I went and I said the summers that I’m 49, which is 19. I’m born in 1549, 1999 and 2050 I am. I go to a retreat called L’Occitane during the summer. It was up by upstate New York and people came there to vacation for the week. And there were also classes in Judaism and yoga. And our first Shabbat. Chicago was one of the rabbis there. Asked if there was anyone who wanted to dress the Torah. Now, I had never heard that you dressed the Torah. I didn’t know that. Fast or not, I raised.
Miriam Schulman: Okay, I’ll just explain. So addressing the Torah, we basically have like a cover that goes over it. So it’s not like you might be thinking like you’re picking out an outfit it already has and that you put it on the belt. Yes. You you put on the belt, you put on the cover and you put on the hat.
Tziporah Salamon: And the and the yacht.
Miriam Schulman: And the yacht. Right. The crowns and the yacht. Right. The yacht is what they use to to read, to watch the march.
Tziporah Salamon: Exactly. And the yacht is. It’s a finger. Right. So I’m raising my hand. All the other work study people are like giggling, of course, you know. And she says to me, yes, I noticed you are a good dresser. And I have to tell you, this was the parting of the Red sea for me. It really was. It was like for the first time in my life, a rabbi acknowledged what I do and found it good.
Miriam Schulman: Okay.
Tziporah Salamon: Right. I had the rabbi’s blessing in some way. That this wasn’t frivolous, that this was in vain.
Miriam Schulman: So now October 7th happened. And new, like many Jewish people, felt shut down.
Tziporah Salamon: Totally. Totally. Totally.
Miriam Schulman: I never had this conversation with you because I felt shut down. It’s it brought up a lot of ancestral trauma. So, you know, the port said she has a child of Holocaust survivors, but all Jews are survivors of something. Pogroms. And and you can feel in the DNA it’s time to hide. Yes. And, yes. It doesn’t feel safe. And one could argue in cancel culture, it doesn’t feel.
Tziporah Salamon: Safe. What it is and it’s not safe. And yet I wrote a whole book.
Miriam Schulman: A whole chapter in my book is how you’re supposed to embrace what’s weird, what’s different, and not be afraid of being polarizing. And yet, here I was, feeling scared to talk about my son being a soldier on October 7th and going into Woodsboro.
Tziporah Salamon: I didn’t know this.
Miriam Schulman: So on October 7th, we get the call that Israel is at war. Of course, my son was already in training and in a special forces unit. So anytime I got the call, I thought, oh my God, he’s dead. So I was just happy to hear he wasn’t dead, but he was going in. Wow. So October 7th. October 8th. I thought it was okay to say my son’s okay. And here’s a picture of him. It wasn’t okay, because then that’s when the hate started. Right?
Tziporah Salamon: Right.
Miriam Schulman: So it’s been. I haven’t been hiding that I’m Jewish. I haven’t been hiding that I have an Israeli son, and now I have an Israeli family. He’s married. Oh, what got me.
Tziporah Salamon: Through the children?
Miriam Schulman: There will be a child soon. But for me, the Red sea was during that. During the war, when he was a soldier and active duty in Gaza. For two months, I was Miriam on that sandbar singing. That was how I got through. It was that I’m okay right now. He’s okay right now. Well, I don’t think about the Egyptians on my back. I don’t think about what’s ahead. That was like the metaphor for me. Well, and this is how I’m going to get through it.
Tziporah Salamon: Wow.
Miriam Schulman: So as far as how I show up, you say you share. I decided that it wasn’t my lane to share because I felt. Not that you’re doing the wrong thing. I’m glad there’s lots of people sharing. I knew that I still wanted to be a place that people could come to and find that peace and their art, and still hear that message they needed to hear. And I would love for you to continue to be that place where, when I want to just hear about fashion, I can go there.
Tziporah Salamon: Well, that’s what’s so nice is that since so that post did, I did. And you know, I was in the garden on 70. There’s a beautiful garden that the community really takes care of. So that’s where in the neighborhood it’s like 80, 88, 87. No. You know.
Miriam Schulman: It’s a it’s a place where Tom Hanks meets Meet Meg Ryan in that movie You Got Mail at the very end. There’s that garden. Is that on 97th Street? The garden, the garden.
