Our Interview with Andrae Gonzalo, 2/5/06

[hepcat]

Finishing the competition in sixth place, Andrae Gonzalo nevertheless performed admirably in the show’s fun and silly tasks, winning the Banana Republic challenge (along with Daniel Vosovic) and most notably, creating an ethereally beautiful dress that was inspired by dirty water in a gutter. In his last task for the show, he found himself organically challenged when the judges didn’t appreciate his use of dried moss, which he used with the idea that it would last beyond a few days, instead of using colorful fresh flowers. But Andrae has no complaints about his time on the show. What struck me most about Andrae is his ability to find beauty in unexpected places; naturally, he finds the positive in everything from his fellow designers, the judges – even his emotional meltdown on national television.

Congratulations at making it so far in the competition, Andrae!

Thank you, you’re so kind!

First of all, I’ve been wanting to ask you this question ever since I read it on your bio. You cited one of your influences was the Gay Porn industry of the 1970's. Would you care to elaborate?

Oh, yes – yes that’s right. There was one collection that I did that had all kinds of screen prints of vintage images of gay porn from the 70's.

Oh, I see. That’s funny, I didn’t think you meant that in a literal way.

It was actually very literal. I think everyone thinks that that’s something that goes into each piece that I do. (laughs) Which, maybe in a very indirect way it probably does, but it’s very subtle. (laughs) Extremely subtle. But in that one body of work it was actually very literal.

Let’s go back to the beginning of the competition. Do you regret the loss of your jeans in the challenge where you had to design a dress out of what you were wearing?

Not tremendously. I’ve kind of made my peace with that. Really, the whole process helped do that for me. When they first told us that we’d have to cut up our clothes, I thought it was very sad, but part of my thinking was that I got those jeans right about the time that I opened my shop. It was like, I’m losing these clothes just as this other season in my life is ending. So I thought, let’s celebrate it! It didn’t celebrate it quite as much as I had hoped.

That was the week that you had such a hard time expressing yourself on the runway. What was going on in your head at that moment?

These televisions shows are just an hour long, so unfortunately, you don’t really get to see what I said in that episode. It was quite a long explanation, and I was able to explain myself well to the judges, but there wasn’t time to show it in the television show. The reason I was so sad there was this dress was supposed to be a celebration of a time in my life when I took a really big risk. When you take risks, there are times when they don’t work out. So what was sad for me was that the dress wasn’t quite celebrating that time – in fact, I felt like the judges weren’t seeing it. So there was a lot of emotion, particularly in thinking that here was this garment that was supposed to memorialize this period in my life that had ended, and there was this fear that maybe it was all going to end in the same way – in another disaster. Thank goodness it didn’t!

How did you recover your balance?

With the work. It wasn’t quite as much in balancing as it looks on television. That was a cathartic process - you saw me mourning not so much the dress, per se, but this time in my life. And having done that, it was pretty easy for me to just move on, because there I was in the middle of a new season. I think the work was the thing that makes it easy. It’s fashion! It’s always moving. You move on to the next challenge.

I’m glad I asked you that, because I don’t think we got the whole perspective from what we saw on television.

Yeah, again, there is so much footage. What we experienced as contestants is a very rich and colorful experience, and you get a significant portion of that but you’ll never know how much went on because there just isn’t time. I’m waiting for the DVD. (laughs)

What was the most difficult challenge for you?

Each one is difficult for a different reason. With each challenge, Heidi would throw out something and usually there was something in there that was challenging, but always in every challenge I found something else that would challenge me more, and something new that would move me forward as an artist. I would pile that on top of the challenge so that I was still working for myself within the parameters of the challenge. Pretty much in every challenge except for perhaps the first one, I was able to accomplish that. So it would be hard to say which one was the most difficult because they were difficult for different reasons and I always found a new challenge.

What challenge was your favorite?

