chatting up RICK GILLETTE

There are few words that can describe my awe and respect for this man.  He first reached legendary status during his early career as a behind the scenes participant during one of greatest magazine/editorial eras of the 20^th century. So, today, we speak of Rick Gillette as he is known professionally. We will speak of what was and what is … the past and the present.

The past life of Rick Gillette included collaborations with so many of the legends and greats: editors, photographers, stylists and magazines. Think Avedon, Newton, Mellen, Hiro, Karen Graham, Lauren Hutton, Penn, Vogue, Vreeland and many more! Rick was behind the scenes on some of the most iconic magazine spreads ever to be published and then he moved behind the camera, tested the waters of design and finally to his destination as gallerist, curator and collector.

In his present incarnation, we find Rick Gillette as the proprietor of a 3,000-square-foot space by the name of FRG OBJECTS & DESIGN / ART in Hudson, NY. The space serves as showroom, selling floor and gallery space where he exhibits contemporary modern artists who exemplify the spirit of our times whether it is art, furniture or accessories.  One such artist is Sean-Paul Pluguez who will be featured in a one man show at FRG beginning May 16^th. The “Gold Project” or Vault, as it is called, will speak to the power of the color, the material and the transformative power that it possesses when everyday objects are sheathed in the molten liquid.

"For centuries, gold had a profound impact on history, as a symbol and a storehouse of wealth accepted universally around the world …. When people are worried about political instability, war or inflation, they often put their savings into gold."  Oddly enough this quote is from the Federal Reserve Bank and yet it sums up so much of how we view the color and the emotions that it evokes.

When thinking of gold within the art world one might journey back to so many religious works of the 14th and 15th century or even to a more contemporary point of reference such as the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer by Gustav Klimt. Pluguez utilizes the potency of gold to demonstrate that it can transform the most common of objects into works of art. For some reason, to me, there is a surrealist overtone in some pieces.

The point is that you simply must get yourself to Hudson New York and explore the world of Rick Gillette. You might be lucky enough to engage him in a conversation about what was, but you might be far more interested in the present.

I took the liberty of asking 3 questions which should give you sufficient background and insight into the mind of this virtuoso! ... So here goes …..

1-In your current incarnation as gallerist/curator/interior designer; art, furniture or photography what is your end game? In other words what would be your goal and why did you decide on this?

End Game? I’ve never really known why I do the things I do. When you are driven by desire you don’t always think about where you’ll end up. My life has been and is a never ending journey toward a vision. The medium I work in changes, my financial situation varies but the process and doing the work is where I feel a kind of peace. It has never been about money or fame for that matter. I really only use those things to fund the next project and I’ve rarely planned what that will be. Life changes, demand for the quality of what I do may wane, I reach a creative limit and rather than fight it, move on. 

For better or for worse I rarely accept “good enough” it’s always about the potential in something. 

I value great art, architecture & design and recognize when something is brilliant, too perfect to change! Even then I tend to focus on a part or section of it and think that’s beautiful in itself. How can I use that in a new way, show its relevance and value in today’s world?

That brings us back to your first question, my goal is to make and show beautiful art and design, to nurture and support other artists and give the public the opportunity to have things in their lives that broaden their perception of who they are and what home can be.

2-Can you describe or recall your most memorable moment as well as your biggest nightmare (people, places, etc.) during the glory days of Vogue et al?

 I think I would have to say that my most memorable moment was in the early eighties. I was working on a proposal for a beauty book and my agent asked some of the greats I had worked with, Penn, Hiro, Polly Mellen, Andrea Quinn, Martin Stevens VP at Revlon etc. to say something about me. Reading their comments had me in tears. I had never really known how they viewed me even after more than a decade of working with them. I had been told in the beginning that I could not do both Hair & Make-Up, it just was not done, no one could do both well. Something gave me the courage to say that that’s what I do; I stuck with it and had to stand up to the biggest names in the business throughout my career. Someone had said early on you are only as good as your last sitting and I took that to heart and I approached every job as if that might be true. I obviously continued to work long enough that by 30 I was being called a legend in my own time and the most difficult person in the business to work with. Well, so when I received the quotes we requested and I read what people had said about me and working with me which could not have been more warm, positive and to the point about how and why I worked the way I did I was more than touched.

I mentioned some of my great nightmares above but I think the worst of it was when I was transitioning into photography, when various editors and art directors who had time and again thanked me privately for pushing everyone to do our best work, for the magazine awards, sittings we had done together had won, promotions they had gotten, I could go on and on…. 

And yet when they could have truly supported me as an artist, someone dedicated enough to give up everything to continue to evolve in the world I had practically grown up in, they would not work with me. Moreover the most powerful man at Condé Nast would not allow even his most trusted associate to give me a photography job and we never found out why. That was probably the worst betrayal of my life.

3-if you could incite any 5 people to dinner who would they be and why?

