For the timeless and the effortless
In the Cab With
Narciso Rodriguez
A Conversation on Authenticity, Timeless Style, and the Women Who Inspire It
October 18 2025, by Bart Kooi
Drawn to the beauty of fashion, Rodriguez studied at Parsons School of Design in New York. He began his career at Anne Klein under Donna Karan, after which he moved on to Calvin Klein. Between 1995 and 1997, he served as Design Director at TSE, was appointed Design Director at Cerruti, launched his own eponymous label, and became Design Director of the women’s ready-to-wear collection at Loewe, a position he held until 2001 when he established his own atelier for his label in New York.
One of the most celebrated American fashion designers of the 21st century, Narciso Rodriguez is reknowned for his distinct aesthetic of timeless elegance and purity. His creative vision extends beyond fashion into fragrance, always inspired by women: their beauty, strength, and grace.
In this week’s In the Cab With: Narciso Rodriguez, he reflects: “Just to let incredible women shine, I’ve always thought that was a designer’s job.”
You grew up wanting to build things, either as an architect or a fine artist. What brought you to Parsons School of Design and ultimately to study fashion?
I have always had a love for architecture, I still do. I would sketch shoes which were very sculptural, I was fascinated by that kind of architecture.
With fashion, I was attracted to the beauty of it. It was the seventies; I was very much seduced by the glamour of New York, Studio 54, by creating things that made a woman feel beautiful.
Realizing I could marry the two was a breakthrough moment for me. There is this beauty component and this architectural component that I tried to marry throughout my career. By the time that I was in high school, I enrolled myself in weekend courses at Parsons because I knew I needed to understand more.
Back then, how did applying to Parsons work?
Parsons offered these great classes on a Saturday for kids in high school that were curious and interested. They were very supportive, they loved my work. They told me: “If you apply here, we’ll accept you.”
So I only applied to Parsons and was accepted. It was great. I went in there with an entrance portfolio that Parsons kept, which I learned later on was used to show students what a graduating portfolio should look like. It meant a lot to me.
I was so into it. The sketching component, the fabrication, the construction of garments, I was completely obsessed with the work.
I read that your family wasn’t very supportive?
It was a very different time. Being from a Latin family, I had to kind of lie to them. I told them I was studying fashion illustration. Then I came home one day and said that I had to buy scissors, fabrics, and materials like that, and they were shocked: “You can’t do that, you will go gay.” I told them I had to learn how to make the clothes to be able to draw them, and they believed me. Thank God. [laughs]
Even while I was at Calvin Klein – one of the top design jobs in the world – my mother would say: “When are you going to give up that ridiculous job of yours?”
Without your parents’ support, how did those early years climbing the ranks in fashion feel?
I never veered from my work. It wasn’t always easy, I didn’t always have the support, but “No” just wasn’t an option.
I had great mentors: Donna [Karan] was incredible, Louis [Dell’Olio] was incredible, Calvin [Klein] was also incredible. I learned so much, I was exposed to so much. It was everything that I was passionate about, I never strayed from that. I never went into it to be famous, to be that person. It was a true love of the craft that kept me going, I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
It was amazing to watch Donna work. Her fabric knowledge and research was extraordinary, and I was able to watch her take those fabrics and wrap them around her body to create such beauty.
Donna was pure creativity, where working with Calvin was like finishing school. There was an amazing creative component, excellent sample making rooms and brilliant design studio, but then there was such amazing imagemaking, too. Calvin was the conductor: you met all the great talents, photographers and art directors. Bruce Weber, Mario Testino, Fabien Baron, a very young Mario Sorrenti would walk in. I met Dick Page there and have worked with him ever since. I was able to form life long relationships with so many brilliant creatives.
It was an incredible trajectory for a young designer, I was really fortunate. Then I left and started consulting at Cerruti in Paris while at the same time I was working for TSE Cashmere in New York. In hindsight, it was a bit too much of an undertaking. I wasn’t looking to take a bow on a runway, I didn’t need to be that person. It’s not my personality. I had to adapt in a hurry and I wasn’t very good at it in the beginning. I tried to cope as best I could.
How did that leap in success between 1995 and 1997 feel at the time?
Those two short years brought a lot of attention to Cerruti. The first couple of shows were difficult. He [Nino Cerruti] was very involved. I realized I had to do my own thing, which wasn’t easy. When I pushed to do my own thing the next two seasons, it was really successful.
Also while I was there, I had made Carolyn’s wedding dress, which brought so much attention to my work and to the house.
Was it exciting? Was it frightening? What was the feeling that you felt those years?
It was overwhelming. I was adapting to being more visible in the industry, and then I was just thrown straight into the deep end. [laughs]
But didn’t you enjoy it? Didn’t you feel like you had made it?
It was tough, because it was very distracting. I was here for the work, not the after parties.