Oh, that’s fun. At the time, my favorite was the inspiration dress - which seems to be what everyone else likes, too. I believe that fashion needs to be a conversation between the designer and whoever ends up buying or using these clothes into their lives. I’ve done so many clothes that are wonderful and exciting that have ended up in my closet. They’ve never had lives of their own. So for me, my favorite has become this Banana Republic dress. This dress was actually able to come alive. Here was something that I worked on that has something of me, a statement that I’ve made, and other people in the world have bought it and responded. I often say this for fashion designers: it’s this process of designing to prove that you’re not alone, and there was an example that has really shown it because other people have agreed by buying this dress. I’ve actually gotten email from people who like the dress. That has been really wonderful. I think fashion should, and does, change your life. I always say to these women that have contacted me, stay in touch, I want to find out how this dress has changed your life, did it get you the job interview or whatever.

As far as the nuts and bolts of the show, did it seem like you were stuck using sub-par equipment? I’m thinking of the serger machine in particular.

No, the equipment was good, but different. It’s funny, the machines that we used were really interesting machines that many of us had never seen before because they were somewhere between an industrial sewing machine that you would use in a real sewing factory and a home sewing machine. So they would do things that an industrial machine wouldn’t do and simultaneously what a home machine wouldn’t do. And they were much slower. This is a medium that the producers and the people at Parsons arrived at to keep a level playing field because there are a lot of brilliant fashion designers – certainly there were in this cast – that had never sewn on an industrial machine because they had never worked in the industry or had gone to a school that had them. So it wasn’t quite “sub-par”, but it was different. The sergers were fine, those were industrial overlock machines – it’s just that some people didn’t know how to use them.

How bad was the time crunch?

The time crunch is insane! We accepted so much as the rules of the game, and watching these episodes I’ve just been flabbergasted every time I hear Tim Gunn say with a straight face, “You have thirty minutes to sketch.” (laughs) Actually, that is a long time, but most designers will usually spend more time in sketching because you can make so many changes that once you’ve started sewing you can’t do. Once you’ve cut into $500/yard fabric, you’re not going to be able to make changes.

Who were you closest to, and who did you like the least? Did you even have time to socialize?

(laughs) We did socialize a bit, and I became really good friends with the people in my room. The guys in 35D are truly a talented bunch of people. We see eye to eye on a lot of things. Santino, Nick, Daniel Vosovic and I really come to the task with similar skills, like, we’re all really proficient sewers and I would say we’re all pretty evolved designers. So it was easy to make friends with those guys.

Then, it’s like the challenges. I like everyone for different reasons. Zulema and I were the only vegetarians, so we got along on that level. I like her a lot because she’s so strong and courageous. Kara is so funny. She does a rendition of a Beyonce song that I don’t think they’ll ever show you because I doubt they could get the licensing, but it is so hilarious.

At first I worried about Marla because I shared a table with her. There were all of these parallels from the beginning between her and Wendy Pepper. Like, they put her at Wendy’s table, and then she has short hair and the little glasses, so when I first met her, I said, “Oh my God, I wonder if she’s the Wendy!” And it turned out to be absolutely the opposite. She was one of the people who hadn’t sewn in a long time, so she was remembering a lot of stuff, and that frustrated me in the beginning, but I came around to liking her a lot too. So when you’re in this situation, it’s kind of like being in a war because the conditions are so tense, that when you get out of it they’re like your war buddies. You make friends with them by default and find something wonderful about everybody.

The judges seemed to value your creativity and your dresses were well received. The Nicky Hilton dress, the Sasha Cohen skating outfit, the design you completed with Daniel - all of these received a lot of praise from the judges. But the last week, they slammed your dress. What do you think went wrong, and what would you have done differently?

I have to warn you that I haven’t seen this episode. The hotel room that I stayed in didn’t have Bravo.

Oh, no, that’s terrible! Let’s see...we didn’t really see them praise your dress at all, and there were comments like “dull” and “old-fashioned.” I got that it was supposed to look like a topiary, and they didn’t acknowledge that at all.[Note: I was going by my memory, and checking later it appears the judges did not say “old-fashioned”, but they called it a “doormat” (which is worse in my book).]

