Pumpkin Queen

Henri David on this year's party.

by A.D. Amorosi

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Henri David hasn't opened his legendary jewelry boutique for the day, but he's already on. He's teasing, gossiping, rapping about his 39th annual Halloween Ball before most of us have crawled out of bed. "I like to say our Halloween is the most fun you can have with your clothes on — though we'd appreciate if you didn't have clothes on," he says. "Then again, it's always the wrong people who get undressed." This is how the host of Philadelphia's Halloween starts his day.

CP: You're famously secretive about your outfits. Why? Have you ever not been?

HD: No. Never. But I was secretive honestly because I always wanted my friends to get as big a kick out of everything as I do. There are people who help me sew — all of whom are better at it than I — that don't know what I'm wearing. Each only sews a piece of it. They have no clue what it will be in its entirety. I put it together and — tah-dah.

CP: Anybody ever leak?

HD: Nope. It's mostly lots of the same sewers and friends — people I've accumulated over the years. They're as into it as I am. They're sewing themselves into what I do. They have to look great.

CP: Is there a theme among your costumes?

HD: Only in a sense that I'm ecologically horrible. There're scads of plastic amongst them. I'm a green guy. But this is plastic ... a lot of it. If that's what I have to do to outdo myself every year, so be it.

CP: There have been a lot of outfits since 1968. But what's the one in terms of complexity?

HD: There was this thing 10 years ago. I was on top of a 15-foot inflatable Jack-O-Lantern as the spider on top of the pumpkin. I was on a platform greeting people when the hotel staff took the ladder away and there was no way of getting down for three hours. My eight arms were flailing. The arms were 20 feet long. And at the end of each? Shoes with high heels. Somehow I worked each leg and arm separate, like a Muppet. People were really reacting — coming close, running away. It was hilarious.

CP: How do you like the new Philly arrivals and young'uns popping into the store and the party?

HD: I've been around a long time, huh? I don't have a computer or a Web site. They find me. I find it strange when new people come into the shop and say they'd be online looking for unusual jewelry and couldn't find any. My reaction is always this: Duh! Get away from the screen. Walk out the door. Look up at the sky. What the fuck. As for the party, it's older than a lot of the guests. But they've been to the packed bars. After months of working on a costume, they want their outfits to be seen. What's really great is if I'm on stilts, high up in the air, and someone catches my attention and points to their finger, meaning I made their ring. That's cool.

Henri David's Halloween Ball

Wed., Oct. 31, 9 p.m., $25 in costume, $60 without, Sheraton City Center Hotel, 17th and Race streets, 215-732-7711