From the Editor: In Style and Daily life, Very long Nguyen ’84 Was an Unique
Extended Nguyen ’84 was a university student of historical past, at Princeton and in his experienced daily life as an influential determine in the manner business, but he couldn’t stand to see it repeated.
“It appears a small little bit like a contradiction, but it seriously is not. He had this kind of a good being familiar with and memory for past collections, and he utilized that to established a bar for designers,” states Robin Givhan ’86, a Pulitzer Prize winner who included the fashion marketplace and is now senior critic-at-significant at The Washington Post. “They should know their history, and they should be setting up off of it, and they should not be repeating it, they need to be constantly moving ahead.”
Nguyen, 59, died by suicide on Sept. 29. In this difficulty, the 11th annual “Lives Lived and Missing,” we pay tribute to Nguyen and other Princetonians who died in 2022.
Born in Vietnam, he fled with his relatives in 1975 to Europe and Boston before attending Princeton. On graduation, he practically promptly turned a fixture in the vogue industry as an editor and stylist and later co-founder of Flaunt Journal. He was a stylist for Madonna and NBA star Russell Westbrook and a driving power driving the controversial 1990s design “heroin chic.”
“He was interested in perform that moved vogue forward, that reflected changes in modern society and lifestyle close to him. And that frequently is not comfortable or surprising. If you do not see it, factors never modify,” says Vanessa Friedman ’89, vogue director and main manner critic for The New York Situations.
If you’re pondering why it looks there are so numerous Princetonians working in the vogue earth, so did Nguyen, Givhan, and Friedman, all of whom achieved each other after leaving Princeton. Nguyen stored close ties with the College, attending Reunions last 12 months and interviewing two future pupils who at some point joined the Course of 2026.
“There are a multitude of shots with Extensive wearing a Princeton T-shirt or Princeton sweatshirt. He seriously beloved the University,” Givhan states. “He was so thrilled that two of the students he interviewed experienced gotten recognized, and a person of them experienced invited him to appear to campus.”
Nguyen instructed individuals near to him in 2019 that he experienced been diagnosed with most cancers. In the months prior to his loss of life, he despatched good friends books and pictures, his way of indicating goodbye.
“There was not a decision that was produced by him in the warmth of emotion,” Givhan claims. “He had been very orderly about matters and sending guides and notes and pics to close friends that he needed to make certain they had. … That’s who he was, anyone who preserved interactions and who pretty substantially valued connections, even until the close.”
Editor’s be aware: If you or anyone you know may possibly have suicidal ideas, you can phone the 988 Suicide and Disaster Lifeline or chat on line at 988lifeline.org.