Who would I invite to dinner? My parents, to thank them for never trying to determine my life for me, for telling their 5 boys four of which were gay that we should do what made us happy as long as we were GOOD people.

     

The photographer Hiro who was never unkind to me, condescending or critical of my decisions. He was brilliant and funny, when he didn’t quite get the make-up I had done for a cover for Italian Vogue (I had decided to do completely different make-up on Lauren Helm’s left and right eyes) he looked at me smiled and said Rick I’ll give you all the rope you need!  He was also interested and caring regarding my personal life, business queries and all for my taking pictures, when I showed him some work he said without hesitation “beautiful you should be shooting covers.

      

Helmut and June Newton for many of the same attributes as Hiro and for taking me under their wing in Paris. When I called Helmut from NY furious that American Vogue had cancelled us to shoot the French collections, he said get yourself over here we will do them for French Vogue together, I did and we shot them and he gave me my first Paris Vogue cover with Dale Haddon. 

Best of all when I met him at dinner in the South of France to work for American Vogue he said Rick sit here next to me, during dinner he whispered to me “I have a present for you, it’s coming with desert” so just as desert is being served in walks Peter Keating, Helmut kicks me under the table and quietly says “here’s your present right on time”.

      

Franklin D Israel, Architect and Professor of Design at UCLA, the best male friend of my life. He was the first person who recognized and supported me in my talents beyond hair & make-up. He was incredibly intelligent as you can imagine, and it was so inspiring to discuss endless things that had nothing to do with fashion. When I called to tell him I was selling my Park Ave. apartment and wanted to buy the top floor of a Gothic sky scrapper in New York’s financial district he got on a plane from LA to look at it with me. When I said we should gut it and create a Barragan village for my home and studio he might have thought I had lost my mind, but we did just that. Not only do I consider that loft my greatest achievement as an interior designer it changed the course of his career as an architect; he became one of the top in his field. Just before he died of aids in 1996 MOMA LA gave him almost the entire main floor of the museum for a retrospective of his work. Unwell and weak he walked me and my photography assistant through the entire exhibit while the museum was closed to the public, he took us to lunch and back to his home where we talked of our lives twist and turns, called our friend Duggie Fields in London who had introduced us in the early seventies, and hugged good bye. I never saw him alive again.

www.frgobjectsanddesign.com

Louis Vuitton resort 2016

While the media pundits will no doubt hail this as groundbreaking, well from its beauty, declare it exquisite, and declaring how unbelievably well designed and so so original, facts are facts... one of those being this; if the collection is all of the above, then why does a critic or reviewer spend more than 450 of oddly 700 words on front row and venue in their review? Then again there is this minor detail which is the collection is only marketed in Saks Fifth Avenue (my guess is nothing ever on sale and all merch supplied and owned by LV) and in its own  on the  A stores of its 460. Lastly it should be noted and NEEDS to be considered that this is a collection of stratospheric retail prices. That said, now we can begin ... by the way... this was CONTEXT!

With all this being out there and in your mind, I must say that I think I saw a few pigs fly by my window as I actually found some pieces that looked quite beautiful and even wearable provided you are a trust fund baby or just lucky enough to be a willowy size 8 or less with an immense clothing allowance or with a 7 figure job.

Of distinction were the laser cut leather dresses at the end, the “intricato” black gown, the 2 croco and georgette pieces that looked as gossamer as devoré, the Mondrianesque sequined jacket and even some of the drawstring pants.  There was one bronzy hued 40’s dress with a paillette like fish scale middy collar that was singular in the detail of the collar but little else as was the beige and black  laser cut dresses that were outstanding more as a works of art and craftsmanship rather than as an articles of clothing. The deeply quilted mini bags will surely be fodder for the accessory market while the hard bags remain a sort of silly accessory for fashion victims worldwide, especially when one considers the digital accessories and make up they must contain. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the excessive amount of prints from the mundane chain link to an oddly Hermès looking one.

So, the patent flip flops will be in every store from Forever 21 and up in the food chain as well as versions of the trainers, desert boots and motocross jackets. Somehow I can’t imagine even the most voracious fashion vacuums sucking up hot pants and cropped jackets to be worn as the preferred choice for running off to lunch, the office even if you are the CEO or supermarket. Then again, even the most studied victim may not have legs that need to be insured! Oh!! And housecoats are your guess!!!

Call me old fashioned but the excessive amount of cropped and abbreviated jackets is just that and the juxtaposition of stiff leather standing away from the body in a criss cross or played out as pocket details seem oddly clumsy. On the whole one could say it was okay, it had its moments, and yet somehow it wouldn’t be a stretch to see it hanging in Zara or H&M albeit not of the same quality. So, what’s the fuss other than the enormous sums of money that are being spent to try to convince the fashion world that Nicky is a force to be reckoned with and that LV is a major player in the fashion business as well as a mega brand!

