In the first issue of OPENING CEREMONY ANNUAL, we featured unpublished images of motorcyclists by iconic illustrator Antonio Lopez. Over twenty years after his untimely death, Lopez is all around this fall, with an exhibition at The Suzanne Geiss Company and a monograph published by Rizzoli. We asked Cary Leitzes of LEITZES&CO to discuss Antonio's work with the head of his estate and old friend, Paul Caranicas.
Cary Leitzes: Paul, many thanks for taking the time to speak with myself and OC about Antonio and his artwork. How and when did you and Antonio first meet? Paul Caranicas: We met in Paris in 1971. I was a student at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and working nights in a bar/disco called Le Bureau. My boyfriend at the time was working in another bar, Club Sept, and Antonio and Juan met him first. He brought us together. We were all friends for several months, as often happens with expatriates abroad. I didn’t get together with Juan until after I had broken up with my boyfriend, who had to leave the country.
CL: Throughout his career, Antonio worked with creative partner Juan Ramos. How did Antonio and Juan meet and what was the delineation of their working relationship?
PC: They met at the Fashion Institute of Technology in the early 60s; Antonio was in the illustration department and Juan in interior design. Antonio was offered a job at Women’s Wear Daily before they graduated. They were lovers at the time and had begun working and living together. They worked at WWD for about six months before moving on to The New York Times; their personal relationship ended after a few years but by then they had become a creative team.
CL: Born in Puerto Rico, Antonio migrated to New York with his family at the age of seven. How did his multicultural background influence his sense of beauty and style?
PC: Antonio has said in several interviews that his Puerto Rican background and his early family life in the Bronx and Spanish Harlem heavily influenced his sense of style; Juan brought an aesthetic and historic appreciation of art history to the drawings they produced together.
CL: Missoni, Karl Lagerfeld, Kenzo, and YSL were all among the designers who worked with Antonio. How did he come to know such legendary talents?
PC: In 1969, they moved to Paris where they were approached by Karl Lagerfeld who offered them one of his apartments. In Paris, they met other young designers like Kenzo, as well as photographers David Bailey, Tony Kent, and Guy Bourdin. They also eventually met and collaborated with Helmut Newton and Yves St Laurent. In the early 80s, they were contacted by Italian editor Anna Piaggi, who they already knew, to work on the Condé Nast publication Vanity.
CL: From Pat Cleveland to Donna Jordan and Grace Jones, Antonio helped build the careers of the most iconic models of his era. Why did Antonio's illustrations hold such weight in the fashion world?
PC: Because it wasn't just other illustrators who recognized the innate genius of Antonio's drawings, but photographers and designers too. These were not simply illustrations, but inventive tours de force artworks that influenced all creative people who saw them.
CL: Can you tell us the story of how Antonio befriended Jessica Lange?
PC: He was looking for a very American type of beauty for a specific magazine editorial story in Paris. Not content with