Lookout Qatar

Eric Gaskins is painfully shy. Despite having spent a

How Fashion Lost Its Way

The Jekyll and Hyde of the fashion world were in Doha last month, guesting at the Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar ( VCUQ ) annual fashion show. Nice-guy American designer Eric Gaskins, a.k.a. catty blogger Fluff Chance, tells TQatar what he really thinks of the fashion industry.
BY SINDHU NAIR Photographs Courtesy : VCUQ and Robert Altamirano

couple of decades in the fashion industry, and having dressed celebrities like Salma Hayek, Natalie Portman, Sharon Stone and Kim Cattrall, this unassuming New York-based fashion designer is almost the antithesis of the egocentric fashion designers we normally encounter. The gracious good designer, as the New York Times has called him, was the guest designer at VCUQs Fourteenth Annual Fashion Show, Fingerprint, hosted by Salam at The Gate Mall. After the models had walked his designs, he made a fleeting appearance on the runway to acknowledge the audiences appreciation, though it seemed like a big effort for him, and if youd blinked you would have missed him. But there was nothing apologetic about his collections; the designs were a celebration of womanhood, with the fabric caressing the curves, and the flow and fall defining the contours of the women they adorned. And, as with his designs, there is more to Eric than meets the eye. On the one hand, he is one of the most pleasant, easy-to-like personalities I have met, but delve a bit deeper and you find his alter ego, his blogging persona, the suave, cuttingly honest critic of the fashion world who goes by the pseudonym Fluff Chance (@emperorsoldclothes.blogspot.com). So who is the real Eric Gaskins the reticent designer, or the outspoken creator of the Emperors Old Clothes blog? His immediate response is: the designer. But after a pause, he changes course and says: I am both those people. I am a fashion designer, but I am also a fashion critic. As a responsible fashion designer you have to be self-critical; it is about doing the best possible work. Only you know what your best work is. If you work like that, then its not difficult to be critical of other peoples work. You can tell whether someone is truly engaged in what they are doing or whether its a game of public relations and appealing to the press. So where did the gracious designer tag come from? I think thats because I am not arrogant on the outside, though I may feel a bit on the inside. I feel being selfish isnt productive, he says. Interestingly, Erics first employer, Hubert de Givenchy, with whom he completed his first year of apprenticeship in Paris, was a complete and total gentleman. I never saw him being rude to anyone. He was the kindest, most respectful person I have ever met in fashion. I just realized, from that experience, that I could be myself; I did not have to be a monster to get my work done. People have to be appreciated to be able to give their best; all the more so in the fashion industry, where teamwork is essential. After more than a year of anonymous criticism through his blog, which he himself describes as a cold-blooded, no-holdsbarred, unapologetic take on the glamorous underbelly of fashion, Eric went public through the New York Times in 2009 and revealed Fluff Chances true identity. How did the

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Top: Eric with students and Head of Fashion at VCUQ, Sandra Wilkins. Middle: Erics brief appearance at the Fashion Show "Fingerprint". below: Eric's collection on the ramp

industry react to this expos? I was really nervous, as I was talking about all these people whom I saw every day. I was worried that I would suddenly be an outcast in the industry. But surprisingly, there was no backlash. People spoke very positively about the blog, and many even told me that I wrote what was in their minds, and that they appreciated my honesty and courage, he says. I didnt set out to do it, it just happened, Eric explains about his role in the blogosphere. It started out as a joke, then it got very pointed, and then I started enjoying myself, and it was a way of letting off steam. A sort of Jekyll and Hyde act? He laughingly admits: Yes, in a way. People didnt believe it was me, because they thought that I was such a nice guy What started out as getting back at the industry for its catty nature later became a vocation, and people started inviting Eric for fashion shows hoping hed bring Fluff Chance along with him to give his fearless, unbiased opinion about the collection and what was going on around him. I think Fluff Chance has a much greater audience [than Eric Gaskins], he says, weighing the popularity of his two creative personas. So what does he think about the new era of bloggers and photobloggers? Are they really part of a circus of fashion, as Suzy Menkes has famously portrayed them? Donning his Fluff Chance hat, he says: That is an elitist statement. Suzy has been trashing bloggers, and I think she feels seriously threatened [by them]. She is right in some ways, but the bloggers getting all the attention are the people who are being bought and sold by companies to write what they are supposed to write. They are in it to be photographed, for the attention, to get freebies, just like the fashion editors. He even goes so far as to say that bloggers and fashion editors alike are all in the same game, just with different titles, and that although fashion editors use the term bloggers in a derogatory sense, they themselves are just as corrupt. How else would you explain the closets filled with luxury brands, when obviously they are not making that much? he adds, to underline his point. He feels it is not right that fashion editors like Suzy Menkes who feel threatened by the new