CHANEL Resort 2016

Words to this effect have passed these lips many more times than just once… “And Karl laughs at them all!”  Well it is conceivable this time that many are now laughing at him for what he thought would be a grandiose show of Chanel prowess.

It wouldn’t be the first time that a brand tries to hide behind technique, i.e. Dior, but Chanel has more than usually outpaced its competition by showing clothes that are of “mass appeal” to its clientele which unfortunately these days includes men and kids. This season may just be the “season of our discontent” with Chanel. Let it be said now, I am great fan of Karl  for his unapologetic hubris and his ability to mine gold season after season no matter what … but WHOA NELLIE!

To my eyes there is very little that can be said to be appealing. The cartoonish collection is not just about the kewpie doll styling but the clothes... oh the clothes! They are unflattering no matter how you look at them ... shapes, proportions, silhouettes, fit, shoes, lengths, you name it... it aint good.  Yes, there is of course extraordinary workmanship but hell the clothes are ugly so who cares.  Before I ramble on and on about the unpleasant appearance of it all. It must be pointed that there are a FEW pieces that are extraordinary ... only A FEW!

If forced to say something good, I might say the palette is appealing as well as suitable for the season and okay maybe one more thing and that was the necklaces which were amazing but the buck stops there !

Yes, every designer, including Karl can have a boner of a season but in keeping with his usual M.O. this was a lulu of unsightly. So, in the end one might say oh well can’t win them all or a collection like this is one that demonstrates we are all human and can fail once in a while. One would just hope not this miserably!

That’s all folks!!

Meet Jay Kos of Jay Kos

 One of the most loathsome people I ever met and worked with gave me the sagest advice and that was … assumption is the mother of all f—k ups and the same goes for preconceived notions! Sometimes we are guilty of judging a book by its cover, personality profiling or making movies in our heads and sometimes we just have no clue or opinion about someone we are about to meet head on.

This writer had the most extraordinary pleasure of meeting a gentleman by the name of Jay Kos who happens to own a 21^st century haberdasher in NYC. It is located on Mott Street in Nolita via Lexington Avenue and Park Avenue. Mr. Kos, upon meeting, may appear to be some wannabe rocker or urbane urban cowboy when in fact he is a totally evolved, charming, well-spoken and engaging gentleman with deep roots in the arts of style and fashion. To me, he has created an image of himself that is distinctly his own and reflects only a part of what he stands for in terms of menswear.

During the course of our conversation, I was engrossed listening to his ideas of who he is and what he does in terms of his shop within the confines of the fashion continuum.  Mr. Kos is an old soul in a sort of 21^st century drag, so to speak, and there is nothing derogatory about that as in fact I salute it! He is in some ways his own best advertisement and then you might say … well he really doesn’t look anything like his jewel box of a shop. And that my friends, is the charisma and allure of the Jay Kos experience ... on personal and retail planes.

What one soon learns is that the philosophy or impetus of Jay Kos, both the store and person, focuses on just of the few tenets that rule the upper echelons of any fashion retail business. He is a devotee of the highest of quality in manufacture, of the finest and sometimes most unusual fabrications and not conforming to any preconceived prescribed ideas about retailing of menswear... there’s that phrase again! Another of his most noticeable traits is his love of color and it is there that he manages to accomplish and adhere to his esthetic in spades. Much of what is available instore might be explained as “tweaked classics” which would account for his “hedgie” clientele. Then of course, there is his more flamboyant or pronounced side which might account for his cache of sports stars that frequent the store. There is a great element of surprise within these walls and that is surely something missing from his uptown relatives.

To say that Kos has eschewed the normcore is not totally true. It was not hard for me to imagine a fashion inclined customer shopping there and by that I mean, a self-assured and confident man who wants to have an edge and not look like he fell out of some cookie cutter designer emporium wearing some highly editorialized fashion statement. No question that you cannot be a wallflower but then again you don’t have to be a “total look at me” fashion victim either. The store, as its owner, is filled with contradictions on first glance and then after chatting with Jay, it all makes perfect sense. The clothes have no age, and for the more seasoned of fashion consumers, they will find there is plenty to lust for here. It must be taken into account that this kind of individuality does come at a price, whether off the rack or bespoke but yet when compared to his competition he is right in line. Again the difference is simply this … do you want to stand out and be an individual or do you want to blend in as one of the crowd?

When asked about the future of Jay Kos, the store, Jay was quick to say he is thinking of expanding to the left –coast and to Paris. Again it was not difficult for me to imagine his success in either or both of these locations. He is a man on the move as he is the proprietor, buyer, merchandiser, designer and curator of this one man show! To say, that in many respects, he and I are of like minds is an understatement and yes of course that pleases me, as we all know I am not short on opinions or pronouncements. This is a story that will evolve as time goes by...

I hope the slides offer just a tease of what you find in the world of Jay Kos and I thank him for his warmth, insights and honesty!