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Mickey Boardman

Tell me about your first ad campaign.

Paul Marciano

I was thinking it was time to do a campaign.

At the time, I loved two campaigns: Ralph

Lauren and Calvin Klein, both shot by Bruce

Weber. I went to meet Bruce. I said, “We’re

French. We just started in America. I would

love to shoot with you.” It was 1984. His

agent said, “It’s 50,000 dollars a day.” I

said, “Wow.” I’m talking about 35 years

ago. That’s like 400,000 Euros a day today.

I said, “I can’t.”

So I said to my friend who was a

makeup artist, “I need to do a campaign.”

She said, “I can be the stylist.” I said,

“Okay, but I can’t pay you. Do you know

a photographer?” She said, “Yes, Wayne

Maser.” I asked, “Does he shoot fashion?”

She said no. I said, “He doesn’t know what

he’s doing, you don’t know and I don’t

know!” I said, “I want a girl with short

hair,” the opposite of all the models at the

time. We found Deidre McGuire. We went

to Laguna Beach.

We shot outdoors with almost no

makeup. The police arrived, came up to

where we were shooting and asked if we

had a permit. I said, “No. What permit?”

They said, “This is illegal.” I said, “We’re

just taking pictures. We’re on the beach.

Instead of taking a swim, we’re taking pic-

tures.” He said, “Sir, you need a permit or

we’re going to arrest you.” So we packed

and left. We had already shot a few pictures.

We went from Laguna Beach to Manhattan

Beach. Same story. The police arrived and

asked for a permit. Then we went to Hun-

tington Beach. After three beaches, we

had a campaign.

Mickey Boardman

How did you first start working with Ellen

von Unwerth?

Paul Marciano

One day I saw pictures in The Face or

Arena. They were beyond sexy. I looked

at the name: Ellen von Unwerth. I looked

everywhere for her and couldn’t find her. I

looked for three months. She was German,

the magazine was English but the rumor was

she lived in Paris. Finally, I had a meeting

with her. She had on clothes that were way

too big for her and a big smile. She had

never shot a campaign before. She was a

model. Her boyfriend was a photographer.

They broke up and she decided to become

a photographer. Her first campaign ever

was GUESS.

We did a campaign in Rio with Naomi

Campbell and Eva Herzigova. We had a

big fight with Naomi because she refused

to shoot with Eva. She wanted to be shot

alone. Eva was new, she didn’t speak

English. She was crying. I went to Naomi

and said, “I’ll give you 10 minutes. You can

either pack and fly back home, or you can

stay here and shoot with her. I’m going

to have a coffee and I’ll come back in 10

minutes and you tell me.” She was furious.

She screamed at Ellen. I came back and

she said, “Okay, I’m shooting.” And we had

amazing pictures. At the time my brothers

were looking for me. They tracked me down

and said, “Where are you?” I said, “I’m in

Rio shooting a campaign at the beach.”

They said, “We have the best beach in the

world in Santa Monica!” I said, “This is

Brazil! This is emotion!” They said, “Sand

is sand!” I came back and got fired.

Mickey Boardman

How long were you fired?

Paul Marciano

3 weeks.

Mickey Boardman

Not too bad.

Paul Marciano

They couldn’t understand that you cannot

recreate that vibe. You cannot recreate

that essence that you feel there. It’s the

air. It’s the music, the people.

Mickey Boardman

Let’s talk about Anna Nicole Smith.

Paul Marciano

She was Vickie Smith. I changed her name

to Anna Nicole Smith, you know that? I

found her in San Antonio. I was shooting

GUESS Kids and she came with her son

Daniel. I said, “Who are you?” She said she

was a waitress at Red Lobster. Everything

I asked her she called me “sir.” She had

never done pictures before. I had the kids’

photographer shoot her on the spot. I took

her to New York and got her an agent and

changed her name. To me, she was Anna,

but Anna Smith did not sound right so

we did Anna Nicole Smith. At the time,

Kate Moss was doing Calvin Klein, and

she was 5’7” and feminine and skinny.

Anna Nicole was 6 feet tall and bigger than

life with boobs and shoulders. I instantly

thought of Anita Ekberg in La Dolce Vita.

I thought, “She doesn’t even know how

beautiful she is.”

I was crazy about shooting her. She

As a teenaged budding fashion addict in Hanover Park, Illinois, I plastered my

bedroom walls with GUESS ads from the back cover of W, which at the time was

a huge fold-out fashion newspaper. Claudia Schiffer channeling Brigitte Bardot

photographed by Ellen von Unwerth felt like the pinnacle of glamour. The visual

identity of GUESS has always been the handiwork of Paul Marciano, one of

four French brothers who started the company in 1981 in Southern California.