Let me just say this: this is the one dress that I really wish I owned. I’d really like to bid on it, and I’m hoping that since it lost it’s going to go for twenty bucks. (laughs) But when I made it, I was really thinking on how to make a garment out of this organic material that would last. I’d worked on rose parade floats in my youth, and I worked at this florist, and so I knew a little bit about what you had to do to make something that would last and be a functioning garment. And this was perhaps the one task where the challenge that I set up for myself maybe got in the way of what the judges imagined and hoped for. They really wanted flowers! They wanted beautiful, colorful garments that were made out of flowers. Now, that can be done, but the kind of flowers that you need for that we couldn’t get. There’s a flower called a straw flower that looks dried when it’s alive, but they don’t have it this time of year. Anything else would have probably wilted. There was a little bit of debate as to whether or not we would be able to refrigerate them, so when we were buying our materials I played it safe. So that may be part of it.

As far as the “old-fashioned” thing, this goes with one of my theories about trends, which is: Mom bad, Grandma good. If you think about it, the most desirable fashion demographic, which is probably young women in their early twenties, whatever those women’s mother wore is not going to be popular. You probably don’t want to dress like your mother, do you?

(Remembering polyester pantsuits.) Um, no.

Exactly. Things that your grandmother wore, however, that’s so much distance – it starts to look new and interesting, and really kind of remote and wonderful again. There were a lot of times the judges didn’t like things that they called “dowdy”, and invariably that was something that maybe their mothers would have worn. There’s an age difference between the designers and the judges. What their mothers wore our grandmothers wore. So it’s kind of a built-in conflict. I don’t make any apologies for that. I love clothes from the 50's and early 60's, and so that is kind of a trend theory that explains that.

Tim Gunn said he loved your dress.

Yes, Tim was really laudatory about it! Coming from an academic background, I think he sees things a lot more objectively. I’m not even that young, so there are things that my mother wore that fans of the show think are marvelous and I’m just as blind to using them. But Tim Gunn would probably see them and say they look fresh and interesting.

What did you think of Michael Kors, Nina Garcia, and the rest of the judges?

It’s really hard to say. What we’re seeing on television is different from what we experienced as contestants, which was so limited in the interests of keeping a level playing field. I can’t say that I know these people. I really have no idea what they really believe. I only have suppositions made upon limited interaction. It’s all guessing and stabbing in the dark.

I think they are very professional and have singular points of view that are valid for this competition, but they are also the people who have made it. They’re the status quo, the ones defining the business. By definition, we as contestants are going to disagree with them because we haven’t made it yet, and our job as the next greatest thing is to overthrow these people.

I definitely respect Michael Kors and his unfailing devotion to classic American sportswear. It’s really important to make clothes that are real. This idea that clothes are “women-friendly” is really important thing that I hope comes across as people watch this show. He hammers this down so constantly, and I hope aspiring designers realize how important that concept is. When you’re an artist it’s so easy to lose track of the simple truth, that someone needs to wear this. That’s one of the indictments that he hands down to Santino.

What did you think of the whole Red Lobster thing?

Isn’t that hilarious? I’m still here in New York because I was on the Today show, and I was going to meet up with Tim and tell him, “You know, for God’s sake, we should just go to Red Lobster!” But he had some other things to do, so it didn’t work out.

Do you think a designer has to live in New York to be successful?

You know what, there’s ten people on this cast that don’t think so! What you don’t get in Los Angeles is a lot of exposure, and I think this television show is a miracle for people working in LA. In LA, you can afford the rent. You can take creative risks because you’re not just scraping by. Granted, it’s still hard, but I’m really happy there were ten people on this show that came from Los Angeles because I think people consider LA this sort of stepchild to New York. There are things that begin in LA that are responsible for fashion trends around the world because of celebrity placement. And also, air conditioning! We live in a world where indoors is pretty much the weather we have in southern California all the time.

What was the dynamic with your model?

