Improbable as 70 years as a fashion journalist might seem, Marylou Luther remains ever-questioning and curious.
At times during a recent interview, the 92-year-old instinctively answered a question with a question or flipped a question back, eager to hear another opinion. In highlighting how “Be-Spoke” came to be, Luther also detailed some of her own memorable events in spotting the waves of fashion. The idea for the book surfaced while sifting through her files three years ago and noticed one titled “Designer Comments.
From her standpoint, how fashion reflects the upheaval of the past few years comes down to “escaping it with clothes, or trying to escape, or looking back to the past.” Unabashed about favorite designers, Luther cited Courrèges, Christian Lacroix and Rick Owens. Speaking of the latter, she said, “I have always favored creativity. I understand the brand [status] and that clothes have to sell. But the thing I’m always looking for is something I don’t know about. I want to learn.
Among the many insights were Oscar de la Renta’s recollection of how his apprenticeship at Balenciaga involved picking pins up off the floor, and years later the greatest surprise about designing couture for Balmain was there were no sewing machines in the atelier. Hedi Slimane spoke of how the shoes set up the tone and attitude.
More than anything, she would like to see continuous dialogue with college students and young people about their views on fashion, as opposed to sound bites on social media. ”One-on-one conversational exchange is extremely important, because you’re not registering that you said something clever on social media but didn’t really mean it.”
Luther said that Head, “an amazing woman,” once explained that although Hubert de Givenchy designed Audrey Hepburn’s little black dress in the 1961 film “Breakfast’s at Tiffany’s,” there was no mention of Givenchy in the credits. The rule in Hollywood at that time was the costume designers were credited with all the deigns that were worn in a film, Head once explained to Luther. “She knew that Audrey wanted to wear Givenchy. Audrey would bring the clothes she wanted to wear.
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