liberty33r1b
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 9, 2003
- Messages
- 24,293
- Reaction score
- 655
Latin in his soul
By Suzy Menkes International Herald Tribune
WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 2006
LONDON 'It's very animalistic - in touch with sensuality," says Narciso Rodríguez, as he describes the essence of Latin culture, even if the Cuban-American designer only experienced it in the melting pot of New Jersey.
Rodríguez, who was brought up in a cross-cultural American community of Italian, Spanish and Portuguese immigrants merging with the "crazy Cubans," says that he was always the quietest one in his family home. Yet his love of South American music and food and his mother's sewing skills were passed on to her son.
And although Rodríguez, 45, has spent 10 years in the fashion business creating sleek, urban clothes in neutral colors, he believes that he has a Latin soul.
In London last week for a personal appearance at Harrods, he went to see the "Modernism: Designing a New World" exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum and says "what I sketched was a very soft skirt, after seeing everything that was very linear."
Yet the designer has a cool, modern take on his favorite Brazil, where he admits that "there is definitely a heat" and where "people exude sunshine."
"I remember doing a show in Venezuela and the journalists flipped that I was showing such a monochromatic collection," he says. "They wanted to know how I could consider myself Latin!"
Rodríguez's streamlined work, with its focus on intricate seaming, is often described as "architectural." But he says that is because "people need to put a handle" on him and that they do realize that his focus is on "how it fits the body." That means that he builds his clothes on a Latin figure - "bust, hips and waist."
A celebrity clientele has quietly lined up for his Narciso Rodríguez line. Rachel Weisz entrusted him with her dress for the Oscars, when she was heavily pregnant. Sarah Jessica Parker, Salma Hayek and Jessica Seinfeld, the wife of the comedian Jerry Seinfeld, are other devotees who understand that behind the unfussy exterior of the clothes beats a Latin heart. Or as Rodríguez puts it: "A line is a very sensuous thing - whether it is curved or straight."
Rodríguez shot to fame in 1995 as the designer director at Cerruti. He had started his career, after training at Parson's Fashion School in New York, working with Donna Karan (when she was at Anne Klein) and then at Calvin Klein.
There he met Carolyn Bessette, who turned to her former colleague for her wedding to John Kennedy Jr. The bias-cut slip of a dress, flowing over Bessette's body, put Rodríguez in the limelight and started a whirlwind of attention. The designer was tapped in 1997 by the luxury group LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton) to design for the Spanish leather house Loewe and in the same year he signed up his Narciso Rodríguez line with Aeffe in Italy. It turned into a wild period which ended at about the same time as the Kennedys' tragic crash landing.
"I was working out of my apartment in New York, flying to Italy to put shows on, flying on to Madrid for Loewe and showing in Paris. I have no regrets - but that was not a great period."
In 2001 he turned his back on the luxury juggernaut - the first of a series of refuseniks who have subsequently included Phoebe Philo exiting from Chloé and Jil Sander and Helmut Lang from the Prada group.
Now Rodríguez stays home with his two terriers and a Chihuahua and is focusing on slowly and steadily building his $20 million company. He has extended his brand into perfume with a "Narciso Rodríguez for her" fragrance and has recently launched a small menswear line.
"I've been running a business for 10 years - and I have given so much," he says. "I believe that craft is the most important thing. That is our future - not how many bags we can sell."
The man who counts his famous clients as buddies is concerned about the "over-stimulation of celebrity," so that the public does not understand why a star chooses a dress.
"Everyone can get sucked into it - there is great dissonance," he says.
There is a chorus of approval for Rodríguez, who has won plaudits from the fashion world as well as from the retailers. He dismisses the extravagant praise and says that his appeal is "putting something on a body that makes it feel good - if you can create excitement with a seam and how it fits."
Pradoxically, the first clothing that Rodríguez fell for was big and baggy - the over-size shirts his mother sewed for him at the start of the 1980s when he was 20, lived to go out clubbing and "hard core fashion" was "the high point of disco." But he will not be joining the current 1980s revival.
His one regret is that he has never been able to visit his family's native country.
"But Cuban and Brazilian culture is very similar - it has the same African roots," Rodríguez says. "And because I can't belong to Cuba, I find this amazing place inside myself in Brazil."