This was an amazing thing. One of the most brilliant things they did was to pair us with the model for the whole competition. I loved that. It was so inspirational for me, too. There were times, it’s so grueling, we were shooting almost an entire episode in one day, and it was really tough. There are times when you feel like you’re ready to throw in the towel. You see it happen to Nick on film, where you feel completely debilitated and you’ve just had it. When that would happen, I would remember that I had Danyelle, that I wasn’t just traveling alone, that I had other people depending on me.

She’s the most amazing woman, beautiful on the inside and the outside. You don’t see this on the show, actually. Here she is working in the modeling industry, but not for herself – she’s raising a college fund for her younger brother. Her father died unexpectedly, and it’s been her and her mother and her little brother for I don’t know how long, but here is this beautiful girl making these sacrifices, and at the time she didn’t even have an agent! I said to her, “Oh my God, we have to make this happen for you!” Since then she’s been signed by Elite, yay! It’s totally cool, and so I’m really happy for that.

When I got voted off, before I left the runway I stopped and said – because I thought to myself and knew that I was going to be fine, but I was worried about Danyelle – I said, please watch out for my model. Each one of you is in a place where you could help her out. The Badgely Mischka guys, Nina Garcia from Elle, Michael Kors - all those people could hire her, because her career is just beginning. I told them she was an amazing girl and asked them to watch out for her and help her out. And they don’t show that, but at least I said it. She honestly doesn’t need that now, she’s got a great agency and she’s such an unbelievable model.

What’s ahead for you?

I’m in this really exciting place where everything I wanted to get out of the show has happened. I wanted people to understand where I’m coming from, to get to know me as a person, and that has happened as well. The things that people say when people meet me on the street are amazing – I’m completely shocked by the viewership of this show. It is the most generous, kind and affectionate group of people I’ve ever met. Complete strangers are so nice! And this is true across the board - I’ve even talked to Santino about this, and he agrees, people say really, really nice things to you.

People have gotten to know me, gotten to know my work. This trial by fire has been amazing. You know how they say a piece of coal turns into a diamond from a lot of pressure, and boy is that pressure there! I feel like a diamond now. (laughs) You’re left in this situation to design in a vacuum, and you have to get to whatever there is inside of you. You can’t look to the left or the right, and if you don’t have anything to draw from, you’ll never make it on this show. And that was the one thing that I felt was so marvelous, I now have this unshakeable confidence that I can design myself out of any challenge. I’m ready to build almost anything. I would love to work for a place that has a wonderful history to it, like Levi’s, or any sort of company that has a strong identity that people are familiar with. Or some company that is wanting to branch out in a new direction. A denim line that wants to start a dress line - I love translation. The areas I do best in are when people say, take this and transform it. I’m ready to either do that for myself, or if the right opportunity presents itself.

What’s ahead for fashion - what do you think will be the next big thing?

Oh, that’s a fun question. We’re in this time that’s really exciting because it’s full of volume and decoration. It’s still a marvelously decorative time. I’ve been wandering around New York City, and I sort of fell into this bead shop the other day, and the things that were pulling me were strange stones...so I don’t know, maybe that will show up in my work sometime. A really natural, marbleized stone. I don’t even know what that means. I always look at politics, and how we feel in this particular time period. Right after 9/11, it took the wind out of our sails in our culture, and certainly in terms of fashion. Everyone has been dressing so casually since that time period. Finally, it seems like here we are six years into this new decade, and usually this is the time that the styles of the decade that start to show their head. I got a Vogue on the plane, and there’s this talk of a new minimalism, a sparingly decorated minimalism. I think that feels very right. For myself, I want clothes that are going to comfort me, so things that are very luxurious, cashmere, silk, and yet don’t look showy. Those are things I”ve been thinking about lately.

Also, I can’t get beyond the political climate. It’s not a happy time in America. It’s a very conflicting, very complicated time, and people are struggling and really suffering. So the stuff I’ve been working on has this feeling, I describe it as a strange sort of dull pain. The colors are kind of muted, it has a mournful luxury to it. That’s where I’m at, I don’t know if we’ll all go in this direction, but we have two more years to go with this Administration, and we’re still in this war, so it feels really awful to be spangled out in sequins. Doesn’t that seem strange, to be like, wow, vavoom! Even sexiness doesn’t seem appropriate in a weird way.

