The final interview with Swiss textile designer Erich Biehle: ‘Paris was the world!’
Swiss textile designer Erich Biehle died in June aged 83. Just before his death he spoke to SWI swissinfo.ch and reflected on his career and life with Hubert de Givenchy, Yves Saint-Laurent and Audrey Hepburn.
I got to know Erich Biehle at an exhibition of his foulards in Zurich. In early 2024 we had several conversations at his home, in his studio and in the famous Kronenhalle restaurant. He died on June 18.
Biehle’s studio features many photos, including one of actor Audrey Hepburn in a Givenchy dress and another of fashion editor Anna Wintour wearing an outfit by Michael Kors. The fabric patterns are all created by Biehle.
During our interviews he shared his experiences with Hepburn and French designers Yves Saint-Laurent and Hubert de Givenchy and explained why he chose not to stay in New York.
SWI swissinfo.ch: Where did your path towards becoming a textile designer begin?
Erich Biehle: Soon after I finished school, I began an internship at Ludwig Abraham & Co., one of haute couture’s most famous silk suppliers. This gave me access to the Paris fashion world from a young age.
Gustav Zumsteg managed Abraham’s Paris subsidiary and became the sole owner in 1968. He also owned the Kronenhalle restaurant in Zurich, so I obtained a studio upstairs.
Artists are bound to their own style. I was always fascinated with design and how it allowed me to create something new every day.
SWI: Paris played a major role in your work, didn’t it?
E.B.: Paris was the art world, the fashion world – it was the world. From the 1960s to the 1980s, Parisian daily life was very influential. For a while I travelled from Switzerland to Paris week after week and spent a lot of time in a café on Saint-Germain-des-Prés. I ordered a drink and watched people. Musicians played music on the square, while street performers followed the passers-by and imitated their movements. This city inspired and influenced me – and, at the same time, I influenced it.
SWI: From early on you worked for Yves Saint-Laurent and did so until the end of his career. How did you influence his collections?
E.B.: I introduced geometric shapes into textile design. In Paris in the 1950s small patterns and flowers were dominant. [Spanish designer] Cristóbal Balenciaga, for example, would have opted for lily of the valley or a polka dot. Once, when I visited his studio, Balenciaga asked me to make some foulards for him. He wanted to hang them in his rundown display window to give his studio a fresher look. He loved my designs with their large geometric shapes.
My foulards for Yves Saint-Laurent featured a different style of geometry that referenced the artist Johannes Itten. Itten taught me about the effects of shape and colour and how they influence mood. Only later did I realise how much Johannes Itten and his Bauhaus style influenced me.
A pattern is visually stronger than a red dress. A pattern is more memorable. When Yves Saint-Laurent’s foulards came on the market, my designs were available all over the world.
SWI: After two years at Abraham & Co in Zurich, you went to North America. Why did you decide to take this trip?
E.B.: My childhood at my parents’ house on Lake Lucerne was like growing up in the wilderness. I built a tent out of beanpoles and lived like a Native American. As a child, I absolutely loved America.
When I left Abraham, I took a boat to New York. I worked as a ski instructor in Canada and made contacts from there, including with a large printing company that regularly sent an employee to Zurich to buy fabric from Abraham. In New York they put these patterns – sometimes even my own – on their products and printed them. I worked for this company from a studio on Broadway.
During this time a female designer taught me an interesting wax technique using Japanese paper. Andy Warhol, then relatively unknown and always short of money, came by and tried to sell us his sketches. He experimented with textiles and asked me for help. I often went to his nearby studio, The Factory.
In general, I found Americans to be more open and less complicated than people in Europe.
SWI: But you still came back.
E.B.: I came back because of the war in Vietnam. I flew home with knowledge of a new wax technique and sketches in bright colours that didn’t exist in Europe.
One day in Paris, Gustav Zumsteg and I were on our way to Yves Saint-Laurent when Zumsteg – my former boss at Abraham – tried to take my sketches away from me. At the entrance of the fashion house, he tried one last time and said, “Wait for me here”. He had never introduced me to Yves Saint-Laurent and he also hid me from other designers. In America, however, my self-confidence had grown, so I went through the door. Saint-Laurent was beside himself when he saw my sketches.
He chose them for his collection “Les Africaines” (African women), and they made him famous, not least because it was the first time that black models had appeared on the Paris catwalk.
Until the mid-1960s, foulards were almost exclusively sold by Hermès. When Yves Saint-Laurent put his on the market, they were a huge success. You could buy them in every airplane and in every duty-free shop.
Erich Biehle was born in Lucerne in 1941 and died on June 18, 2024, in Zurich. He graduated from the Swiss Textile School where he attended classes given by Johannes Itten.
Biehle developed designs for Balenciaga, Dior, Yves Saint-Laurent, Chanel, Givenchy and other fashion houses – both as an employee for Ludwig Abraham & Co. and as a freelancer. From 1976 he also worked at Givenchy in various roles. From 1991 he worked at Bally, before taking over Abraham in 1996, which then fell into bankruptcy in 2002.
In 2014 Erich Biehle was awarded the Grand Prix Design by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture.
SWI: Yves Saint-Laurent had fits of rage. Did you ever witness one?
E.B.: Not personally, but I knew about them from his employees and from his life partner, Pierre Bergé. Yves lived in a dream world. He kept disappearing into opium dens and Pierre often had to go and get him out again. As co-founder of the company, Bergé managed the business but got no recognition for it. I’m convinced that without Pierre Bergé, there would never have been Yves Saint-Laurent.
SWI: You had a good relationship with Hubert de Givenchy.
E.B.: We became friends soon after we met. Hubert was a great personality and through him I met many couturiers and artists. During his summer holiday I took my designs to his residence in Cap Ferrat where we worked together. In turn, he visited me and my family in Aargau.
Hubert loved my children. They were always with him at his studio even though hardly anyone was allowed to go in there. That’s also where he introduced me to Audrey Hepburn. She was a role model, both in character and elegance. I once saw her in a train travelling from Zurich to Lucerne. She looked across at me and said, “We know each other”. That was the first time a star recognised me on the street, so to speak.
SWI: Was she on her way to Bürgenstock?
E.B.: Yes. I saw her there once or twice at the swimming pool. My girlfriend at the time was the daughter of the owner of the hotel Bürgenstock.
SWI: How would you describe the relationship between Givenchy and Hepburn?
E.B.: Platonic love.
SWI: And how would you describe your own friendship with Givenchy?
E.B.: One of great trust.
SWI: You also had setbacks.
E.B.: In 1996 I took over the silk company Abraham & Co, without knowing that it was close to bankruptcy. I gave up my lucrative job at Bally and by 2022 I had lost everything – all my savings, my pension fund, a holiday home in the mountains and, in the end, also my wife, who did not survive the drama.
All I had left was my head and my talent. Looking back, I take a very critical view of Gustav Zumsteg’s management, which I now see was both devious and opaque.
SWI: A creative life is very hard. What do you think explains your success?
E.B.: Much of my life happened by chance, such as learning about the wax technique in New York that I still use. Wax dries quickly, which forces you to work spontaneously. But it was no coincidence that I was also ready to go out and take risks.
I worked very hard. When something fascinates and captivates you, it gives you energy and never becomes a burden. When I went to Paris, it didn’t matter to me how much I would earn for my work. What mattered to me was who I was working for and what I was creating. And also being recognised for my achievements.
Edited by Benjamin von Wyl. Adapted from German by Sue Brönnimann/ts
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