A vision in red

The 1970s marked a significant shift in US mainstream fashion with the rise of athletic and leisure-inspired clothing. This trend was driven by the increasing popularity of sports and fitness, as well as the cultural changes of the era, and the technological advances in mass production and synthetic materials.

This turn towards functional and comfortable clothing such as tracksuits, shorts, tank tops, and windbreakers - often produced in bright colors and bold graphics - was quintessentially American. Designers such as Geoffrey Beene, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Stephen Sprouse, and Norma Kamali were upending the eurocentric conventions of dressing and introducing new styles into the fashion vernacular across the US.

Red Coat Series

In the midst of these shifting fashion trends, Antonio purchased a cherry red puffer coat from Paragon Sports, the long standing sportswear store on Broadway and 18th street, during a work trip to Manhattan in 1973.

He brought the jacket back with him to Paris where it became the inspiration for his seminal Red Coat Series, a body of work shot over a period of three months in the bathroom at his and Juan’s live/work studio at 64 Rue de Rennes on Paris’ left bank. A & J had moved in two years prior, and Juan had redesigned the bathroom with white and black vertical striped tiles. The intimate space became a makeshift photo studio that provided the perfect geometric contrast to the sculptural coat.

Antonio had been shooting with his Kodak Instamatic for several years, but it was during this period that he and Juan took a more conceptual approach to their subjects. Rather than simply using the point-and-shoot to document the creative circle around them on the street and in cafes, the camera became a tool for artistic production, and they generated an expansive body of photo typologies. This style was characterized by the creation of series of photographs that portrayed a single subject in a standardized, repetitive manner. The idea behind typologies was to create a visual catalog of a particular subject, often everyday objects or scenes, and to highlight the subtle variations and patterns that could be found within it. In this case, the subject became the jacket, an oddity of American fashion used as a prop and a costume for a rotating cast of Paris’ most beautiful models. The result was a blend of editorial sensibilities within the framework of a fine art concept.

As the series developed, Antonio and Juan curated like photographs together into 2 x 2 and 3 x 3 grids, creating intimate portrait studies of singular models as they contorted the voluminous, oversized fabric around their semi-nude bodies. This was the launching off point for a new way of working, and later evolved into the iconic Bathtub Series, Men in Shower Series, and more - each defined by the strict set of visual parameters ascribed to a singular subject matter. Unlike the advertising and editorial work that they were so professionally aligned with, these photographs often eschewed the world of high fashion.

Red Coat Series, Paris, 64 Rue de Rennes, Pat Cleveland, 1975

Red Coat Series, Paris, 64 Rue de Rennes, Sayoko, 1975

Although Antonio’s red puffer coat had stood out on the streets of Paris, it presaged an explosion of sportswear into the fashion mainstream of America. The French fashion world, already rocked at the 1973 “Battle of Versailles" by the vanquishing of top French designers by upstart young Americans (especially Stephen Burroughs) who drew heavily on the sports and fitness craze and the use of new fabrics as mentioned above, now had to re-calibrate its sights in order to keep up. The new wave of European designers could no longer ignore this wave of innovation. Thierry Muger, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Claude Montana were the heirs apparent to Yves Saint Laurent, Pierre Cardin, and Ungaro.

NYC Style

In 1975, Antonio and Juan departed Paris and returned to their hometown, moving into a studio at 876 Broadway just down the street from Paragon sports. Upon arriving back in NYC they continued to expand their exploration of Instamatic typologies, and even re-created the black and white tile bathroom as a backdrop within their new studio environment.

Simultaneously, their professional work began to highlight this style revolution. In a November 1975 article in New York Magazine by Prisilla Tucker, Antonio and Juan - freshly back from Paris and embracing the rising trend in American sportswear, styled their cadre of models in an unusual selection of clothing:

They chose clothes from sporting-goods stores not only because they are cheaper and look better than designer rip-offs, but because the sports clothes work better.

It was the dawn of a new era of dressing, and like so many trends that emerged during the 60s, 70s, and 80s, Antonio and Juan were at the forefront of bringing them to the public.

America Hurrah: Down and Outdoors in the Seventies

If you are fretting about how to cope with the new Paris fanny fetish- relax. The truth is that we are in the middle of the great age of American, not French, fash-ion, and the big picture has little to do with those semiannual style rearrangements in Paris

Think back to the sixties. Who can remember what Paris was doing? Who can forget jeans? Next year, when Fanny Wrappers are long for-got, goose-down jackets will still be hot.

Down clothes are to the seventies what jeans were to the sixties: the key item in a style revolution to bring fashion in line with the life the world wants to live--the sporty, outdoorsy, comfort-able, American life.

Anvone who has ever worn a light-as-air down parka is loath to go back to heavy, interlined wool coats. And even fur weighs more.

Although the fashion Establishment have yet to "see" down clothes, much as they were the last to open their eyes and stores to jeans (one store bought the Kenzo fall collection, except for the down jackets), shoppers are catching on fast. Abercrombie & Fitch sold $157.000 worth of down clothes in 1973, $1.4-million in 1974.

And it's not just because more people are hiking and skiing. Look around you on the city streets. In fact, many think the major style trends in fashion today come from functional clothes.

The clothes on these pages were put together with top fashion artists Antonio Lopez (Kenzo copied his down jacket) and Juan Ramos and friends (models Jerry Hall Pat Cleveland, Renata, Eija and Victor Fernandez) for a Fashion Group show held last month

They chose clothes from sporting-goods stores not only because they are cheaper and look better than designer rip-offs, but because the sports clothes work better.

NYMag, November 1975
Article by Priscilla Tucket
Photographs by Charles Tracy
Styled by Antonio and Juan