Who’s Who in Fashion was at the NeueHouse last night celebrating the life of Roxanne Lowit. Naomi Campbell, Simon Doonan, Donna Karan, Fran Drescher and Pat Cleveland, among many others, paid tribute to the woman and artist.
Lowit’s signature style is her short hair, a Chinese jacket, and sunglasses for evening. She adopted an all-black uniform, which was useful in her work. So it’s interesting to hear that Doonan and Lowit call each other Blanche. She’s good-looking, sure, but that’s her way of being, her big heart, the way she takes people under her wing.
While she has an art background, Lowit is a self-taught photographer who pioneered backstage fashion photography. Because of Lowit’s achievements, we take all access for granted today. As a woman in a male-dominated industry, she was taken backstage by models who trusted her in places that were supposed to be off-limits. “No one shot us like you did,” Campbell said in a video tribute. “Nobody’s going to shoot us the way you shot us. Nobody’s going to have that intimacy with us again.” Thankfully, aspects of that intimacy are preserved in the film. Cleveland recalls Lowit asking to sneak into the Yves Saint Laurent show. “‘Of course I’ll sneak you in,'” she remembers telling the photographer. “‘Come on girl, let’s go! You belong here. [Roxanne] is just right, she’s so delicate and beautiful…”
Anna Wintour and William Norwich
Photography by Jamie Cabreza
