It was a one week photo shoot for Vogue magazine ~ late January/early February 1979 ~ Acapulco and Cuernavaca Mexico. Gia’s first trip for Vogue US.
CREW: Gia Carangi, Janice Dickinson, Patti Hansen, Mike Holder. Mike Reinhardt photographer, Andrew Brucker assistant photographer, Jade Hobson Vogue fashion editor, Rick Gillette hair and makeup.
The shots Vogue published can be found in Vogue US 1979 May and Vogue US 1979 July issues.
These candid photos are from
Patti Hansen Richards’ candid collection.
This shoot was not the first time Gia and Andrew met.
Andrew Brucker: It was in late summer or the fall of 1978 when I found myself in Studio 54, a place I spent much of my time at night, having fun. I vividly remember looking across the main room toward the dance floor, where I spotted an acquaintance of mine, Russian photographer Alexander (Sasha) Borodulin, speaking with a uniquely beautiful girl. He knew all the girls, especially the cool ones. She was different from the others in how she dressed and in her body language. She wasn’t dressed in disco style. She had a punk edge, like an ultra-feminine Patti Smith.
Andrew: When Sasha finished speaking with her, I ran over and asked him who she was. He said, ‘Come, I’ll introduce her to you.’ It took me by surprise and I hesitated, but he assured me she was cool and it would be fine. Co, in the noise of this famous club, I met Gia. I didn’t have much to say. I was intimidated by her, and it was loud. Our faces were close to each other as we exchanged names. I said something ordinary like, ‘Are you a model?’ or ‘What agency are you with?’ I told her I worked for Michael Reinhardt, and I can’t remember what else. It was short, but I was smitten. She had a look in her eye that was pure mischief. She was smaller than most of the models, which I liked, since I’m only 5’8”.
Andrew: I arrived at work that next day and told my boss, who at the time was a big fashion star (and was dating Janice Dickinson) that I had met the future. Her name was Gia, and we had to book her. He laughed and told me I was probably stoned when I met her, and what did I know, I was new to the business, that was true, but I had breathed her air and looked into those eyes. She was only 18 and just getting started. He finally held what they call a ‘cattle call’, and I found myself in the studio with all kinds of girls coming and going, and Gia was one of them. We winked at each other from across the room. She left, and I hoped he would agree with me and start working with her. But he wasn’t impressed, and I felt it was only because I was crazy about her.
Andrew: Weeks later, much to my surprise, I came to work and heard Mike arguing with someone on the phone about how he must have first option on Gia for an important shoot we had scheduled. I couldn’t believe my ears. Gia had arrived! Overnight she was becoming the new “it” girl and my dreams were coming true.
Andrew: In early 1979, January/February, the crew flew to Acapulco for American Vogue. I was thrilled to be going as the only assistant. It was on the flight that the fun-loving, mischievous Gia presented herself. She teased me by throwing bits of this or that at me where I sat, several rows in front of her. When I turned around, her eyes would widen and she would make faces. I was under enormous pressure to perform my duties as an assistant, but I could only think about the week ahead and what adventures we might all have. We had three of the coolest girls in the business with us, and I’d never felt luckier.
Reinhardt, Dickinson, Hansen and Gia together in Mexico had all the makings of a beautified version of Animal House, and the week in Acapulco and Cuernavaca did not disappoint.
“Thing of Beauty”, Stephen Fried
Andrew: We settled into our rooms at the villa in Acapulco, and it was clear the gang wanted to have fun. I roomed with Mike Holder, Gia and Patti shared a room. Janice shared a room with Mike Reinhardt of course. We all worked hard, and in the evenings, we let our hair down. I was supposed to keep Gia and Patti from partying and going out. As if I could tell Patti and Gia to behave themselves. I went out with them the first night, and caught hell from the boss because the models were tired. After that we partied quietly at the house.
Andrew: The girl I knew was 18 years old. She was joyful and full of mischief. She had a great sense of humor, and she liked practical jokes…. She was being a very flirtatious, mischievous young girl. The cool part about her was that she wasn’t a tomboy. She was very feminine, or at least I saw her that way. Her body, her face. She would come in the room and say ‘Come on, let’s take some nudes. Let’s photograph my ass, get the Polaroid! So, we would take these sort of racy pictures in a funny way and we would look at them and laugh. Then she would take them away from me and tell me, ‘You can’t have these.’ She was just a kid! A good crazy kid! Always fun, always touching me, and very comfortable touching other people. Nothing dark about Gia, let me tell you. At the time, she was fun and full of life.
