Rachel Crespin, a long-standing fashion editor and consultant to designers, died on April 3 at her Sutton Place apartmen
Crespin, 100, was under hospice care at the time of her death, according to the fashion designer Jeffrey Banks.
Born in Spain, Crespin spent part of her childhood there and in Turkey, before her family moved to the Bronx. It was on the Grand Concourse that she first became intrigued by fashion, after seeing — and following — a man who was wearing a trenchcoat and dark sunglasses. Her former Vogue colleague and friend Andrea Quinn Robinson explained, “She told me, “That started it all.’”
After earning a high school diploma, Crespin, whose parents were furriers, started her fashion career by taking a job with a company on Seventh Avenue, where major manufacturers were based at that time. She later segued into editorial roles at Seventeen, Harper’s Bazaar, Glamour, Vogue and Esquire. The famed photographer Richard Avedon encouraged her to pursue a job at Harper’s Bazaar, Robinson said.
Having met Crespin in the 1960s, fashion designer Stan Herman said, “For a small person, she had a big personality. She was a speaker of wisdom in our business. She always spoke to the designers, went to the showrooms and was available to people. There were always rumors that she was half designing everybody’s collections.”
With sleekly pulled-back hair, simple sweaters, well-cut trousers, clogs and bold jewelry, Crespin’s sleek style was a statement in itself. Herman said, “She also looked the role of the new breed of an American fashion editor, which many people did not.”
In 1963, Crespin joined Glamour as its fashion editor, after exiting Harper’s Bazaar as the magazine’s “young perfectionist and children’s editor.” Two years later, she partnered with the jewelry designer Nina Adam in 1965 to debut The Girls, strong and simple jewelry that was inspired by Asia and designed for modern clothes. Her “groundbreaking” two-year stint at Esquire included a fashion shoot reimagining the Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s first visit to the U.S.
In 1973, Crespin was tapped as Saks Fifth Avenue’s first fashion director, where she was tasked with creating “a cohesive fashion image” for the retailer. Eighteen months later Saks shuttered its fashion department “until overall economic conditions improved,” WWD reported at that time. She later returned to Harper’s Bazaar for a second run. After more than three years at Vogue, she exited as a full-time editor but continued to work on special projects. In the late 1970s, Crespin started her own consultancy, working with the Paris-based Cerruti and Mario Valentino, among other designers. She shaped talent in other ways too including Frances Patiky Stein, who was her prodigy.
Crespin, an ardent traveler and collector of textiles, fashion and accessories, went on to consult with Calvin Klein, Donna Karan and Ralph Lauren. She also designed her own reversible shearling coats “in sizzling colors like taxicab yellow, lipstick red and turquoise,” as The New York Times described in 1989. The creative consultant John Calcagno, who worked with Crespin at Calvin Klein and Ralph Lauren, said Friday, “She had a great curiosity, phenomenal taste and a love of all cultures through her extensive travels.”
She even maintained her stylishness after becoming housebound, by greeting guests seated upright in bed with a black turban and black sweater. She was said to have a lively dating life with Alfred Vanderbilt and the author Peter Matthiessen being among her suitors. And friends said that another paramour, the late S.I. Newhouse Jr., who commandeered Condé Nast into being a publishing juggernaut, proposed to Crespin, but she demurred, despite what was quite a diamond engagement ring. Her early marriage to Harvey Freeman, an artist, was short-lived and the pair divorced.
Crespin’s editorial work was recognizable too with berets, pocket scarves and bangles being favorite accents, according to Robinson. “There was an ease about her pictures. They weren’t usually staged in any kind of way. They were always modern and with the times. As opposed to someone like Polly Mellen, who was a brilliant editor too, but always ahead of the times, ‘Ray’ was always of the times and the reality of those times.”
Recalling working with Crespin in the 1970s at Harper’s Bazaar, Marilyn Kirschner said, “Editors flitted in and out of the office all day long, because if you were sitting in your office you weren’t working basically. You had to be out in the market. It was such a heady time.”
Herman said, “She didn’t want to give up. She had ideas about dressing and clothes and would call me up. She was always a mover and shaker all of her life. I know for a fact that she never wanted to die — that’s for sure.”