(source: iht.com)
By Suzy Menkes International Herald Tribune
WEDNESDAY, MAY 31, 2006
LONDON 'It's very animalistic - in touch with sensuality," says Narciso Rodríguez, as he describes the essence of Latin culture, even if the Cuban-American designer only experienced it in the melting pot of New Jersey.
Rodríguez, who was brought up in a cross-cultural American community of Italian, Spanish and Portuguese immigrants merging with the "crazy Cubans," says that he was always the quietest one in his family home. Yet his love of South American music and food and his mother's sewing skills were passed on to her son.
And although Rodríguez, 45, has spent 10 years in the fashion business creating sleek, urban clothes in neutral colors, he believes that he has a Latin soul.
In London last week for a personal appearance at Harrods, he went to see the "Modernism: Designing a New World" exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum and says "what I sketched was a very soft skirt, after seeing everything that was very linear."
Yet the designer has a cool, modern take on his favorite Brazil, where he admits that "there is definitely a heat" and where "people exude sunshine."
"I remember doing a show in Venezuela and the journalists flipped that I was showing such a monochromatic collection," he says. "They wanted to know how I could consider myself Latin!"
Rodríguez's streamlined work, with its focus on intricate seaming, is often described as "architectural." But he says that is because "people need to put a handle" on him and that they do realize that his focus is on "how it fits the body." That means that he builds his clothes on a Latin figure - "bust, hips and waist."
A celebrity clientele has quietly lined up for his Narciso Rodríguez line. Rachel Weisz entrusted him with her dress for the Oscars, when she was heavily pregnant. Sarah Jessica Parker, Salma Hayek and Jessica Seinfeld, the wife of the comedian Jerry Seinfeld, are other devotees who understand that behind the unfussy exterior of the clothes beats a Latin heart. Or as Rodríguez puts it: "A line is a very sensuous thing - whether it is curved or straight."
Rodríguez shot to fame in 1995 as the designer director at Cerruti. He had started his career, after training at Parson's Fashion School in New York, working with Donna Karan (when she was at Anne Klein) and then at Calvin Klein.
There he met Carolyn Bessette, who turned to her former colleague for her wedding to John Kennedy Jr. The bias-cut slip of a dress, flowing over Bessette's body, put Rodríguez in the limelight and started a whirlwind of attention. The designer was tapped in 1997 by the luxury group LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton) to design for the Spanish leather house Loewe and in the same year he signed up his Narciso Rodríguez line with Aeffe in Italy. It turned into a wild period which ended at about the same time as the Kennedys' tragic crash landing.
"I was working out of my apartment in New York, flying to Italy to put shows on, flying on to Madrid for Loewe and showing in Paris. I have no regrets - but that was not a great period."
In 2001 he turned his back on the luxury juggernaut - the first of a series of refuseniks who have subsequently included Phoebe Philo exiting from Chloé and Jil Sander and Helmut Lang from the Prada group.
Now Rodríguez stays home with his two terriers and a Chihuahua and is focusing on slowly and steadily building his $20 million company. He has extended his brand into perfume with a "Narciso Rodríguez for her" fragrance and has recently launched a small menswear line.
"I've been running a business for 10 years - and I have given so much," he says. "I believe that craft is the most important thing. That is our future - not how many bags we can sell."
The man who counts his famous clients as buddies is concerned about the "over-stimulation of celebrity," so that the public does not understand why a star chooses a dress.
"Everyone can get sucked into it - there is great dissonance," he says.
There is a chorus of approval for Rodríguez, who has won plaudits from the fashion world as well as from the retailers. He dismisses the extravagant praise and says that his appeal is "putting something on a body that makes it feel good - if you can create excitement with a seam and how it fits."
Pradoxically, the first clothing that Rodríguez fell for was big and baggy - the over-size shirts his mother sewed for him at the start of the 1980s when he was 20, lived to go out clubbing and "hard core fashion" was "the high point of disco." But he will not be joining the current 1980s revival.
His one regret is that he has never been able to visit his family's native country.
"But Cuban and Brazilian culture is very similar - it has the same African roots," Rodríguez says. "And because I can't belong to Cuba, I find this amazing place inside myself in Brazil."
(source: iht.com)
Last edited by a moderator:
