{"id":986,"date":"2013-09-06T19:52:30","date_gmt":"2013-09-06T19:52:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fashionsphinx.com\/?p=986"},"modified":"2025-03-09T20:02:51","modified_gmt":"2025-03-09T20:02:51","slug":"tony-viramontes-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fashionsphinx.com\/?p=986","title":{"rendered":"Tony Viramontes . Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI look for new ideas because I always want to be in a state of creative anxiety and insecurity. If I feel sure of myself I cannot be creative\u201d Tony Viramontes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0In an earlier post<\/a><\/strong><\/span> I\u00a0wrote about how I met Tony Viramontes .<\/p>\n

This is the second part of the story.<\/p>\n

It was the early 80\u2019s. Tony Viramontes was 27 years old when he arrived in Paris, and I was a few years younger than that .<\/p>\n

I had not grown up in an urban environment, as opposed to Tony who was very inspired by the 80\u2019s club scene and the larger-than-life characters that inhabited it. Many of the portraits he did at the time were of terrifying, insolent and aggressive girls and boys, covered in outlandish make-up and boldly dressed. He had a street sensibility, there was nothing reserved or prim about it, and he was fascinated by the counterculture and the creative creatures that inhabited those worlds and expressed themselves loudly and fearlessly. Tony made his the explosive mixture of styles that he picked up in the streets of New York and London: punk, New Wave, dandyism and sportswear. When he styled his models the look was tough and sexually charged.<\/p>\n

Knowing that I was a country bumpkin, he liked to tease me and shock me by talking about his wild student days at FIT and then Parsons, or the dangerous and decadent nights at Studio 54.<\/p>\n

He often spoke of Diana Vreeland as being one of his sources of inspiration, as well as his mentor Antonio Lopez and designer Hanae Mori, the Japanese visionary and fierce business woman. Hanae Mori supported him for those first years in Paris as she commissioned work for her international fashion network on a regular basis: boutiques, advertising campaigns and art direction, Tony did everything for Hanae.<\/p>\n

That year we got a proposal from a close Mexican pal of mine that Tony could not\u00a0 refuse. Ignacio \u00a0Garza had a massive apartment in the 7 th arrondissement on Avenue de Saxe which could also double up as a studio. He would exchange it for Tony\u2019s smaller but charming and more affordable flat on the Place de la Contrescarpe, right behind the Pantheon.<\/p>\n

Now we had to turn the\u00a0 page and consider ourselves finally ready to start showing his new portfolio and launch his career. So that sealed it. No turning back any more, it was a terrifying thought but we took the risk.<\/p>\n

The flat had a big double living room where Tony set up a long work table on a trestle, his back against the wall. Behind him a moodboard that changed every other week with tears from books and magazines, Polaroids and bits and pieces of stuff that inspired him….a thank you note, a post card, an invitation, a weird shopping bag…it all went up on the wall, as well as his collection of black hair pieces, extensions, wigs and hats that he used on his male and female models. In the second living room, right in front of his table, he installed the apple box he used for the models to pose on.<\/p>\n

On the table were many big jars full of paint brushes, eyebrow pencils, lipsticks, eye liners, pastels, Rotring pens, Chinese calligraphy brushes, charcoal and dozens of bottles of inks. He used the make-up on the paper and on the models alike. The table was tidied every morning by one of his helpers\/models\/lovers\/squatters and by the end of the day there would be piles of scrunched up paper, torn Polaroids and black ink stains all over the floor. Tony always played opera music very loudly and would enact the exact poses that he wanted from his models: big open mouths, contorted limbs, the extreme poses that became his trademark. To watch him illustrate was electric: he would do dozens of sketches in order to seize that one pose, or the essence of the pose, going as fast as he could, throwing out page after page until he was satisfied. I remember once he was slashing at some paper with a cutter in order to mash it up as an illustrated collage (a technique he later developed when he started taking pictures) when he sliced off a piece of one of his fingers. He was so caught up in the moment that he did not even realize that he was spurting blood everywhere . Eventually I had to shout at him over the music to stop what he was doing and to let me wrap the finger in a towel. We ended up having to go to the emergency room of the hospital which was right down our street to have it properly taken care of and stitched.<\/p>\n

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But the moment Tony moved into that huge place the party also began. And that was not such a great thing in the end.<\/p>\n

The flat had two bedrooms and two bathrooms, plus the work area. Every day I would arrive to find a new guest on the living room floor. Tony bought some mattresses that he stacked in the entrance hallway and they were then spread out at night to accommodate the latest arrivals. It was all pretty tumultuous and promiscuous. You never knew who was his lover or helper or muse or all three. On one occasion he opened the door to a very cute french Fedex delivery boy\u00a0 and asked him for his number. I saw this boy many times after that , delivering during the day and posing at nights; he was also one of Tony’s lovers.\u00a0Eventually\u00a0a fantastic studio manager by the name of Paul Hendrix, who was also a top male model and one of Tony’s muses, took over the studio and for a few years there was a semblance of order in the chaos that had become Tony’s life.<\/p>\n

