Stephen Burrows Reminisces In Rhythm

Stephen Burrows Reminisces in Rhythm

Stephen Burrows made sure that The Supremes' "Up the Ladder to the Roof" will be piped into the retrospective of his work that bows Thursday night at the Museum of the City of New York.

Aside from being a favorite song he liked to blast, it could double as an anthem for his career. Fittingly, the exhibition is called "Stephen Burrows: When Fashion Danced." And dance he did, regardless of whether it was to Motown, rhythm and blues, New York sound or rock 'n' roll. The music, like the up-until-dawn club scene he was once part of, has fueled his creativity as much as the buzz and street life he finds so stimulating about New York City.

As 25 helpers scrambled about on Tuesday afternoon pinning muslins, rolling on photographs like wallpaper and setting display text, Burrows did not seem to be the least bit wistful, frazzled or reflective about being surrounded by his past. (Never mind that he has spent the better part of the last six weeks helping to track down and select 50 pieces for the show.) Other flashbacks could be heard loud and clear in a documentary about the 1973 "Battle of Versailles" between French and American designers, of which Burrows was one. "It's humbling to have so much attention. Usually something like this doesn't happen until you pass," he said. "Being successful is being happy in what you're doing and being able to make money at something that you love to do. I can't imagine anything that makes you happier than finding true love."

Born in Newark to divorced parents, Burrows has always thought of himself as "bicoastal" in that he always traveled between his mother's New Jersey home and his father's Harlem one. After graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology, his senior co-op job at the missy blouse company Weber Originals turned into a full-time one. "I was making $125 a week. That was a fortune...