I remember coming home from Carolyn’s wedding, I was about to show in Paris and I had to fly back. I got a call from Candy Pratts at Vogue saying: “Anna wants you to come to the Princess Diana benefit in Washington.” I said: “I have to go to Paris, I have a show. I don’t even have a white shirt,” and she was like: “We’ll send you the white shirt. You are coming.”
From being mildly recognized to having to stop and go to Washington, I wasn’t prepared at all. I remember I was the last person walking in and meeting princess Di, and feeling like what am I doing here.
Didn’t you feel a sense of pride?
As I said before, it was really overwhelming. Not everybody was nice, not everybody was kind. Some people were, and that helped. But I felt a bit on my own in a very scary way.
And yes pride, because I had a created a beautiful dress for the person I loved most.
It was at Cerruti that I started to use menswear fabrics and cut them on the bias to make them more fluid and sensual on women. That technique has continued to be part of my work.
I admired what Jil Sander did, because she broke the mold with a sensuality and a purity that was unique to her. I also loved Saint Laurent and Balenciaga, because there was always a celebration of the body and the woman. In very different ways. Balenciaga was so beautifully considered and constructed, in an architectural and groundbreaking way. Saint Laurent did it in a very feminine way; the same for Chanel. Each celebrated women in their own unique and authentic way.
Throughout history, those were the things that moved me. That you could create something that was completely new, always celebrating the body and the woman. That’s what I loved about Donna Karan’s work too. That the sensuality and body always came through, I think that has always been constant.
Carolyn’s dress was a very pivotal moment in your career. How was that experience as a close friend of hers?
Carolyn and I shared such a close, personal relationship but she was such an inspiration as well. She embodies, on the fashion side, the kind of women that I love: self possessed, strong, intelligent; she possessed a rare grace.
You could speak to her about anything, she had an amazing personality and sense of humor, ans she had that amazing sense of personal style. She wore what she loved and felt comfortable in, and everything was authentic to her.
It was an exciting time in our personal lives and I was inspired to create the perfect dress for her, but it all felt so very natural too. We looked at fashion in very similar ways. She came here [to Paris] for fittings of her dress. We pulled the neckline down to make it more sexy and that was it. It was a very natural way to create something because I knew her so well. I knew she would never feel comfortable in something traditional, it had to be that meeting of the minds.
Carolyn wasn’t following a trend, ever. I recently spoke at the WWD Summit, and Alex Badia said that at many previews before fashion week, Carolyn was on every mood board. I found it funny, because the brands aren’t typically known for quiet luxury.
The word luxury is tough as it is so overused today. When I started out, my idea was to create luxury, yes. But it was to create a modern kind of luxury for a younger person. When I started, things like luxury and things that were elegant, refined, were always for an older customer. I saw young women like Kate [Moss] and Carolyn who loved beautiful things and beautiful fabrics, but that didn’t have to be uptight. That was the basis. It was less about quiet luxury, it was more about things that were well crafted, clean and beautiful for that moment and forever.
It was about a wardrobe that had a timeless quality and could last. When you look at Carolyn, that authenticity, and that love of things that are beautiful, that feel right, those are the things that are enduring. There were moments of fun shoes and things like that, but it wasn’t the core. The core was always pieces that were timeless.
I remember seeing a Vionnet dress in Paris at the Louvre at an exhibit years ago. It was a dress from the ‘30s, and you could see it on someone like Carolyn or Kate, or even on someone from today. That kind of magic is rare, but it is what endures. I remember being so moved by this incredible dress. Something like that, that is so meaningful, lasts forever.
The fashion industry is so much about the new, how do you balance the two? Do you ever think about it?
It is tough. When I started my own company I was able to do that for a good period of time, but you have pressure from the press: “Vogue wants color,” “The stores need this.” It’s hard to stay true to yourself and remain relevant.
I remember in my own career, where I started to show differently, and do things that were more theatrical, that weren’t true to me or to the brand.
Because of these pressures from outside, destabilizing your inner trust?
Yeah, I mean those were few moments for me. Luckily, I was able to do my own thing because I had my own brand. While I was at Loewe it was difficult, because it was a brand that wasn’t well known. LVMH had bought it and attached my name to it for press on their part, while I was there to use my craft. I wasn’t going to put on a show for a show’s sake, it was difficult. I was design focused, they were show focused. I was told that every look had to have a bag; I just don’t work that way.
And how do you deal with it now?
Now, I don’t have to care. There is so much talk of my desire to get back to work again, and it’s great because it is on my own time and it is happening so organically. I don’t need an Instagram post, I don’t need to make it loud for attention, unwearable. I can just now do what I love, and not bow to anyone, to any pressure.
What advice would you give a young designer who hasn’t yet earned the trust and reputation you’ve built throughout your career?
