Romantic Math

(LOS ANGELES) The Otis College of Art and Design may not have Project Runway, but they do have a speaker series at the Pacific Design Center that's played host to designers such as Francisco Costa, Todd Oldham, and Bob Mackie, among others. On Tuesday night, they held a Q&A in front of a live audience with fashion/design/artist couple Isabel and Ruben Toledo--who are as visually stimulating as they are mentally.

The Cuban couple--she of the artfully designed architectural clothes, and he of fashion illustration and photography and video--have made 23 trips from N.Y. to L.A. over the last few years, to mentor students at the school through an ongoing mentoring program. "They are our most inspired and dedicated teachers," said Rosemary Brantley of Otis.
        
Isabel hails from a small country town in Cuba, and Ruben from Havana, but they met when they were both 14 years old in a Spanish class at their mutual high school in New Jersey. "I couldn't take my eyes off her from the moment I saw her," said Ruben, gushing. "She was the light of my life right away. But she wouldn't pay any attention to me--in fact, she wound up dating my brother." The two commenced dating when they were twenty.

Then they came to Manhattan together, she to attend Parsons and to intern under Diana Vreeland at the Met Costume Institute, and he to attend the School of Visual Arts. Isabel began making clothes for herself and one day, she came home and Ruben had taken them to Bergdorf's and Patricia Field's store. "Then I had to actually produce them," laughed Isabel. The couple married in 1984, and produced all the clothes together, eventually showing at New York Fashion Week. "They were based on circles and triangles," noted Isabel. "I called it 'romantic math.'"

In 1990, the couple moved their show to Paris, showing there for two years, with Ruben creating special mannequins for Isabel's designs--and sometimes, the mannequins were as artful as the clothes. In 1997, Ruben published The Style Dictionary, a book full of his illustrations--making him one of the leading fashion illustrators in the world." "I had no intention of becoming a fashion illustrator," he laughed. "All I knew is that I wanted to paint and draw and do art and be with Isabel--she is my leading inspiration and muse. And I knew that fashion was absurd." Annie Flanders, who was present at the lecture (along with Vogue's André Leon Talley, Liz Goldwyn, Kevan Hall, and Rita Watnick), gave Ruben the backpage of her Details magazine to illustrate--and he created the first full-on fashion cartoon. 

After describing the course of both their careers, including museum exhibitions and her much ballyhooed stint designing for Anne Klein, the couple took questions from the audience, with wildly charming responses.

What is your definition of style?
Isabel: "Style is a visual language--it can't be learned. It's your spirit. My process is start with heart--then go to hand."
Ruben: "Style is your soul--it's your DNA. I don't have a style--I have a soul."

How would you describe each other's styles?
Isabel: "Ruben's style is cunningly accidental."
Ruben: "Isabel's style comes from her introspection. She's a hippie at heart."

What are your obsessions?
Isabel: "I'm a maker. I must make things. And I'm always trying to figure out how everything is made. I need to understand construction."
Ruben: "Isabel is my obsession. Art is another one."

How do you start your day?
Isabel: "Everyday at 8 a.m., Ruben is at the foot of our bed with a café con leche. How could you not create beauty in a day that starts that way?"
Ruben: "Making Isabel café con leche, and watching her wake up."

What do you think about money?
Isabel: "Don't touch it."
Ruben: "Lots of it."

How do you feel about praise?
Isabel: "Uncomfortable."
Ruben: "Give me more!"

Describe work.
Isabel: "I don't work--I play."

Describe play.
Isabel: "I don't play--I work."
Ruben: "Happiness for me is the spark of creation. All I want to do is light that match!"

Describe fear.
Isabel: "I don't have any fear.
Ruben: "I am always afraid of everything."

What is your greatest dream?
Isabel: "To keep dreaming."
Ruben: "To be with Isabel."

As for their futures, Ruben is finishing drawings for a book of his own, and for a book by Nina Garcia, and there will be a retrospective of his work at FIT in 2009. Isabel is of course working on her eponymous collection.
MERLE GINSBERG