Tziporah Salamon: Okay, so. So that’s where that post that I did about in yellow, the yellow ribbon that was that a woman just stopped me and said, you look so lovely. And she happened to be Jewish. And I said, please. So she posted that and I posted that on. Anyway, on that post, I got so many comments about we’re here for the fashion to please, please. It’s one that please continue the classic come back. So that’s why I’m doing it again. Come back. Tell us that’s what today I did a whole thing about anatomy of an outfit. Right. Come back, come back.
Miriam Schulman: As my namesake. Miriam. Please stay.
Tziporah Salamon: Oh, I love you. So this is this is.
Miriam Schulman: This is what Miriam did. They’re crossing the Red sea, and she said, let’s think, let’s sing. And I know there’s a lot of artists who feel not just Jewish artists, but artists who feel like I can’t do something because there’s an earthquake. I can’t do something because of the economy. I can’t do something because whatever tariffs involving something, the world needs your art. Some of the best art has always come after these moments, like after World War two or, you know, after these moments, this is the world needs it. Art is healing for people.
Tziporah Salamon: Absolutely. It really is. Because the feedback that I’m getting is, please, we’re also here for this. So please continue and please tell us and please show us. So yeah, so I’m kind of back. And what I’m grateful for too is that I can share my stories. Other people who are educating the world about what’s going on. Yeah. You know, like Noah, you know, like Norman Freed or therapist or Douglas. Murray. Douglas. Murray. Like, exactly. Exactly like all these people were speaking up today. I mean, I reposted on my story. Not Jewish, not anyone. She said no, I am standing up for my Jewish friends. This is crazy. What’s going on? We posted her on stories. So I will do the stories and on my own thing. I’ll continue with the clubs. That’s a nice. Yeah, that’s a nice, very nice compromise and keep telling the stories because, you know, there’s so many stories. Yeah. So I’ll announce what time, you know, because you go to. I’ll go to temple. It’s a great day for me to do a live show.
Miriam Schulman: Thank you so much for joining me here for this conversation. I want to follow up with you, because it may not be until I get back from Israel.
Tziporah Salamon: Okay. When are you going?
Miriam Schulman: I’m leaving on the 15th.
Tziporah Salamon: That’s for you. And how long? Two weeks. And where do you say?
Miriam Schulman: Jerusalem.
Tziporah Salamon: So. And where’s your son?
Miriam Schulman: Jerusalem.
Tziporah Salamon: So you are the Hotel.
Miriam Schulman: All right. So first of all, we want to make this the happy. The happy ending for those, you know, like my, my son was, was like, you know, in Gaza going looking for tunnels and all. All that.
Tziporah Salamon: Really.
Miriam Schulman: I didn’t sleep, you know. Yes. And what got me through is I decided that I was going to learn Hebrew. I didn’t know any Hebrew.
Tziporah Salamon: How did you learn Hebrew?
Miriam Schulman: I didn’t know anything. I didn’t even know the the letters on the dreidel. I knew nothing.
Tziporah Salamon: Wow.
Miriam Schulman: Now, I named it.
Tziporah Salamon: After the met. How did you make it? Yeah. How did you learn?
Miriam Schulman: Did I learn any of that? And you know that in January or February of 2024, I went to my cantor and I said that I.
Tziporah Salamon: And what temple are you in?
Miriam Schulman: I said, that’s that’s people of kindness. That’s what that means.
Tziporah Salamon: That’s on the Upper West Side. I know it. What you used to go there. The singer who’s since passed away. She was incredible.
Miriam Schulman: Oh, yeah? Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, we have.
Tziporah Salamon: Yeah.
Miriam Schulman: I said, I want to learn, and I need, you know, to give myself time. I didn’t tell her how little I knew because I thought I didn’t want to scare her away.
Tziporah Salamon: And she’s what? She. She goes there.
Miriam Schulman: She’s the cantor.
Tziporah Salamon: She’s the. Oh. Do you.
Miriam Schulman: Want the.
Tziporah Salamon: Cantor?
Miriam Schulman: Cantor? She’s Ukrainian. I asked the cantor to help me. I said we’ll pick something out in December. So I had my bar mitzvah of December of this year, and I did the I did the whole 11. Zoom, zoom. See Ken do 11 lines. And then I also signed up, reopened and, you know, good old Duolingo.