As soon as Tony\u2019s portfolio was finished, I called my best friend from school, Lucinda Chambers, who had just started working for British Vogue<\/em>\u00a0 as the assistant to the fashion director and I asked her to take a look at his work. I can really say that we owe a lot to Lucinda for her vision and balls so early in the day and that meeting was followed by a first commission from British Vogue<\/em> for a short hat story that ran on two pages \u00a0in their December 1983 edition. The model was Leslie Winer, a punk model and dub lesbian witch<\/em>\u00a0who became Tony\u2019s muse and the badass model all the designers and photographers dreamt of working with thereafter. The hats were beautiful, very couture and lady-like, so right before the Vogue<\/em> session Tony shaved off her hair, turning Leslie into a mean-looking street urchin. The contrast was stunning and unexpected and that first job for Vogue<\/em> was to open many doors for us later down the road and subsequently Leslie was to become fashion\u2019s first really androgynous model.<\/p>\n

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Above: Leslie Winer posing for Tony’s first Vogue<\/em> assignment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Below: Leslie Winer. Polaroid by Tony Viramontes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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After that job followed another important commission and this time for another friend of mine, Jean Pierre Joly, \u00a0director of the Woolmark association. Jean Pierre asked Tony to illustrate one important piece from each one of the designers that belonged to the Woolmark\u00a0 group. That job was crucial for us because it gave us instant exposure and recognition, access to fantastic clothes from all the major designers and createurs<\/em>, as well as the contacts at the showrooms. I was always begging for clothes and accessories to use to build Tony’s portfolio and the Woolmark job opened many doors.<\/p>\n

It was also at around that time that we got our first proper advertising job and consequently got ripped off big time.<\/p>\n

An acquaintance of Tony\u2019s asked him to do an illustrated logo for Le Printemps department stores in Paris, they wanted something very Parisian and quintessential and yet did not want to spend any money, so Tony stuck a tricorne on a model, put her in a striped sweater and high heels and drew three variations of what became one of the most iconic fashion logos ever. The only problem was that\u00a0 we were dealing with a sort of a\u00a0 friend of a friend and because we had no contract nor purchase order from anyone, the agency in Paris was able to use that image in perpetuity without paying a usage fee: billboards, pamphlets, bus shelters, and on thousands of shopping bags.<\/p>\n

That taught me a painful lesson and it was to keep Tony away from any type of deal making and contracts, especially the ones made at 5 am in the morning on the dance floor of Le Sept.<\/p>\n

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Above: Le Printemps logos and campaign by Tony Viramontes. From the archive of Eugenia Melian.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Those months in Paris after Tony moved into the new flat were a succession of parties, with his friends and muses flying in from New York and London to crash there. Leslie Winer was a permanent fixture, as was another one of his jolie laide muses Lisabeth Garber. The legendary make-up artist Way Bandy\u00a0 who worked for Scavullo and Penn and then became Nancy Reagan\u2019s make up person and\u00a0 whom Tony was trying to fix up with the edgier designers in Europe in order to forward his career. Matthew Rolston: \u00a0a young LA celebrity photographer. Steven Meisel, Tony’s teacher at Parson’s and whom Tony naughtily nicknamed Sissy and their muse and stunning trans model Teri Toye, who went on to win the New York Times<\/em> Girl of The Year shout out. Sophie De Taillac, Ignacio Garza… this crowd crashed and partied at Tony\u2019s flat for days on end. I remember Tony telling me to look at Steven Meisel\u2019s portfolio and consider representing him because he desperately needed an agent in Europe. I took one look at those first fashion editorials of Steven and of course said yes. Tony had a jealousy fit: \u201cIt’s either him or me, but not both.” \u00a0I stayed on with Tony.<\/p>\n

Below: James Breese, Steven Meisel, Teri Toye, Way Bandy, Brad Floyd shot by Tony Viramontes<\/b>\u00a01983.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Below: Polaroids of Steven Meisel, Janice Dickinson, Antonis, Paul Hendrix, \u00a0Mike Hill, Leslie Winer, Eugenia Meli\u00e1n and Ren\u00e9 Russo. By Tony Viramontes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The days and nights were intense as we worked long hours, then spent another few sitting on Tony’s bed with piles of make-up and accessories getting ready to hit the night-life, in particular Le Priv\u00e9, Le Palace and the Japanese restaurant Iss\u00e9 on the rue Saint Anne, right by another favorite gay club called Le Sept (featured repeatedly in the excellent biopic Saint Laurent<\/em> by Bertrand Bonello.) Tony liked to dress me up in his black suits, mess with my undercut and black make-up so as to make me as look as fierce and androgynous as possible and throw at me: “Oh, I love you from waist up, but not from waist down. I just wish you were a boy! \u201c<\/p>\n

