party lines

Betsey Johnson Wants to Sell Clothes on TV, Despite Disliking Technology

Betsey Johnson wants to do a diffusion line, and she might be close to landing one. “A couple of people are romancing,” she told us last night before accepting her Lifetime Achievement Award in Fashion from the National Arts Club. “I want to do television, like QVC or HSN. That’s in talks. I let the talkers do the talk. I jump in at the end.” Between the two at-home shopping networks, she prefers QVC, home of Rachel Zoe and Joan Rivers. “I like QVC because I’ve done it for breast cancer, T-shirts and stuff over the years. And my dentist is a big QVC-er. And Stan Herman from the CFDA, he does QVC. And my lingerie company does QVC. It just seems more QVC-y to me, in terms of my collaborations with companies.”

And despite wanting to hawk her clothes on TV, a business model that requires viewers to call in or order online, she said she likes to stay away from technology herself. “I don’t go online. I never have,” she told us. “I don’t know how to log on, open up, or work the mouse,” she said. “I just ask all the kids at work. And I Twitter.” How is that possible without using the necessary equipment? “Through Teresa, the Twitterer,” she explained, pointing to her assistant, as if showing off a magical technological angel. “The people at work help me out. They take my e-mails, my Twitter. I’m covered,” she asserted. “And I read my Twitters. I talk to Teresa and she does it all. My fingers don’t even fit on those little keypads,” she said, waving her thumbs around. Well, we thought, what about the phone, since QVC allows people to call in, too? “I’m very bad at picking up the phone. I don’t enjoy the game of pressing buttons,” she said, defeating that option. “I can’t deal with those electrics.”

Betsey Johnson Wants to Sell Clothes on TV, Despite Disliking Technology