<\/p>\n
\n\tRachel Crespin, a long-standing fashion editor and consultant to designers, died on April 10 at her Sutton Place apartment.<\/p>\n
\n\tCrespin, 100, was under hospice care at the time of her death, according to the fashion designer Jeffrey Banks. <\/p>\n
Born in Spain, Crespin spent part of her childhood there and in Turkey, before her family moved to the Bronx. It was on the Grand Concourse that she first became intrigued by fashion, after seeing \u2014 and following \u2014 a man who was wearing a trenchcoat and dark sunglasses. Her former Vogue colleague and friend Andrea Quinn Robinson explained, \u201cShe told me, \u201cThat started it all.’\u201d<\/p>\n
After earning a high school diploma, Crespin, whose parents were furriers, started her fashion career by taking a job with a company on Seventh Avenue, where major manufacturers were based at that time. She later segued into editorial roles at Seventeen, Harper\u2019s Bazaar, Glamour, Vogue and Esquire. The famed photographer Richard Avedon encouraged her to pursue a job at Harper\u2019s Bazaar, Robinson said.<\/p>\n
Having met Crespin in the 1960s, fashion designer Stan Herman said, \u201cFor a small person, she had a big personality.\u00a0She was a speaker of wisdom in our business. She always spoke to the designers, went to the showrooms and was available to people. There were always rumors that she was half designing everybody\u2019s collections.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
With sleekly pulled-back hair, simple sweaters, well-cut trousers, clogs and bold jewelry, Crespin\u2019s sleek style was a statement in itself.\u00a0Herman said, \u201cShe also looked the role of the new breed of an American fashion editor, which many people did not.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1963, Crespin joined Glamour as its fashion editor, after exiting Harper\u2019s Bazaar as the magazine\u2019s \u201cyoung perfectionist and children\u2019s editor.\u201d Two years later, she\u00a0partnered with the jewelry designer Nina Adam in 1965 to debut The Girls, strong and simple jewelry that was inspired by Asia and designed for modern clothes. Her \u201cgroundbreaking\u201d two-year stint at Esquire included a fashion shoot reimagining the Duke and Duchess of Windsor\u2019s first visit to the U.S.<\/p>\n
In 1973, Crespin was tapped as Saks Fifth Avenue\u2019s first fashion director, where she was tasked with creating \u201ca cohesive fashion image\u201d for the retailer. Eighteen months later Saks shuttered its fashion department \u201cuntil overall economic conditions improved,\u201d WWD reported at that time.\u00a0She later returned to Harper\u2019s Bazaar for a second run. After more than three years at Vogue, she exited as a full-time editor but continued to work on special projects. In the late 1970s, Crespin started her own consultancy, working with the Paris-based Cerruti and Mario Valentino, among other designers. She shaped talent in other ways too including Frances Patiky Stein, who was her prodigy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Crespin, an ardent traveler and collector of textiles, fashion and accessories, went on to consult with Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and Ralph Lauren. She also designed her own reversible shearling coats \u201cin sizzling colors like taxicab yellow, lipstick red and turquoise,\u201d as\u00a0The New York Times described in 1989. The creative consultant John Calcagno, who worked with Crespin at Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren, said Friday, \u201cShe had a great curiosity, phenomenal taste and a love of all cultures through her extensive travels.\u201d<\/p>\n
She even maintained her stylishness after becoming housebound, by greeting guests seated upright in bed with a black turban and black sweater. She was said to have a lively dating life with Alfred Vanderbilt and the author Peter Matthiessen being among her suitors. And friends said that another paramour, the late S.I. Newhouse Jr., who commandeered Cond\u00e9\u00a0 Nast into being a publishing juggernaut, proposed to Crespin, but she demurred, despite what was quite a diamond engagement ring. Her early marriage to Harvey Freeman, an artist, was short-lived and the pair divorced.<\/p>\n
Crespin\u2019s editorial work was recognizable too with berets, pocket scarves and bangles being favorite accents, according to Robinson. \u201cThere was an ease about her pictures. They weren\u2019t usually staged in any kind of way. They were always modern and with the times. As opposed to someone like Polly Mellen, who was a brilliant editor too, but always ahead of the times, \u2018Ray\u2019 was always of the times and the reality of those times.\u201d<\/p>\n
Recalling working with Crespin in the 1970s at Harper\u2019s Bazaar, Marilyn Kirschner said, \u201cEditors flitted in and out of the office all day long, because if you were sitting in your office you weren\u2019t working basically. You had to be out in the market. It was such a heady time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Herman said, \u201cShe didn\u2019t want to give up. She had ideas about dressing and clothes and would call me up. She was always a mover and shaker all of her life. I know for a fact that she never wanted to die \u2014 that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rachel Crespin, a long-standing fashion editor and consultant to designers, died on April 10 at her Sutton Place apartment. Crespin, 100, was under hospice care at the time of her death, according to the fashion designer Jeffrey Banks. Born in Spain, Crespin spent part of her childhood there and in Turkey, before her family moved to the Bronx. It was on the Grand Concourse that she first became intrigued by fashion, after seeing \u2014 and following \u2014 a man who was wearing a trenchcoat and dark sunglasses. Her former Vogue colleague and friend Andrea Quinn Robinson explained, \u201cShe told me, \u201cThat started it all.’\u201d After earning a high school diploma, Crespin, whose parents were furriers, started her fashion career by taking a job with a company on Seventh Avenue, where major manufacturers were based at that time. She later segued into editorial roles at Seventeen, Harper\u2019s Bazaar, Glamour, Vogue and Esquire. The famed photographer Richard Avedon encouraged her to pursue a job at Harper\u2019s Bazaar, Robinson said. Having met Crespin in the 1960s, fashion designer Stan Herman said, \u201cFor a small person, she had a big personality.\u00a0She was a speaker of wisdom in our business. She always spoke to the designers, went to the showrooms and was available to people. There were always rumors that she was half designing everybody\u2019s collections.\u201d\u00a0 With sleekly pulled-back hair, simple sweaters, well-cut trousers, clogs and bold jewelry, Crespin\u2019s sleek style was a statement in itself.\u00a0Herman said, \u201cShe also looked the role of the new breed of an American fashion editor, which many people did not.\u201d In 1963, Crespin joined Glamour as its fashion editor, after exiting Harper\u2019s Bazaar as the magazine\u2019s \u201cyoung perfectionist and children\u2019s editor.\u201d Two years later, she\u00a0partnered with the jewelry designer Nina Adam in 1965 to debut The Girls, strong and simple jewelry that was inspired by Asia and designed for modern clothes. Her \u201cgroundbreaking\u201d two-year stint at Esquire included a fashio…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14272"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/14273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seekyourlove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}