by Given the ephemeral nature of the digital magazine cover and the flimsy reputation of social media, we’re looking for real-life icons. Paul Cavaco (fashion director of Harper’s Bazaar and Vogue and longtime creative director of Allure) and his daughter Cayli Cavaco Reck (founder of Knockout Beauty) hope to tap into that wave of nostalgia with a new podcast debuting Thursday.
The Cavacos will be in conversation with friends and industry luminaries including Christy Turlington, Cindy Crawford, Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, Anna at “Under Cover,” produced by Rococo Punch (“The Turning,” “ Welcome to Provincetown”). Sui, Molly Sims, legendary hairstylist Garren, and Allure founder Linda Wells.
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Hear the insider dish: why Michael Kors chose the numbers 5th Ave and 57th Street from its ATM code; when 17-year-old Tonne Goodman ran off with a Dutch sailor; the original Cher Horowitz yellow plaid skirt suit from “Clueless”; and the time Cindy Crawford refused to let Kevyn Aucoin tape her face for a Harper’s Bazaar shoot. Stay tuned for stories of agency ambition and empowerment.
The premiere installment features Paul and Cayli’s conversation with Crawford. The conversation looks from Crawford’s persona as the “intellectual supermodel” (she was the valedictorian of her high school and earned an academic scholarship to study chemical engineering at Northwestern University) to her controversial decision to pose nude for Playboy (a topic she covered in this series). Apple documentary series “The Super Models”). There is a short interlude about Crawford’s skincare line, Meaningful Beauty. But the story that listeners might have is how Crawford refused to change her face with tape at the behest of Aucoin, the late pioneering makeup artist. It was around 1990; Claudia Schiffer and Karen Mulder were included in the editorial about sweaters — shot by Patrick Demarchelier. Aucoin decided to use tape to change the faces of the models. “So they all looked very sharp, their faces pulled back and their cat eyes,” Paul recalls on the podcast. “I look at the pictures now and I think, oh my god, what was I thinking?” He says.
Crawford told Aucoin she wouldn’t do it. “I am [in my 20s], I think it’s strange to look like I had a face-lift. I think it’s not a good message to give to young women,” she said.
Paul told her that the editor there was worried about her because “you should do what I say and do what the team wants.” But as the father of a daughter, he respected her ability to speak for herself.
“The only time as a model I’ve regretted something I’ve done is that I didn’t sign up for it and talk myself into doing it,” Crawford said. “That happened many times in my early career. You slowly get the ability to say ‘no’. And I think I was doing it that day. And luckily Paul didn’t cut me off and Kevyn didn’t cut me off.”
“This was the first time I had to really think about things and take into account the humanity of the person in front of me,” Paul said. “It changed something for me, in a good way.”
The behind-the-scenes stories are part of the work the Cavacos are doing. And Paul’s tenure in the fashion industry, with Cayli’s front seat starting literally when she was in diapers, spans a period of significant change as the status of legacy magazines as arbiters and upper platforms is dismantled by social channels. Today, influencers can move more products than magazine editors and stylists can become as famous as their clients.
When asked about his opinion on Law Roach’s declaration that he is not just a stylist but an “image architect,” Paul smiled. “When I first read it, I thought it was a funny show. I think people are trying to find their identity within this market,” he told WWD during a recent interview with Cayli.
“We came from a different time period, everyone just wanted to be editors or stylists. It was a much simpler time. It’s much more complicated now; people have to wear a lot more hats. I love what he does. So it’s kind of great for me.”
The idea for “Under Cover” has been going on in various forms in Cavaco’s orbit for several years. “It was actually the title of my father’s book, which he absolutely said we wouldn’t write,” Cayli said. “Because he wasn’t looking for an ode to Paul Cavaco.”
And that’s not what the Cavacos are up to with the podcast.
“It’s not about making a vanity piece. We are not doing this because my father needs a revival in his career. We were not looking for a project. I definitely convinced him to do it.”
Paul Cavaco’s career spans nearly half a century, since he founded a public relations firm of the same name in 1976 with his wife Kezia Keeble. (The company became Keeble, Cavaco & Duka in 1983, when former New York Times fashion writer John Duka joined. Paul and Kezia divorced in 1985, and she married Duka, who died in 1989. Kezia died in 1990, at the age of 48). , from breast cancer.) His work as a stylist, when he was free, and later at Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and Allure, includes a surfeit of iconic covers including Annie Leibovitz’s 1981 Rolling Stone cover of Meryl Streep with her painted face white; Oprah Winfrey’s American Vogue cover from 1998, shot by Steven Meisel (and Oprah lost 20 pounds); Kate Moss’ life-changing 1992 Harper’s Bazaar editorial shot by Demarchelier. He has led campaigns for Dior, Calvin Klein, Michale Kors and Versace among others. And he collaborated with Madonna in her famous book “Sex”. Cayli grew up going to shoots and runway shows with her parents. “Garren remembers the first fashion show we did together, and Cayli was glued to my back,” Paul said. In 2016, Cayli founded Knockout Beauty.
“Fashion people are scary to people,” said Paul. “They think they’re judgemental, superficial, it’s all about the stuff you have. But when you talk to them, you get to know them, and joy comes from it. And we had such a great community, it was always great to go to work, even if the pressure was high. Garren and I did the Oprah cover for Vogue together, the pressure was so high, but it was so exciting, and so much fun to do.”
The podcast will introduce a video component later because, as Cayli puts it, “when we’re talking about a picture, you want look that picture.” They have a few interviews in the can: Christy Turlington, Anna Sui, Garren, Michael Kors, Marc Jacobs, Molly Sims, Tonne Goodman, Linda Wells, Linda Evangelista, Kate Moss. They are in touch with Naomi Campbell. “We have a very close relationship with the super people,” says Cayli. “So when all the supers are on, I think we’ll feel better.”
Many of the people Paul worked with in the early days of his career have passed away (photographers Demarchelier and Peter Lindbergh, hair stylist Oribe Canales), so the Cavacos are not self-conscious about the healthy dose of nostalgia they’re peddling .
“These people have traveled the world together, they’ve spent years and years working together, you feel the depth of their relationship in the conversation,” Cayli said. “I think it’s interesting to hear about people’s connections, people who are really analog connected to each other by these shared experiences. People don’t call you on the phone anymore, they just text. It’s great to hear someone’s voice, to see them, for the listener to feel that they get a visit with that person through me. I think that’s why the time is right for something like this.”
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