Flaunt journal cofounder Lengthy Nguyen, an impartial thinker who was very a lot a part of the style scene for the previous few a long time, has died.
Many within the {industry} affiliate him with Flaunt, the indie journal that he cofounded in 1998 and the place he served as its longtime fashion director till the summer time of 2019. Previous to Flaunt, Nguyen served as fashion director for Detour journal within the mid- to late ’90s, serving to to outline the relaxed and accessible road fashion and grittier heroin stylish ethos that was taking maintain within the trend {industry}.
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Earlier in his profession Nguyen opened the primary public relations workplace in New York for Dolce & Gabbana — a chance that was stated to have offered itself after he occurred to satisfy cofounders Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana — and later taught himself Italian. Extra lately, Nguyen had served as chief trend critic at The Impression. After leaving that put up, Nguyen had been working as a artistic marketing consultant.
One in all his sisters, Dao Nguyen, an lawyer in Vietnam, confirmed his dying Tuesday. She was unsure of his precise age.
A memorial is being thought-about for a later date, she stated.
Declining to touch upon the reason for dying, his sister stated, “He died peacefully and on his phrases.”
Nguyen’s physique was present in his Chelsea condominium by the New York Police Division, in response to Alan Fell, a associate at Rick, Steiner, Fell & Benowitz LLP., whose agency had represented Nguyen previous to his dying and is dealing with his property.
An NYPD spokesperson deferred remark to the workplace of New York Metropolis’s chief health worker. Representatives there had not responded to a request for remark as of Tuesday afternoon. The date of Nguyen’s dying has not but been confirmed by metropolis officers.
New York Metropolis turned the bottom camp for the Vietnamese-born artistic, who solid his personal profession path within the U.S. after his household got here to America following the autumn of Saigon.
The Washington Put up’s senior critic at massive Robin Givhan first befriended Nguyen in her early days of masking trend at The Detroit Free Press, a reality she knew as a result of he had saved a thank-you word that she had written to him for loaning clothes for a photograph shoot.
“It stands out as a result of it was a mid-size paper that was not [available] throughout the nation. It wasn’t precisely seen as this scorching trend market. I had simply began. However he was a kind of individuals who was simply very variety,” she stated Tuesday. “He was all the time extraordinarily gracious and considerate — somebody who all the time remembers your birthdays.”
Inclined to additionally file away designers’ notes from runway reveals and different industry-related ephemera, Nguyen had “this actually unbelievable sense recall and historical past.” Above all, Givhan admired his independence as an editor, having grown up within the indie journal world.
Singling out his position at Flaunt, she stated, “To have the ability to construct {a magazine}, keep in {a magazine} and create these connections all through the {industry}, the place individuals not solely resent what you do, however are desperate to contribute to what you do as an impartial is actually extraordinary in one of the best of occasions. Then to have the ability to try this, as all the things has develop into so company, is in my thoughts sort of a miracle. He labored so onerous at not simply what went into the journal however the entire behind-the-scenes relationships that you need to construct so as to maintain {a magazine}.”
His exit from Flaunt attracted headlines. On the time, Nguyen stated that an assistant’s authorized submitting alleging sexual and verbal harassment in opposition to two senior executives on the Los Angeles-based journal was “the final straw” for him. Flaunt officers denied any wrongdoing at the moment and challenged the size of the 21-year tenure that Nguyen claimed to have had on the journal. Nguyen had acknowledged that he solely stepped apart after being unable to get the accused to “do the best factor” in a post-#MeToo period.
Born in 1965, he grew up in a household with 11 different siblings and lived an intercontinental life from a younger age. He was believed to have been 58 years previous, in response to his sister, who was not sure of his delivery month, as birthdays weren’t typically celebrated. Nguyen began residing abroad on the age of eight or 9, attending boarding faculty in Geneva. In 1975, because the Vietnam Warfare was ending, the household, which had constructed one of many largest pharmaceutical firms within the nation, relocated to the U.S. and settled in Boston. “Once we left for America, we had principally misplaced all the things. My mom has since come again and rebuilt [the company],” his sister stated.
After Nguyen’s father died in Vietnam, his mom and his aunts ran the pharmaceutical firm, which had a three way partnership with Nestlé to make milk method and likewise made IV options for the U.S. Military by a separate deal, his sister Dua stated. Their mom was “variety a powerhouse,” she stated. “And elevating 12 youngsters alone in America shouldn’t be simple. Within the ’90s, she went again to Vietnam as a result of she was all the time passionate concerning the well being care sector. She rebuilt a manufacturing facility to make over-the-counter medication as a result of she wished to convey inexpensive well being care to Vietnamese individuals. She put all of us by faculty, highschool, school and graduate faculty.”
Dao Nguyen stated, “It was not simple generally. Wholly delicate youngsters really feel some isolation greater than others, if you realize what I imply. All of us need to be taught to cope with sure issues in our lives. She clearly can’t give us all of her consideration, proper?”
Lengthy Nguyen had attended the celebrated Phillips Exeter Academy and Princeton College, the place he studied comparative historical past and comparative literature. He was usually studying, favoring Russian and French literature, particularly works by Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Jean-Paul Sartre. “He all the time had a really delicate side to himself and that’s mirrored in his writing. He all the time sees a special aspect to issues.”
Emphasizing how Lengthy’s sensitivity made him really feel issues greater than many people do, his sister stated, “Delicate individuals really feel extra. They get damage extra. In a method, they’re sensible at what they do. However there may be that anger. In some methods, he was like that.”
Uplifted by the variety of strangers, predominantly from the style neighborhood, who’ve reached out to increase their condolences, his sister stated, “I’m so pleased to see that so many individuals love him. Principally, they’re his household in New York. I see these professionals as his household much more so than the household that he was born into.”
Givhan recalled Tuesday what number of {of professional} connections led to actual friendships for him, versus essential transactional exchanges which are widespread for some working in trend. She stated, “It by no means felt transactional with him. He was so good concerning the {industry}, creativity and historical past. He actually considered issues. He learn so broadly — far past trend. He was as engaged with politics, historical past and faith — an enormous array of matters — and he funneled quite a lot of that into his consideration of trend. He cherished trend however he might be as utterly enthusiastic discussing one thing unrelated to trend.”
Not one to boast about something, Nguyen would periodically share articles that he had written along with his sister, who was impressed by how he expressed himself and had inspired him to write down a e book concerning the trend {industry}’s historical past beginning within the ’80s, when “individuals had been actually artistic with out worrying about what individuals suppose.” she stated.
Suspecting that he was within the strategy of doing that, his sister hopes that, if that’s in reality the case, a few of his associates will assist see that by. “That was probably the most lovely factor about him. He by no means boasted. He by no means stated something about himself. However definitely, he was happy with a few of the issues that he had despatched me.”
Along with his sister, Lengthy is survived by his different siblings and their mom, whose names weren’t instantly recognized.