Andrew: Gia was elated that all of these wonderful things were happening to her and that she was getting enormous attention. Gia had a classic guarded personality. If she saw something in a person that she didn’t like, she would either make fun of them – not in a mean way, but with clowning or joking, or she would ignore them. She would tease my boss Mike. She knew he was a playboy, and she knew he liked a lot of women, and so she made fun of him. He was a tough man, so she would pull his pants down, made funny faces behind his back, stick her tongue out, or cross her eyes. She would just goof on him, and he would catch her ‘Gia now stop it! We have to work!’ She was always a little clown with him.
Gia had a similar approach to people she actually liked too. She was always trying to pull my pants down, or she’d jump on my back and put her arms around me and bite my ears. She would do funny things. It was cute and she was happy! Gia was insane – in a good way. She acted like she was hanging out with her best buddies…. Certainly, with Patti and Janice, they all got along with her just fine. Gia was up for the party! We would go swimming at night, and everybody would take their clothes off … and she was there.
Mike Reinhardt: Oh, Christ that was a rough trip between the three of them. Gia was impossible, I mean totally impossible. Just unfriendly, difficult, uncooperative, the works … erratic, one day she’d be nice and then she’d be … I wanted her to turn her back, and she said, ‘I don’t do back pictures.’ I mean, this is somebody who’s not big yet. ~”Thing of Beauty”
Sara Foley, Assistant Photo Editor, Vogue US: I get a phone call at home in NYC at three in the morning from a hysterical Editor (Jade Hobson) in Cuernavaca Mexico. She was telling me the toilets didn’t flush. They were supposed to stay with the Governor of Cuernavaca or something, and the Governor had been there with his sons, then the Governor left and two body guards were left behind. Then the guards got totally drunk and they were sitting there with these machine guns and wouldn’t let any of them into the house. They were holed up in this room, and the hairdresser had to sleep in a hammock by the pool or something.
Michael Holder, model: I met Gia for the first time on the transit bus going from the airport to the villa. She had a Sony Walkman and was listening and dancing to Rod Stewart’s “Do ya think I’m sexy” over and over. She went through several packs of batteries over the days we were there. Her movements were fluid but subdued; her expression was more ironic than emotive. I don’t think we spoke at all the whole bus trip. She did bum a couple of smokes off me, using her eyes and had gestures.
Gia’s presence was marked both by “self-sufficiency” and an awareness of “everything going on around her”. Mike’s assistant, Andrew, was so enamored of Gia, he could barely concentrate on his job. She acted the demure princess to his awkward puppy dog. I found their behavior sweet, although I could see he was in serious pain.
Patti Hansen arrived a couple of days into the shoot. Mike ordered us all to go to bed early, but Patti would have none of that. She wanted to go out dancing. So, I accompanied her to some disco in Acapulco where a room full of men proceeded to fall over themselves and fight each other to be near her. When we returned to the villa around four a.m., we found the Andrew, lying on a chaise by the pool, staring up at the stars.
Gia seemed very modest about dressing and wearing swimwear, especially compared to Patti and Janice. When the camera was on, Gia turned on the light. She was very young and perfectly professional. I have no idea whether or not Gia was happy. I may be projecting, but my sense was that she thought modeling was a pretty silly job. ~”Born This Way”
Andrew Brucker:
I can share one special ‘intimate’ evening with Gia. We played like teenagers but never took it all the way. She wouldn’t let that happen. She knew something about herself I didn’t. We became friends on that trip, and I think, if I had been a girl, we might have had a chance. We never kissed again…. It was like hanging out with a good buddy. She was funny, irreverent, shocking, and slightly mad. At eighteen, it all worked beautifully for her.
When we returned to New York, the honeymoon was over for me, I wanted a relationship she couldn’t give me, and I was too young, stupid and immature to realize that I could have been a good friend. I drifted away and lost the chance to know a remarkable person.
The Gia I knew was happy, enthusiastic about what was taking place in her life, and in no way struggling to manage her success. She was beginning her life as a model, and she was very eager. She was a lot of fun, and she was having a lot of fun… Even though it was at the beginning, everything was perfect at that time. It was all exploding for her. I think she was very happy about all of the good things that were coming her way. I think it took her about two years after to stop being happy with all of the attention. Everybody wanted something from Gia….. you know it works: Everybody’s very excited when there’s a new young boy or girl in the business and they survive and manage it. Some are going to be eaten up by it. I think she managed it quite well. I think at eighteen she was happy to have such an opportunity. She wanted to be a filmmaker. I know she loved movies. ~”Born This Way”