Ryan Lowe: Who are you? Where are you from? 

Paul Cavaco: My name is Paul Cavaco, born in Manhattan, and raised in Queens, second-generation American. I was brought up Latin [American] so it informs things I do. Our families inform us so much, such as schooling, and our jobs. So much of what I like is how I was brought up. 

Ryan: When did you begin in the fashion industry?

Paul: My first job, believe it or not, I modeled for the photographer Bruce Weber. But I thought I wanted to write, and at the time I was dating Kezia Keeble. She was a Vogue editor that had recently just left and started doing PR. So, I used to write releases for her. I wasn’t a good writer but I thought I’d specialize in fashion. Someone had called her and asked if she wanted a job at Esquire magazine to be a sittings editor. The term “sittings” editor came from the fact that women that used to be photographed for magazines, were rich & would come and sit and get photographed in their couture clothes. It used to be either a marketing editor or a “sittings” editor… which I think is hilarious. 

So, I had just gotten out of college and this certain photoshoot Bruce wanted college students. Turns out I was the joke of the picture, we were running with instruments, and I was carrying a double bass, wearing glasses, and we had to laugh during each photo. I got paid to model that job, which was nice because I was working at a restaurant at the time. Shortly, after Bruce came to me and offered me a job to work with him on this men’s suit line called DAKS and that’s how I started. In the late ’70s-’80s, I worked a lot with Bruce, a lot with Dick [Richard] Avedon, Patrick Demarchelier, and Bill King.

Freelancing wasn’t a thing when I started. There was a divide, you were a fashion editor, (which meant you worked for a magazine, which was a great job to have) which meant you were trained. It meant you had affiliation, you were as elevated as your magazine was. It was a slight class system, freelancing had not really happened for styling yet. What happened is photographers would get the editors on the “sneak” to do advertising with them. Or they had studio managers, the people in the studio to work with them on the shoot. 

I started out in menswear because that was acceptable for a man. They thought if you were a guy doing womenswear it would be a little less chic and a bit too campy. In a lot of jobs you had to fit that particular profile — I did not fit that profile, at all. Fortunately, I had the weight of Kezia behind me because I did menswear right away. Richard needed to do a menswear shoot and someone said: “Oh, you need someone who does menswear, that’s freelance, and they suggested me, and that's how I begin to work with Avedon.” The fact that I had Avedon, helped right away, and because he had worked with Kezia at Vogue, and done some really beautiful shoots at Vogue with her. I kind of realized he was okay, and if he’s not I’ll just call Kezia and she’ll come to fix it. There was always a backup. 

Ryan: How have you been able to continue your work styling throughout all these years?

Paul: I think I just like working and I keep working, I've been lucky enough to be given opportunities. I’ve been lucky enough to be trained by Kezia and I think that people don’t know that you can have good taste but it’s how you are on set, what is your demeanor on set, and I think everyone has a different style on set. And I was taught that the photographer and the model were the most important thing on set. Also, you couldn’t do this without great hair and makeup (Garren, Julien d’Ys, Odile Gilbert, Orlando Pita, François Nars). The thing is, that business has so many talented people, so as a stylist if you work with a great photographer, hair, and makeup… you're going to get a great picture, but you need a great photographer because it’s a photograph. Back when I was training, I was trained as the editor you held. Kezia used to call it holding the space for all possibilities to happen. I always thought that if someone suggests something, you have to let them try it… and you can change it if it doesn’t work. If you say no immediately, the person only wants to do the thing you said “no” to. Because they’re not allowed to express themselves. What’s great about working in this industry is we’re allowed to express ourselves, within the confines of what we do. I like having parameters so you can go right to the edge of what is acceptable each time, and that's what’s interesting, how far I can push this before I’ve gone over the edge. 

Ryan: What magazines have you worked for, do any of them stand out in any way?

