Luis Estévez: Designer to Celebrities

Gladys Rodríguez-Dod
Exclusively By Rex Fabrics
Fine Fabrics from Around the World

Bold, individualistic, with a certain special charm, Luis Estévez is one of the most successful Hispanic designers in the United States.

Born in Havana in 1928 into a wealthy family, he grew up in a classy and refined ambiance. Son of Luis “Buffalo” Estévez and Gloria Cortiñas Benítez de Gálvez, Luis also descends from the Spanish family De Gálvez after whom the city of Galveston, Texas was named.

He was studying architecture, his great passion, when his parents divorced. His mother then moved to New York and he started visiting her during the summers. He then met Henry Callahan, who worked for Lord & Taylor as an expert in displays, and told him in great detail about a party which he had gone to in Cuba ―the first big soirée hosted by the countess of Revilla Camargo after the war to celebrate the marriage of the duke and duchess of Montoro upon their return to Cuba after their honeymoon. Callahan was amazed that Estévez could speak about Balenciaga and Bernabeu ―the latter one of the great Cuban designers― with such great details. Callahan offered him a job at once. He was named design assistant of the store’s window display department and it was there that he “felt” clothes for the first time... seeing them in mannequins, accessorizing them… caressing them.

After seeing some display windows that he had designed, the president of the store, Dorothy Shaver, encouraged him to study fashion. He enrolled at the Traphagen School of Design.

Afterwards, he went to Paris, aware that it was the cradle of Haute Couture, where he saw the countess of Revilla Camargo once again, who helped him land a job at the maison Jean Patou. They couldn’t pay him because he did not have a government permit to work in France, but he learned everything he could and lived on the $500.00 his parents sent him every month.

A year and a half later, he returned to New York and started working for a fashion house, saving every penny until he could open his own business.

In 1955 Luis Estévez presented his first collection. At the time, Diana Vreeland wrote: “It’s a name to keep in mind’. That same winter he received his first accolade: the Burdines Sunshine Award. The next year he won the coveted Coty Award, making him the youngest designer to receive it. He also won on three occasions the Chicago Gold Coast Award.

Given his Parisian experiences and observing the elegance of Cuban high society, his designs had as a foundation the master techniques of Haute Couture. But being less complicated it made it easier to manufacture in the United States. He was a complete success from day one.

His magnetism and personality, thus, also were two important factors that allowed him to meet and mingle with celebrities from around the world and befriend them all. He designed clothes for a broad spectrum of actresses, from Norma Shearer to Vivian Leigh, Lana Turner, Cyd Charisse and Natalie Wood, not to mention his great friend Merle Oberon, who he considered the most beautiful woman he has known. They first met in Cuba at the Havana Country Club’s Red Dance, where she had been invited by sugar magnate Julio Lobo. When they met again at a première, he reminded her of their meeting in Havana. Three years later Merle, by then married to billionaire Bruno Pagliai, built a home in Acapulco very close to his.

His opinion of a well dressed person is simple: ‘Someone elegant is elegant always... even in the shower!” And this is precisely how his designs are: elegant, flattering and, above all, youthful; but very classy indeed.

He married Betty Dew, a model who belonged to a prominent American family, and they both led a very intense social life. They were often seen in New York at El Morocco nightclub. They divorced in 1986, but always remained friends.

He has lived in California since 1968, first in Los Angeles and now in Montecino. The man who was Betty Ford’s designer during her time in the White House and, later, also one of Nancy Reagan’s favorite designers, and who in 1964 was chosen to dress to Lynda Bird Johnson when George Hamilton escorted her to the Oscar Awards ceremony, is dedicated today to special projects that interest him. His legacy is that his creations have withstood the test of time, and today, just like yesterday, are of a very special chic... combining the true Haute Couture with a style initially imposed by Cuban society women.