(laughs) If you wanted hemlines from me, that’s going to be hard. Everything is going to remained juxtaposed, and denim is definitely not leaving. Although I’m ready for some crisp, dark denim, it’s really sober. It’s a sober time.


Thanks so much to Andrae for speaking with me and many thanks to Bravo for granting the interview. I can’t wait to see more of Andrae’s transformations in the future.

[Google]

 

[suncat7]

EXCELLENT interview, Hepcat! I really appreciate how much he was into it...and he certainly seems like a such a nice, intelligent person. I hope he really goes far with his career. You asked fantastic questions, that lead him to interesting responses. You've quite the knack at this, Hep!

[aga]

Thanks Andrae and hepcat!

[Mercedes86]

Aww. I just adore Andrae. He seems like such a sweetheart. I really hope he gets everything he wants out of life.

Great Interview!

[Brandy]

Thanks hepcat & Andrae! I hope now that Bravo will allow interviews with each contestant!

He makes some really insightful comments about fashion! I totally agree. Look how ostentatious the 1980s clothes often were - a time of materialism and the baby boomers keeping up with the Joneses, etc. Then (next after that, in the later '90s), people who had money wanted to look like they didn't! (Well, not the society matrons, they will always go for Chanel!) And now, people are still kind of subdued overall. I think he's right-on. But that seems to be a cycle fashion goes through at any fin du siecle - only by now usually it begins to come out of it into something more joyful. Then in another 10 years or so it should begin to be downright bawdy! We'll see...

(I'm basing this a lot on Victorian fashion, into Edwardian, into the Roaring Twenties)

Anyway enough coffee tawk... I love that he tried to help his model, and that she is succeeding now, etc. And how cheap was that hotel that it didn't have cable? Or the show couldn't have floated him a DVD of that one episode? Ah well, it's a new hit. I bet next year it's gonna be sooo competitive (i.e. A list, agents, contracts out the wazoo) it may even take some of the fun out of watching.

I had some issues with the Flower Power challenge. They should've made clear they wanted flowers, not just that they could do anything they wanted at the florists'. And for sure, at least double that measly $100 voucher!

I'm sorry but of all the places to hope to work - Levi's? The denim dress he made was the worst of all But I don't doubt his ability. He just kind of lost it under the time pressure. But on the other hand, no one rallied better.

His prospective work with natural items like stones, maybe crystals... would be so cool. That would be exciting to see. His implementation of them in his 'dirty water' dress was so cool I just loved how he used those. He didn't overdo it, which would be tempting for most.

[Lonelyguy82]

Wow! He really likes to talk a lot and he was just losing me. So I just skipped to the last few questions.

How did you come up with this interview? Did you contacted PR or something? Excellent job on that.

[Brandy]

He does get a bit esoteric! But so can I at times so I forgave it. I really would have preferred more behind the scenes gossip though

Boo on Tim for not actually going to Red Lobster with him, or anywhere! It would have been funny. Maybe he was afraid Andrae was hitting on him??? (I think Tim lives with someone?)

[Closet Fan]

Originally Posted by Brandy

Boo on Tim for not actually going to Red Lobster with him, or anywhere! It would have been funny. Maybe he was afraid Andrae was hitting on him??? (I think Tim lives with someone?)

Don't boo Tim -- it sounded more like Andrae intended to go see him and invite him to Red Lobster, but didn't have time.

[gardenia36]

Thanks Hepcat, for the great interview. Andrae's answers make me like him even more. He seems to have such a graceful, forgiving view of the world, and I love how he sees beauty in unexpected places. His gutter water dress was a highlight of this season for me, totally stunning. I already miss seeing him on the show, but I know he will go far.

[Brandy]

Oh I wasn't serious - I still lurv Tim. I was just a little disappointed he didn't make time for Andrae.