CELEBRATIONS
RICHARD NEAL AZIE
I
CHEMMY KAL BAKER AZIE
n celebration of his 75th birthday this month ,
Vogue features designer EVOLUTION and delves deeper into the history and origins of his most famous fashion line , Life on Earth , which , in turn , turns 50 this summer .
Richard Neal Azie was born in 1938 in Philadelphia , PA . Growing up , he lived with three sisters , two elder and one younger ; naturally , though he would never admit it in public , he developed a keen eye for fashion at a young age . In the 1940s , however , men in the fashion industry were unheard of . Thus , Azie decided instead to pursue a career in science , a subject at which he was also adept . At the age of 25 , he graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology .
In the summer of 1963 , just after finishing graduate school , he married his sweetheart from UC Berkeley , Chemmy Kal Baker . In the fall , on their honeymoon , the two of them traveled to Nevada to visit the Eoarchean Hot Springs Resort and Spa . The resort had a somewhat quirky reputation as being the preferred vacation destination of the nation ’ s top scientists , this reputation spurned by the resort ’ s unusual name : Eoarchean refers to the time period in the Earth ’ s geological history approximately 3000 million years ago . Their curiosity piqued , both Azie and their wife were even more delighted upon arrival to note that hot springs at the resort were nicknamed “ hydrothermal vents ,” as the jets within that pumped hot water into the springs were modeled to look like the deep-sea vents that have been present on Earth for millions of years . The two were content with their selection of honeymoon destination , especially considering their professional backgrounds .
Azie spent a considerable amount of time spent soaking that day , surrounded by hydrothermal vents . And while he soaked , he thought . And as he thought , an idea began to form in his mind . In his mind , he began to fashion design . He pictured a simple piece of clothing , just a plain blouse , white , with no frills , no embellishments , no intricate designs . It had only one layer of material , made from a soft , organic cotton . The piece itself was nothing special , but when Azie pictured it in his mind , he could feel his future in design forming . And so , it was in the hydrothermal vents of the Eoarchean where EVOLUTION and Life on Earth were born .
14 VOGUE JUNE 2013
By: Meghan Hadley