Today, nostalgia for those amazing '80s and ‘90s fashion moments is stronger

than ever. At GUESS headquarters, I caught up with Marciano, who, along with

his brother Maurice, opened a new art foundation in LA last month, to hear the

behind-the-scenes scoop on their legendary campaigns.

Photography by

Daniela Federici

Interview by

Mickey Boardman

58

P a u l M a r c i a n o

C r e a t e s I c o n s

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had such a magnetic personality, but you

could see that she was fragile. Success

came and she got recognized by people.

She started taking sleeping pills because

she couldn’t sleep and mixing alcohol with

them. I stopped working with her because I

couldn’t deal with that. I said, “We’re done.”

After that she met the wrong people, and I

think that was it.

Mickey Boardman

Of course, another one of your most famous

GUESS girls has been Paris Hilton.

Paul Marciano

Ah, Paris. That’s an interesting story. I was

there when she was born because I knew

her mom, who was the best friend of my

girlfriend at the time. One day I got a call

from an agency. They said Paris Hilton

would like to do a GUESS campaign. I said

great and asked what the rate was. They

gave me some astronomical number. I said,

“Why don’t you send me the covers she’s

done and the campaigns she has done.”

I said, “Do you have covers?” They said,

“No.” I said, “So what do you have to sell

me?” They said she’s in every magazine,

and I said every tabloid magazine. I said,

“What I can do for you is create an image

for her and a brand. And for that, you should

pay ME. I’m not going to pay you.” They

called two months later and said Paris really

wants to work with you. They said they

could charge 50% and I said no. Finally I

met Paris. She had three bodyguards who

I told to go outside. I started to show her

the campaigns and she said, “Don’t. I know

every GUESS campaign. My dream is to be

a GUESS girl.” I said, “Call your agent and

tell them you’ll do it my way.” She called

and said I want to do GUESS, I don’t care if

I’m paid or not. And then we did campaign

after campaign, and we created an image

for her that she never dreamed of. She’s

a nice girl.

Mickey Boardman

I’m a huge Paris fan.

Paul Marciano

I really like her. I bumped into her recently,

and she could not thank me enough. She

said, “Paul, you changed my life, you

changed my career. You gave me a brand,

which I did not have. I had the name of

Hilton, but I did not have a brand.”

Mickey Boardman

It’s such a crazy time in fashion and pub-

lishing. Is the image still as important as

it was back then?

Paul Marciano

35 years of business, I’ve never seen such

a transforming time as I see now. Still, I

believe people do not forget a visual brand.

If you do something exceptional, something

iconic, something that will stay in your mind

when you close your eyes, that’s good. If

you close your eyes, you see the image of

Ralph Lauren. You see the image of Calvin

Klein. You close your eyes and can see the

image of GUESS. The chic, casual sexiness.

It’s always feminine and voluptuous, not

ashamed of curves.

I think the brands that survive will be

the ones that can adapt to both magazine

and online. If you’re still very traditional,

you will not survive. If you stay true to your

roots, stay true to your brand and give a

good quality product without prostituting

your brand, I think you’ll survive. What

won’t come back to business as usual is

shopping centers. That’s over. Nobody

wants to drive 30 minutes and wait in a

parking lot at the mall. This is where we

are today.

Mickey Boardman

What’s become the new standard for

images and campaigns, do you think?

Paul Marciano

Today’s models have Instagram. You have

to talk to them and understand where their

mind is. I’ve had models come to me and

say, “I dream about these vintage GUESS

pictures.” I said, “You’re 17, how do you

even know these pictures?” They say,

“Everybody knows the image of GUESS.”

Mickey Boardman

The kids are so nostalgic for those times.

Paul Marciano

The ‘90s are very much in trend right now.

Mickey Boardman

Is that good or bad?

Paul Marciano

I think it’s good. Look at CNN. They put

on these series, The Sixties, The Seven-

ties, The Eighties. Everybody loves to see

that because they didn’t l ive it. It was an

amazing time we had. Me? I wish I l ived

in the ‘50s with Frank Sinatra, Sophia

Loren and Marilyn Monroe. I didn’t l ive

that time.

Deidre McGuire, 1981 Photography by Wayne Maser

Claudia Schiffer, 1989Photography by Ellen von Unwerth

Paris Hilton, 2004Photography by Ellen von Unwerth

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