GLADYS MAY

she was a fashion icon and colorful figure during the 1980s los angeles. GLADYS MAY would go out every-night with her son steven may, BF jeff judd and myself. we went everywhere from gay bars, the china club, art exhibits, including avedon's opening where i witnessed avendon whisper in glady's ear, and watched her burst into tears. "what did he say to you?' i asked. "he said i was beautiful," she replied..
gladys was a beauty and one in a million. i believe we went to the premiere of CRUISING together, gladys resplendent in THIERRY MUGLER from head to toe crossed the GLAD picket line without a flinch.

sweet gladys passed away a few years ago.
her surrogate son jeff judd send me this clipping-

60 years of fashion history up for auction
By Jennifer Sullivan
Seattle Times staff reporter
TACOMA — From the time she was a little girl designing her own clothes until she was well into her 80s, Gladys May loved to adorn herself in the highest of haute couture.

So fashion collectors giggled and gasped in delight Friday as they pawed through May's collection of Pucci, Valentino, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior and Thierry Mugler.

About 60 years' worth of May's closets are being put up for auction today, more than two years after the fashion maven died in Seattle at age 85 in September 2003. It had taken her estate that long to assemble the collection from homes she kept in Seattle and Los Angeles.

"This is a fabulous collection," said Cheryl Maddux, owner of Pike Place Antiques at Seattle's Pike Place Market, who arrived at an auction preview early Friday to scope out her favorite items.

"I remember Gladys from when I worked at Deluxe Junk [a store in Fremont], and she was always dressed to the nines."

As one of six girls in an Oklahoma family, May designed clothes for her paper dolls, then her grandmother made the full-size versions for her, said her son, Stephen May.

May married young and moved West in the 1930s. During her marriage, and after her divorce in the 1960s, she toured the globe with her son in tow.

May befriended artist Andy Warhol and fashion designer Mugler, who was so fond of her that he put her in his shows. The peach cashmere sweater — with silver leather embroidery and matching peach cashmere stirrup pants — that she modeled for Mugler will be up for bid today, her son said.

"Through our lives with the Warhol crowd, she met every celebrity, every famous person you could imagine," said Stephen May, 57, who lives in Seattle. "Everyone assumed she was an actress or model."

The fashion auction was the idea of auctioneer Mike Odell and Alan Gorsuch, who owns Sanford & Son Antiques & Auctions in Tacoma.

More than 4,000 items will be up for bid. And that includes a short, red, strapless dress, with sequins and a feather boa, designed by Bob Mackie for Cher. And a red, strapless dress that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis wore to an opening of The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Dresses run from sizes 3 to 12 and shoes are generally sizes 6 and 7.
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