breed should classify all bloggers as wannabes or idiots who have no knowledge of fashion. You are good at what you are doing, so why be threatened by the bloggers? There is room for competition. People who want to read Suzy Menkes and her opinions will do so even if there are others around. That brings us to the importance of selfpromotion in this hypocritical industry where one has to promote ones work so much. I didnt realize how important it was to relentlessly put my name and face out there, he says. I came from a place where your work was supposed to speak for itself. Now, he laments, it is all about talk and very much less about work. I have become better known as a blogger than as a designer, though I am still not comfortable using one to promote the other. And this in a way explains why he shies away from the media and didnt have much of a relationship with them even in his heyday (though his sensual gowns have appeared on the covers of Cosmopolitan and Vanity Fair). I am not thrilled with magazines like Vogue, as they have made fashion so elite and so separate from what most peoples lives are and what most people can afford. In earlier times you would look at a magazine to see what was new that you could get; now you look at whats new that you could never get, he says, adding laughingly, unless, of course, you are a Qatari. The fashion industry is known for being hypocritical, but lately it has outdone itself, feels Eric. It is of course built on the new, so it is about more, but now it is at the expense of the population, in the sense that they can only watch it, without any active participation except maybe to go to places like H&M to get watered-down versions of clothes that do not last. Fashion used to be about style, he laments, but now it is just about products, stuff. Style used to be identifiable; you would know whether something was by Christian Lacroix or was a Calvin Klein, but now, without the label you would not be able to identify it. That is not what fashion means to Eric. Fashion should be a portal to style. It should be about a cult, about women who lived and died for Balenciaga, or for Christian Dior. Women and men could be who they wanted to be with the help of the clothes, he says. It is this passion that originally inspired Eric and pushed him to find his own voice among the medley of voices, to make his designs more about the style than about being just a product. The whole point of creation, for Eric, is to make women feel attractive, confident and sensuous, and, at the core, to be honest to oneself. You cannot force something on someone; it has to be honest and thus in a way very critical, he says. The blog is pure criticism. But it is not just harsh things that I say in the blog; it is also about how I feel about being me, how I interact with others,

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T Qatar: The New York Times Style Magazine

Designers who have inspired Eric Ralph Rucci

He is by far the most creative and exceptional designer that America has seen. He is certainly in the top five best designers in the world. He is like my God.
Valentino

I like whats happening at Valentino, especially since Qatar has bought a stake in it. It still carries forward the classical designs with a modern feeling.
John Galliano

Despite all the disgrace he has brought on himself, I still believe he is the most extraordinary designer alive today. What he has brought to Dior is unbelievable.
Alexander McQueen

I love the work at McQueen. It is more costume [than just fashion], and no one does work like theirs.
Mark Jacobs

I have a real love-hate relationship with Marc Jacobs, but his designs are getting more interesting. Some collections are really good. You cannot deny that.
Alexander Wang

I think there is something interesting about Alexander Wang. I was not so sure about him being shown as the new designer at Balenciaga, but I was positively and pleasantly surprised with his first collection for them. He is one to watch out for.
Prada

The designs are very interesting, beautifully made, very identifiable. Fashion with a sense of humor. It doesnt take itself very seriously, but it is very serious. The menswear is fantastic. The clothes make you feel they are made for you.
Young and new designers

There are so many, and they are treated like gods.

His most treasured possessions

My tote bag, my brown Hermes watch (it matches my skin color), my shoes (the famous ones that feel like second skin), my collection of oud (which I love to collect).
Erics take on Qatar

It is exciting, interesting and very different from New York and the West. It is refreshing. I enjoy the culture, mostly the difference in cultures. It forces you to broaden your perspective about the world. Most of us living in the US assume that we live in a vacuum, and so do the people who live here. But being a bigger country, we Americans, sadly, assume that the world begins and ends with us. You have to come to these countries to realize that there is a world with a much richer past outside. I like Qatar because it is so creative. I see the most amazing buildings, sort of New York in a way but much more aesthetic, each building different from the rest.

about people who inspire me. Hoping to enlist Eric in my drive against todays rampant consumerism, I ask him about the need for new collections from the fashion brands every season. Eric preens his fashion-designing feathers, and defends his profession by saying: Fashion and clothes are essentials, and good designers are like doctors who give people what they need to survive and feel better, and what makes them feel special. Explaining the connect we all seem to feel toward good design, he talks about a wonderful pair of shoes he saw in a window display when he was visiting Switzerland for Christmas. I knew at that instant that I had to have them, he confides. I knew at that instant when I saw them that when I wore the (semi-custom-made) shoes I would be the happiest person. Thats the fashion thing; it makes you feel solid, it makes me feel I stand straighter... Erics was one of the many small businesses to succumb to the recession in the US, forcing him to close shop in 2009, after which he just designed for select clients. How have 2012 and 2013 been for him? I have very quietly and slowly started doing something. Being a guest designer here [in Doha] is a challenge. I made something new for the collection, interspersing it with some special designs from my older collections. The recession was a tough period when he was truly discouraged, he says. I was really frustrated by the economy. It was a shock after putting in so many years in the industry to have the rug pulled from under me. I wasnt financed, didnt have a big house supporting me, or a sound partner. It was very expensive to be making luxury clothes the fabric is expensive, the workmanship costly. I decided that if I couldnt do it as I always did, following my fashion instincts with passion, and since I didnt want to sacrifice the quality of my work, it was better to take a break. Thats when the New York Times article appeared about his Fluff Chance blog persona, and the resulting acclaim convinced him to pick up his pen and continue writing as his alter ego. They (the New York Times) gave me a gigantic audience. Normally I would have 300 people looking at my site, and the day my article was published it went up to 30,000 views. It didnt stay that way, but the response was much more after that. The designer thus went on to become more of a critic of the fashion industry than actively contributing to it. But lately he has been missing the creative side of his career, and he is now slowly getting back into the scene. I have been supplying only to private clients, who just wont let me rest, he beams. The show at VCUQ was almost like a springboard for Eric to relaunch his career. He is waiting for feedback and hoping for some solid partnerships to support his creations. The Qatar Luxury Group needs someone like me, he smiles.

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