Few designers can boast of working in Hubert de Givenchy’s couture atelier, or seeing their gowns displayed on the cover of Vanity Fair and the gilded racks at Bergdorf Goodman. Yet in his 30 years in fashion Eric Gaskins has achieved all those things; accumulating fascinating stories along the way. D’NA spoke to the accomplished designer about muses, mentors, and his first trip to the Middle East.
Getting to Paris…I never intended on having a career in fashion. Instead I pursued a Fine Arts degree at Kenyon College, a small conservative Midwestern school in Ohio. I wanted to become a writer, and while there I designed costumes for the drama guild. My drama professor suggested I apply for the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. So I proposed a comparative study in French, American and Italian culture, through fashion. It would be my ticket to Paris and eventually lead to Mr. Givenchy’s atelier.
Meeting Monsieur Givenchy…Fashion was a different place in 1980, when I began sending letters to Paris couture houses. Designers didn’t live in ivory towers and were still accessible enough, that it was possible for a student like myself to write to them requesting an apprenticeship.
Hubert de Givenchy responded to my letter, which led to an interview with him during one of his visits to New York. I remember being in awe of how tall he was when he opened the door to his suite at the Carlyle Hotel. He asked me if I could be in Paris within a week. I jumped at the opportunity.
Atelier Intrigue…When I arrived at the couture house, a desk was set up for me between Mr. Givenchy’s elegant office and his atelier. It served as the perfect vantage point from which to observe and learn.
At the time Dominique Sirop was Givenchy’s right hand together with Enrique Martinez. Alistair Blair was also an assistant in the atelier during that period. I sat next to them day in and out for almost a year and witnessed the politics and maneuvering for power in the atelier. To them I was a non-entity, having just arrived from a Liberal Arts college with no prior experience in fashion. Occasionally I would join them for lunch at cafes where design teams from other couture houses would go, all sitting in different areas gossiping.
Dominique Sirop was particularly nice to me, and before I returned to the States he gave me a beautiful sketch and signed it wishing me well with my career. Years later Givenchy supplied Sirop with the investment to start his own couture house.
Clients & Fittings…I was often present at the fittings which took place in Givenchy’s office. He loved black models and his cabine was filled with African American girls on whom he draped and cut his designs.
Then there was the stream of loyal clients who would come for their fittings. I remember Bunny Mellon would bring apples from her Virginia orchard, which Givenchy would politely accept before depositing them on my desk, with a “Here, you have these, they will remind you of home.”
I learnt a lot from those fittings, and one of the greatest gifts throughout my own career has been my loyal clients. I love the feedback from the client when she says that she’s worn a dress or suit over and over, the cut making her feel incredibly confident, sexy, the fit making her look better than she ever thought she could. For me that is really what it’s all about.
Lessons learnt…One of the most valuable lessons I learnt from Givenchy was the discipline haute couture demanded in the honing of perfect proportions and fit. Hubert de Givenchy had perfected his technique so that a woman of 30 or 80 would look stunning in the same dress. He achieved this by establishing a vocabulary of shapes that were clean, feminine, sexy, and evocative. His bell-shaped coats with their dropped waists (recently seen in Alaia’s own couture collection) were a legacy of Givenchy’s time at Balenciaga.
Those experiences informed my design philosophy when I launched my own label in 1987. Early on I became interested in fusing couture know-how with clean American sportswear shapes.
Finding the perfect muse…I still recall the first time I stumbled upon the September 1975 issue of Vogue with Margaux Hemingway on the cover. She became the personification of beauty for me from that day.
Ironically, shortly before she died I had the unexpected pleasure of making her acquaintance on a rainy afternoon along Madison Ave. At a red light I found myself standing with my umbrella next to a very tall and soaking wet woman trying to hail a cab. Instinctively, I offered to share my umbrella and when she turned around, I came face to face with my dream model. I told her what a fantastic model she was, that she was my muse for many years. She seemed so surprised and moved.
It wasn’t just her beauty or glamour. There was also a quality of realism about her, which even when superbly transformed and heightened, continued to spark my imagination. There was something about her personality that touched me, as well as her natural beauty complete with flaws. It is a quality I continue to look for in models.
Years later Bernadette Jurkowski, my long-time fitting model and muse, would transform my career. She was one of the original “Chanel girls” discovered by Karl Lagerfeld in the early 90’s, which included other unconventional beauties like Gisele Zelauy and Claudia Mason. By chance I encountered her twice in one week in New York; once on a subway platform and then again at a restaurant in the East Village. Searching through every agency book I finally located her at Elite and arranged for her to come for a go-see. We had an instant rapport and no one has moved or inspired me since.
Visiting Qatar…Last October I visited Qatar, which was my first trip to the Middle East. The eight days I spent there were nothing short of exceptional. I was taken aback by the setting and the beauty of this extraordinary part of the world. The Al-Thani family is creating a world for Qataris awash in art, culture, mind-boggling architecture and state of the art education.
I was invited to lecture and critique the work of students in the Fashion Department at the Doha branch of Virginia Commonwealth University. Having class after class hang on my every word was both daunting and gratifying. It was an honor to be there and share some of what I've learned over the past 30 years. I hoped that it might make their journey a little easier and the process a bit less mysterious.
I thought the Qatari men looked elegant in their long white thobes and headdresses. I was also fascinated by the abayas the young women wore, which concealed colorful long skirts, designer jeans and everything from beautiful sandals to Louboutin heels. After one particular class, when the students put the effort into being particularly colorful for my visit, they sweetly lined up to have their picture taken.
An unexpected encounter…In Qatar I met Monsieur Thierry Thomas, who had been the Premier d'Atelier de tailleur and flou at Saint Laurent for the last 22 years of Yves' reign. He came to hear my lecture and introduced himself. We sat talking late into the night as he recalled how Loulou de la Falaise was largely responsible for his getting the position, the youngest Premier d'Atelier in the house's history. I sat there in a state of awe as he relived those heady years working together with Yves and his inner circle, as well as the fittings with the couture clients.