I thank my lucky stars that I was so broke that I could not afford to go clubbing every night, also I was very sporty and healthy and did not drink or do drugs. That is what saved me in the end. Unfortunately I cannot say the same of many others that were part of that explosive entourage.<\/p>\n

By September 1983 all this networking and promoting was giving its fruits and a real buzz had started around him but that same month I was given two weeks to leave France. Spain was not part of the EC yet and my request for a work permit was refused even though I had already spent four years in Paris studying and had a work contract with a company that wanted to hire me on the spot. It turned out for the best since exciting things in the fashion editorial world were then beginning to happen in Milan at the new young edgy Conde Nast magazines that everyone wanted to work for: Lei<\/em> and Per Lui<\/em>. In two weeks I had to drop everything and relocate to Milano and with my then Italian boyfriend we opened a photographer\u2019s agency with Tony as our first client.<\/p>\n

Very soon after that I met a fantastic pr called Maggie Newman who became our closest friend and took us under her wing. She \u00a0had one look at Tony\u2019s book, picked up the phone and called one of her clients, Adriano Goldschmied, then owner of the Italian fashion group The Genius Group.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for part 3 of this story:\u00a0 the Genius Group campaigns, Valentino, Montana, Lei, Per Lui, Rai Petri and the Buffalos, The Face, Arena, I.D , Nick Kamen, Paul Hendrix, Boy George, Duran Duran, Janet Jackson,Mike Hill, Violeta Sanchez, Cristine Bergstrom, Lisa Rosen, Walter Schupfer, Tina Chow, Paloma Picasso, the first symptoms of his illness and much much more.<\/p>\n

If you are in Milano right now you must visit Corso Como 10<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong> , where the book Tony Viramontes\u00a0 Bold Beautiful and Damned<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/strong> is being launched.<\/p>\n

If you are in New York , then do not miss the Bergdorf Goodman windows on Fith avenue, celebrating the publication of Bold, Beautiful And Damned<\/em> by Dean Rhys-Morgan , see below.<\/p>\n

copyright \u00a0fashionsphinx<\/em><\/p>\n

Read \u00a0here\u00a0PART<\/a>\u00a03<\/a> <\/span><\/strong>\u00a0and the end of the story.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI look for new ideas because I always want to be in a state of creative anxiety and insecurity. If I feel sure of myself I cannot be creative\u201d Tony Viramontes. \u00a0In an earlier post I\u00a0wrote about how I met Tony Viramontes . This is the second part of the story. It was the early […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[68,4,75],"tags":[1602,287,290,301,1603,293,304,1236,437,1386,91,402,302,288,1437,1237,306,297,419,298,299,282,278,294,300,88,291,281,289,296,283,284,86,87,286,279,76,399,401,400,280,292,295,90,1408,1391,305],"class_list":["post-986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-inspiration","category-stories","tag-adriano-goldschmied","tag-arena","tag-boy-george","tag-british-vogue","tag-buffalo-culture","tag-cristine-bergstrom","tag-diana-vreeland","tag-duran-duran","tag-eugenia-melian","tag-eugenia-melian-randolph","tag-fashion-illustration","tag-fashion-illustrator","tag-hanae-mori","tag-i-d","tag-james-breese","tag-janet-jackson","tag-jean-pierre-joly","tag-le-palace","tag-le-printemps-tony-viramontes","tag-le-privilege","tag-le-sept","tag-lei","tag-leslie-winer","tag-lisa-rosen","tag-lucinda-chambers","tag-matthew-rolston","tag-mike-hill","tag-montana","tag-nick-kamen","tag-paul-hendrix","tag-per-lui","tag-rai-petri","tag-steven-meisel","tag-teri-toye","tag-the-face","tag-the-genius-group","tag-tony-viramontes","tag-tony-viramontes-agent","tag-tony-viramontes-biography","tag-tony-viramontes-eugenia-melian","tag-valentino","tag-violeta-sanchez","tag-walter-schupfer","tag-way-bandy","tag-wildchilds","tag-wildchilds-novel","tag-woolmark"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/fashionsphinx.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/Screen-Shot-2013-09-05-at-9.35.27-AM.png","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3BVEi-fU","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fashionsphinx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fashionsphinx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fashionsphinx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fashionsphinx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fashionsphinx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=986"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/fashionsphinx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4661,"href":"https:\/\/fashionsphinx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986\/revisions\/4661"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fashionsphinx.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fashionsphinx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fashionsphinx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fashionsphinx.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}