Nicolas de Gunzburg

Nicolas de Gunzburg
Gunzburg c. 1928
Born	(1904-12-12)12 December 1904 Paris, France
Died	20 February 1981(1981-02-20) (aged 76) New York City, U.S.
Other names	Julian West
Occupation(s)	Banker, fashion editor, actor

Nicolas Louis Alexandre de Gunzburg (French pronunciation:

Raised primarily in England, where his father worked for the bankers Hirsch & Co. and served as a director of the Ritz Hotels Development Corporation, Gunzburg spent his later youth in France. Living the life of a bon vivant in the Paris of the 1920s and 1930s, Gunzburg spent money lavishly, and his costume balls featured extravagant sets designed by architects and artists.

Gunzburg had an elder half-sister:^[6]

• Audrey Manuelle Alexandre Joaquina Bapst
  muse to French writer Paul Claudel. She married, firstly, British diplomat Raymond Cecil Parr, and, secondly, Norman Robert Colville, before being killed in a road accident near her home in Cornwall, England.[1]
  She had two sons: stockbroker Capt. Anthony James Parr (1914–1996) and naval architect Martin Rennel Charlton Parr (born 1928), who were her brother's sole heirs.

One of Gunzburg's relatives, Baron Dimitri de Gunzburg, was a patron of Russian dance impresario Sergei Diaghilev of the Ballets Russes and portrayed by actor Alan Badel in the 1980 Paramount film Nijinsky in which Alan Bates played Sergei Diaghilev.^[8] His cousin Baron Pierre de Gunzburg's daughter, Aline, married, as her third husband, the British writer and philosopher Isaiah Berlin.

Star of Vampyr (1932)

As Dreyer scholars Jean and Dale D. Drum have observed: "The baron was by no means a talented player, but Dreyer directed him to move through the scenes as though he were in a dream, with very little expression on his face and with all motion slowed down and muffled; in this way he fitted into the mood of the film quite successfully".[9]

Emigration to the United States

Legend states that upon the death of his father, Gunzburg learned the remaining family fortune was non-existent. Left with only the money he had in a checking account, he purchased his passage to America and used what was left to throw a costume ball in July 1934.

Gunzburg arrived in New York City on 10 November 1936 and rented an apartment in the Ritz Tower.^[11] His certificate of Immigration from the French Consulate General in New York listed him as "sans profession". However, in a Canadian border-crossing document filed earlier that year, he stated that he had been in New York City from April through September 1936, gave his profession as "banker", his French address as 15 Place Vendôme in Paris, and his reference a cousin Baron Pierre de Gunzburg (54 Avenue d'Iéna, Paris).^[12]

Publishing career

After working as an editor at Harper's Bazaar and as editor in chief of Town & Country, Gunzburg was appointed senior fashion editor of Vogue in 1949.

Known for his minimalist wardrobe of black, grey, and white—his grey suits were made by Knize & Co., the Viennese tailors—

One Vogue writer described him as:

A slender, attractive man with a really dry wit, a gift for mimicry, and a sharply developed taste for the simple but cultivated amenities of living.

Gunzburg also was a mentor to three up-and-coming fashion designers who would go on to dominate the industry: Bill Blass, Oscar de la Renta, and Calvin Klein. The last-named, whom Gunzburg met in the mid 1960s, was perhaps the baron's most famous protégé, and Klein discussed Gunzburg with Bianca Jagger and Andy Warhol in Interview magazine, published not long after the baron's death:

He was truly the greatest inspiration of my life ... he was my mentor, I was his protégé – If you talk about a person with style and true elegance – maybe I'm being a snob, but I'll tell you, there was no one like him. I used to think, boy, did he put me through hell sometimes, but boy, was I lucky. I was so lucky to have known him so well for so long.

Recalling one of Calvin Klein's first major fashion shows, Gunzburg said that immediately after the show a nervous Klein sought out his opinions on his new designs, and on whether the event had been a success or failure. The response to his protégé, a wry assessment – chilly, but supportive and polite: "You showed great courage".

Personal life

Gunzburg, who was homosexual and never married, had two known long-term companions:

• Erik Rhodes, an actor^[10]
• Paul Sherman (died 1985), an artist^[15]

Residence

Gunzburg was a summer resident of Highland Lakes, in Vernon Township, New Jersey for the last 20 years of his life. In December 1959, he purchased a two-acre island he called Hemlock, and constructed a causeway and summer house, which he decorated and furnished in a Tyrolean style.^{[10][clarification needed]}

Death

Gunzburg died at New York Hospital at age 76. He was buried the following spring near his summer home in Glenwood Cemetery, with a small private service at which Blass, de la Renta, and Klein were among the mourners.^[15]

References