Tziporah Salamon: So really?
Miriam Schulman: Yeah.
Tziporah Salamon: And open where.
Miriam Schulman: Jcc.
Tziporah Salamon: And you go.
Miriam Schulman: I.
Tziporah Salamon: We.
Miriam Schulman: Went like for a semester and a half and then my husband says, please don’t make us go anymore. I fun with your homework. But I think he wrote that he agreed to.
Tziporah Salamon: Say you had.
Miriam Schulman: Too.
Tziporah Salamon: Much.
Miriam Schulman: For me.
Tziporah Salamon: And he said, you can. Oh, he said, oh, that’s wonderful. There’s this in Hebrew Bible and she’s. I. I think you do it online. I’m thinking of hiring, though, because I want my Hebrew to be perfect, you know, because I want to go back to Israel and I want to do my Art of dressing masterclass in Hebrew. And I also have a one woman show that we didn’t talk about called The Fabric of My Life. And that’s a scripted show. I wrote the script to that. I performed it at the Jewish Museum on the Upper East Side at the Holocaust Museum. I performed it many times, and it’s time to perform it somewhere. So.
Miriam Schulman: So that was my thought that I, my son, would get through the war and someday I would speak to my Israeli grandchildren.
Tziporah Salamon: I love them and then.
Miriam Schulman: So he was in Gaza when he was dating, though every weekend that he was not in the army, he was doing the Orthodox dating thing. I mean, we found out that when we went to visit him at the end ball, he was meeting girls down in the lobby after we went to sleep. Like shizzle. Okay, so now he met this girl. Right after we went home, he met a girl and in February he says, okay, mom, I met the girl. I’m getting married. So in August 24th, he got married. Wow. Nine months later, I’m going to be a BAFTA.
Tziporah Salamon: Should they really are into getting married and having children to rebuild? I mean.
Miriam Schulman: He says that it’s it’s a culture of life. They’re they’re very clear.
Tziporah Salamon: How long has he been there?
Miriam Schulman: Um, he left during the pandemic. He wanted, you know, he did the whole birthright thing. And he told me, mom, I dropping out of school and joining the IDF, I go, no, not your finishing college first. Well, college ended up being a very expensive NYU in college and my dining room in Scarsdale, so. So we said, no, you’re going to wait. You can do a year abroad. Well, that never happened because of Covid. So he graduated as soon as he possibly could.
Tziporah Salamon: Where did you go to school? Nyu. Okay.
Miriam Schulman: He finished his last semester of nutrition. So he did his last semester in Tel Aviv, and he started. And we didn’t know who he was going to become. Orthodox. He knew, but we didn’t know, really. And he started studying at a yeshiva at the same time. And then he also became fluent in Hebrew because we’re not Israelis. He became fluent when he moved there. So he joined the Army. He got into a special forces unit. He’s like, guess what, mom, I got in. I’m like, yay, you know? Like, I wasn’t excited about that.
Tziporah Salamon: Wow.
Miriam Schulman: So when I first invited Zipporah on the show, it was because we had discussed how we both wanted to have a vulnerable conversation about what it feels like to be Jewish. Especially if you’re someone with deep ties to Israel. In a post October 7th world. And that’s the kind of dialog I believe we need more of. Honest. Tender. Uncomfortable. Vulnerable. But as we recorded, I could sense that vulnerability was not going to be easy for her to access in the moment. And instead, she leaned in to what’s always been her safe harbor. Fashion. Storytelling. Personal style. And I honored that. The truth is, creativity can be a kind of armor and a kind of prayer. And sometimes we speak through our words and sometimes through the way we dress. We carry ourselves or show up in beauty during dark times. So if this conversation stirred something in you, whether it’s about self-expression, Jewish identity, or simply what it means to live creatively. I hope you’ll keep exploring. And if you’re an artist looking to make a bigger impact, thanks for listening. And until next time, stay inspired. Keep creating. Keep speaking out. Even when it’s hard. Even when it’s vulnerable. I’ll see you the same time, same place next week. Until then, stay inspired. Bye for now.
Speaker 2: Thank you for listening to The Inspiration Place podcast. Connect with us on Facebook at facebook.com/schulmanart, on Instagram @schulmanart and of course, on SchulmanArt.com.
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