Designers Behind-the-scenes: Marylou Luther, Ruben Toledo See It All
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Somehow even at 93, journalist, fashion critic and Fashion Group International’s creative director Marylou Luther’s thirst for fashion and its relevance remains unquenched.
Having just released “Be-Spoke: Revelations from the World’s Most Important Fashion Designers” with illustrations by Ruben Toledo, she and he turned up at The 92nd Street Y on Tuesday night for a “Fashion Icons” Q&A with Fern Mallis. Luther detailed behind-the-scenes moments with Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint Laurent, Rei Kawakubo, Rick Owens, Tom Ford, Betsey Johnson and other designers featured in the Rizzoli book.
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Graciously giving Luther center stage during the 90-minute talk, Toledo clued in attendees to her exactitude. “Whenever she went to lunch or dinner with me and Isabel, she always had a little notebook even when she wasn’t supposed to. She’s a writer — she was writing down recipes, your thoughts, the atmosphere.”
After losing her father and an uncle in the same year as a teenager, Luther had another death in the family — a brother in World War II. At her mother’s encouragement, she enrolled at the University of Nebraska. “When I was a journalism major, you were taught that every story should begin with who, what, why, when and where, and sometimes how much and how many. We were trained to always present both sides of a story and let the reader decide what was right.”
A day after her college graduation, she started her career at The Lincoln Journal, followed by the Hastings Tribune, the Des Moines Register, the Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times before relocating to New York and taking the FGI role. At 81, she became the editor of the International Fashion Syndicate and created the column “Clothesline” with a weekly readership of more than 5 million people. Luther also was pivotal in establishing the Ecco Domani Fashion Award to celebrate emerging talent. Subsequently, she helped introduce such on-the-rise designers as Prabal Gurung, Zac Posen, Derek Lam, Alexander Wang, Proenza Schouler and Rodarte.
The New York-based Luther still summers in her hometown of Cambridge, Nebraska, driving around town and playing gin rummy with her best friend Donna. Wherever she is, Luther never stops working, routinely receiving 100 emails daily from readers of her “Clotheslines” column. “When people ask, ‘Will I ever retire?’” Luther said, “I always say, ‘No, I love to write.’ Also, I know if I stop doing everything, I’m done.”
Early on in the discussion, the audience sang “Happy Birthday” to the April-born Luther and Toledo. He described leaving as a child with his family in 1967 — years after the Cuban Revolution. “It took a while to get out. All Cubans entered through Miami. After they gave you vaccinations four or five days later, they sent you off especially to depopulated cities. We were almost headed to New Orleans. But we had family in west New York. If a family claimed you, you got to go there.”
The son of a tailor, Toledo said his father helped cut the custom Isabel Toledo dress that Michelle Obama wore to her husband Barack’s first presidential inauguration. “I could draw before I could talk or walk. That was my way of communicating and it still is,” he said, adding that at 13 he fell for Isabel immediately in high school Spanish class. “I don’t know if you have ever experienced love at first sight. But it’s the real deal. I had no doubt. It took Isabel about 10 years to feel the same way. But I did not give up. I wooed her with artwork that I had done for my brother for his senior art class.”
Later through a friend, Toledo helped his future wife line up work sewing and repairing garments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. “Walking through The Met looking at all these dummies wrapped in beautiful linens, she realized, ‘Fashion is what time looks like’ — every era, every decade, every century, you could tell by how people dressed where you were if they dropped you down from a spaceship.”
Here, outtakes from Luther’s and Toledo’s impressions of designers.
Norma Kamali
M.L.: She was the most cooperative. She was always giving and would have time for you…In the front row tonight are Stan Herman and Norma [Kamali] who inarguably dress more people today than anybody else. Norma’s sleeping bag coat is the puffer. No one had ever done anything like that before. People who wear puffers today owe it all to Norma. Stan dresses workers at FedEx, at JetBlue, Sandals Resorts, McDonalds…”
Rei Kawakubo
M.L.: She was the most difficult interview. She had a reputation for never allowing interviews. I talked her into a Q&A and said I would not write any asides about her. It was a good lesson learned. If you want to interview a designer who doesn’t want to be interviewed — Q& A is the way to go.
Coco Chanel
M.L.: Breathtaking. She had her shows in her place of business on Rue Cambon. She would sit at the top of the stairs to watch the show below. No one did that. She said, “I don’t want to depend on anyone else to tell me what the audience thought of my clothes. I don’t want to read about it. I want to watch their reactions. I learn from watching their facial expressions — their joy, their [sneering for effect].”