Paul: Luckily, I have had jobs where editors have given me control over my work. I worked for Allure Magazine & Linda Wells for 16 and a half years. Fortunately, I’ve had jobs and editors to allow me to do what I felt. You know I worked for Anna Wintour, who doesn’t micromanage you. I worked for her for three years. I was the fashion director of Vogue for those years and we’d talk about what we were going to do and you did it. She either liked it or didn’t like it. But if she didn’t like what you did, it wasn’t like she held a grudge, or next time you were going to be punished for her disliking something. She was really wonderful in that way. She wouldn’t ask me, “what’s the hair going to be? what’s the make-up going to be?.” If she hired you, she believed in you. The same with Liz Tilberis who did Harper’s Bazaar. She came from British Vogue and had been there for quite some time, as the Editor-in-Chief, and it was always second to Vogue. The Vogue editors were the top ones, and then Liz came and hired Fabien Baron for Harper’s Bazaar. If you look at the early ‘90s Bazaar, the art direction and typography are Fabien. It was me there, Tonne Goodman (who did every cover of Vogue for 20 years), and Liz became the Editor-in-Chief, she was the most lovely, fabulous person on the planet but because she had been a “sittings” editor she allowed us to do what we wanted. And then I worked for Franca Sozzani for years who was the Editor-in-Chief at Italian Vogue, and she also allowed us to do whatever we wanted to do.

Ryan: Is it easy or hard to make that final decision on a photograph for a magazine?

Paul: Don’t forget you’re doing a shoot, and on the shoot, there is a photographer with an opinion, the editor with an opinion, a hairdresser with an opinion, a makeup artist with an opinion, a model with an opinion, and a manicurist with an opinion. There are that many people with opinions, so it’s a collaboration and you all sort of get to the same place together. Sometimes I don’t like it, sometimes I love it. Also, it’s a magazine, it’s going to be done in a month, do you know what I mean? Then we go to create the next one, and the next one, etc. For me at least, and I’m sure for a lot of people — it’s not about making art. We’re a commercial endeavor trying to make you want to buy clothes, make you buy makeup, and hair products. That’s what our job really is. But it’s a fashion magazine, so you try and make it desirable and as covetable as you can. We try and do it artfully and artistically as we can.

Ryan: Have you styled any fashion shows, if so what are some of your favorites?

Paul: I currently work with Michael Kors on his namesake brand, he is incredibly talented and very generous, I’ve been working with him for the last 8 years and I love him. Another one of the shows I did was for Stephen Sprouse, who was a close friend of Steven Meisel. He decided to have the show at the East Village club “The Ritz” (Webster Hall), a location known for concerts. It was so crowded you couldn’t get in. People were fighting to gain entry and when the show started, 50 models all came out at once. I recall one of the first transgender models walking. It was such a fun time... Stephen could write backward with ease. You could just tell him something and he’d write it completely backward. So, the final outfits in the show had his handwriting backward and the makeup artist did the same concept for the models’ faces. But I used to do a lot of shows, in America. I did a lot of them in America. Not big shows, just like people that were our clients for Keeble, Cavaco, and Duka which would later become KCD… After Kezia and John Duka passed away, the people who were running it with me bought it and it sort of has become this giant company. But before that, we were a styling company, Kezia and I had divorced but remained business partners. She remarried John Duka who came from The New York Times, a really wonderful writer who wrote about fashion and we formed this company. We started doing advertisements, then PR, it was like full service. We used to do press kits. Like all the social media platforms, that’s what we did. We would take photographs and send them out, which is much different than now.  

Ryan: Who are some of your inspirations?

Paul: I think in fashion, for me, it’s monthly. There are so many different stories. I think you take it for the moment, whatever you’re being inspired by. I don’t think it's ever one thing, it’s like trying to hit a moving target. It's always changing. Sometimes it's the music industry, like when hip-hop was really strong at the time I was obsessed with Mary J. Blige, Lil’ Kim, and Missy Elliott, I was lucky enough to photograph them for Vogue. 

Ryan: What was the best experience in your fashion career? 

Paul: The opportunity to work with people. Incredible people. Incredible fortune. Fact that I was married to a brilliant editor/stylist, worked with Avedon and worked with Bruce Weber who taught me an incredible amount of work about styling. He taught me so much about styling. Then working with Steven Meisel, with Patrick Demarchilier — the subject would never lose interest. For celebrities, that's an incredible trait to never lose. I was very fortunate in my career, more than most. 

Ryan: Where do you see the fashion going next?

Paul: I think we are seeing the industry changing, and we react. When we look at it you dream. We are attempting to be authentic, but people have lost the dreamlike aspect of fashion. I think it's dreaming that allows us to push forward. Always forward-looking. 

Interview conducted on January 9, 2021

By Ryan Lowe