I would imagine it is very hard. I remember an editor saying to me: “I am not going out to Brooklyn to see another young designer who is going to be here for two shows, and then gone.” You are not even getting an opportunity beyond two shows to make a dent, or capture someone’s attention. Also shows today are so much more about attention grabbing than the craft. When I meet or mentor young designers trying to create something that’s solid, that’s good, they’re relegated more to a design team than to create something on their own.
I’ve met some extremely talented young designers from Paris, from New York, and it is a little bit saddening to hear them say: “The creative director wants me to do twenty variations of this one skirt.” I can’t even imagine what that feels like.
I’ve always been so much about the material, the fabrics, the research, the sketching, the draping, the cut, working with the room. The process. I think it is a really tough time for a young designer, because it is so much more about how much attention you get on social media than about the craft.
The thing about fashion is that it is cyclical. There is all the noise [now], and then it gets back to the purity.
Yet quiet luxury is already here, so aren’t we already in that part of the cycle?
The difference today is that it’s a trend. There are purists, like Armani, Sander, even designers like Consuelo Castiglioni when she created Marni—very authentic—but also a purist in her aesthetic. They weren’t following trends like quiet luxury. Today there are so many people doing that because it’s a trend.
You see it clearly because the clothing doesn’t fit properly, the materials aren’t right. It’s a hype, it’s a movement, because everybody is on it. It’s insincere, it’s inauthentic. There isn’t a thoughtfulness that someone like Sander put into the fabric, the cut, or the finishing of the clothes. It was extraordinary, timeless clothing. Same for people like Zoran, it was who they are. There are a few people who are doing it because it is their core, it is their belief.
You mentioned that you want to make clothes “as a frame for a woman’s personality”. What does clothing need to do to achieve that?
That quote was something that Carolyn said to me. She saw my work as creating a frame for a woman’s beauty, for her personality. I loved that, that it came from her, being as she would be the muse for so much of my work.
I’ve been fortunate because I’ve gotten to dress women like Carolyn, Claire Danes, Michelle Obama; women who have these incredible personalities, that are strong, intelligent, powerful, and inspiring. Just to let them shine is what is important to me. Not to be the thing that they would identify with them first. They are the focus, and then look good, too.
It’s quite simple though. I’ve always thought that was a designer’s job. [laughs] It was always logical to me, that that was what it would be. I don’t need to do anything else: it needs to look good, it needs to fit flawlessly. Really what you would think would be basic elements to the work.
As you said, apart from Carolyn wearing your wedding dress, another historical moment in your career was Michelle Obama wearing your design on Barack Obama’s election night. Looking back at both moments, what do they represent to you personally?
Today, a great sense of pride. The CFDA published this book on American design, and in the middle of the book it has one page with Carolyn, and one page with Michelle Obama; both very different, but definitely two great career highlights to me. They are two women that I personally look up to, for very different reasons, obviously. I was extremely fortunate to have those moments in my lifetime.
They both had a great impact. Carolyn’s dress was very personal, thoughtful, and true to who she was. With the First Lady, her choice of that dress was quite powerful, and very thoughtful as well. It was a moment that said: “This is change,” something that President Obama had campaigned on.
It was a bold choice, it was courageous of her, it spoke volumes about who she was and about the time. I was very proud to be part of that night. It was a more dignified time in our political history.
If you look at the brand Narciso Rodriguez, what is its signature message?
I hope that it embodies grace, authenticity, and a devotion to creating beautiful things. Something that is subtly new, that becomes a part of your life in a meaningful way. Whether it be fragrance or fashion.
As far as fragrance, I have received letters over the years that are so beautiful, that are very touching. Years ago, Maria Chiuri said to me: “I love your fragrance. My mother wears your fragrance, my daughter wears your fragrance, and I wear your fragrance.” That is three generations, three touched lives. That was really meaningful to me, more than all the pressbooks: that you can touch people’s lives in such a meaningful way.
It means a lot to me that I have been able to do my work and that it has opened the door to all of these amazing relationships and opportunities. It’s been a very personal journey to me, for all of us. From that first image of Carmen Kass, it conveyed a kind of sensuality. People looked at that photo and experienced the fragrance; it had this sense of grace, of vulnerability. She could be innocent, she could be seducing, there was so much depth to it. “For Her” continues to be a favorite. I am very proud of it because it was born out of creative passion and going against the grain, it was not following the trends.
Hopefully all of these things. The sensation of feeling all the passion that I put into the bottle. I personally worked endlessly on that bottle: it was impossible to paint a bottle on the inside at that time; I insisted for that to come to life. Same with the scent, which is musk inspired, and floral, at a time when musk was not the trend. The team I worked with at that time said, “No, you can’t do that,” and I said: “We have to do that.” “No” was not an option.
You have to break boundaries, but in a way that is authentic and not just for the hell of it. You can be thoughtful about it •
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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