M.L.: The Tribune sent me to Paris to cover [what would be] the most major fashion event probably of my lifetime — Yves Saint Laurent’s first show for Christian Dior. He called his collection “The Trapeze.” The crowd waiting for him on the balcony was proof positive of how important fashion was in Paris
M.L.: “It was more what Karl Lagerfeld did than what he said. That’s why it was always difficult to get interesting quotes from him – that’s not true,” she said sardonically. “But what he did was so revolutionary. He made the show. Before Karl Lagerfeld, fashion was about color, fabric and silhouette. Karl Lagerfeld made it about color, fabric, silhouette and set or sight. He brought in stalactites and stalagmites from Norway. He created a grocery store once where everything had a Chanel label, and afterwards all of the merchandise was given to charity. His conception of how to show clothes was unique.”
R.T.: He was so sharp. He was like a sponge. He was really good about taking what was happening and putting it back out there.
M.L.: He was one of the first American designers to go to Paris [for Yves Saint Laurent], and that was just a coup to design haute couture. Nothing could have mattered more to a New York designer in those days. He said the biggest shock was walking into the workroom and there weren’t any sewing machines — everything was done by hand. That gave him a more complete almost religious feeling about the importance of doing the best that you could with what you had.
R.T.: Tom’s great at making people look expensive — that’s a thing. He’s got that down.
Miuccia Prada
M.L.: She invited me to her home. I was so surprised. Instead of walking into a fabulous Italian villa, it felt like walking into Cambridge, Nebraska in 1946. It was most humble. The kids were running all over. Their toys were littered everywhere, It was such a shock that this woman with all this great talent couldn’t share that in her home. She was great and is great.
R.T.: She’s a big time innovator and a very practical person. Everything she designs has to be suited for women.
Donna Karan
M.L.: Her concept of “Seven Easy Pieces” was right. She had such a good sense of what was going to sell. That was important to her. Maybe that was through her experience at Anne Klein. A major talent, Donna is almost not recognized enough today.
Rick Owens
M.L.: He is a real favorite of mine. I was staying at the Regina in Paris and the phone rang at two o’clock in the morning. It was Charles Gallay, a very famous boutique owner in Beverly Hills. He said, “I know what time it is. I’m sorry. I couldn’t wait. I told a very talented young designer from here to go to Paris, to stay at your hotel and that you will help him.” The next morning I called Rick, who said, “Come on up.” He had draped his entire suite in black [fabric.]. I loved what he was doing with his clothes…I also love his truth.”
Emilio Pucci
M.L.: Until Emilio Pucci, all expensive clothing had built in underpinnings — everything. You wouldn’t spend a lot of money on something unless it had a corset or something inside. Pucci was the first to strip clothes of all that inner stuff. He told me how important it is for the body to feel the fabric in order for the fabric and the body to connect and feel related. That was a major change in fashion.
Alber Elbaz
M.L.: Alber always liked to learn, as he loved clothes. He was one of the first designers to be almost like haute couture in listening to what women told him they wanted or that he could see that women wanted. He was so attuned to understanding because he looked everywhere. His clothes always seem to hit this-is-what’s-happening-now.
R.T.: Very sweet guy and also very smart. He was very inclusive. He was thinking of the whole population.
Yeohlee Teng (another 92Y attendee Tuesday night)
M.L.: Yeohlee was the first designer to show in the [New York City] subway [in 2005]. She showed using real people in a subway station. She was the first designer to build [clothes]. She’s from a family of architects and architecture is in her bones. She can salvage more from a piece of fabric than anyone I have ever known.
Betsey Johnson
M.L.: I am her fairy godmother. Betsey is another one-of-a-kind. She did it her way. To this day [at 80 years old], she’ll travel to London to have her hair cut. She thinks that much of her [punk-inspired] hair and how important it is in her life. She visited me in Cambridge, Nebraska — population 1,203 — and she did splits and cartwheels. Everybody loved her. She is Miss Positive. I’ve never known anyone more positive. I’ve never heard her sounding down.
Halston
M.L:. I knew Halston from his Chicago days when he did Hats by Halston. He is often credited as the first minimalist. I don’t think he was but he made minimalism easier to wear. His idea of traveling with an entourage was unique. No one ever did that then. Wherever he went, he had his group of favorite models or customers. He stopped in L.A. on his way to China, where he had the first fashion show on the Great Wall. He had said he wanted to do something really important. He was an innovator in the shows with his use of models especially Black models.
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