---

Natasha Fraser-Cavassoni recounts her experience working in Andy Warhol´s Studio, and explores Warhol´s influence - during his life and forever after - on the art world, pop culture, society, and fashion, and how his iconic status gave rise to some of our most influential tastemakers today. From the behind-the-scenes conflict and disagreements over his personal possessions and art inventory, to the record-breaking auction of his belongings and publication of his diaries, Fraser-Cavassoni had a front seat.

---

01 Andy´s Memorial

When I moved to Manhattan, Andy Warhol´s memorial was my first New York society event. It took place on April 1, 1987. The New York Times´ Grace Glueck described the attendees as a "glittering" crowd and some of "the world´s most droppable" names in "art, fashion, society and entertainment." In many ways, it was the perfect way to start my adventures in Warhol Land.

I knew most of the service´s details in advance because I was working at the Warhol Studio. Four days before Andy´s death on February 22, I´d been officially hired. After lunch, Fred Hughes, Andy´s business manager, had set my terms and salary-five hundred dollars per week-and then we met up with the artist, who´d just arrived from one of his shopping

expeditions. It was about twelve hours before he checked into New York Hospital.

This made me the last employee to be hired under Andy. Or the last English Muffin, which was the term for well-born British women working in the place. It was a tradition that was put down to Fred´s love of Old Blighty and its customs. Still, the artist was not averse. Noticing that there´s an acceptance and even veneration of the different among the English. When meeting Andy for the first time in 1980, I had no idea that his white hair was a wig. Having been brought up around eccentricity, I thought Andy looked pretty straight and normal in his jacket and jeans, actually.

Sabrina Guinness, who never worked for Warhol but was part of his extended circle, senses that "Andy was surprised by the English girl´s confidence. The type who turned up in laddered tights, showed no fear, and chattered away," she says. The social ease was of the utmost importance. "Andy liked beauties and talkers," says Bob Colacello, who ran Warhol´s Interview magazine for twelve years. To focus on the latter, I have yet to meet a British woman who doesn´t have the gift of the gab. Or, taking it to extremes-my case-couldn´t talk the ear off a donkey. There was also the lively sense of the ridiculous. Again to quote Colacello: "You couldn´t be around Andy for any length of time unless you had a sort of camp sensibility and Oscar Wilde approach to life."

My chat-up and charm-school skills made Fred think I was the perfect casting for Andy´s MTV program. Being self-effacing and energetic, I would be the ideal interviewer on-screen and foil to the enigmatic Pop artist. So imagine Fred´s irritation and fury when I pretended to be blasŽ about Andy´s memorial when the guest list was hopping-gasp!-with names like Richard Gere, Roy Lichtenstein, Calvin Klein, Yoko Ono, and Raquel Welch and actually sent me into a total tailspin. Fortunately, such behavior came to a grinding halt when Fred asked what I was going to wear. "Oh, I really don´t know," I said. A major case of Pinocchio because as soon as I heard about the event I knew it would be my Max Mara wool skirt suit and Manolo Blahnik suede pumps that I´d worn to my father´s funeral in 1984. And I can still picture Fred turning to me, dapper as ever in his dark charcoal-gray suit, crisp white shirt, and yellow-and-orange stripy tie with gold tiepin, and saying, "This doesn´t happen every day, Natasha." Andy´s memorial was huge for him, and he expected enthusiasm. The artist´s death must have devastated Fred, just as it had everyone. Vincent Fremont, vice president of Andy Warhol Enterprises, compared hearing the news to "being punched in the stomach and thrown out the window." However, Texas-born Fred was too stoic to voice such feelings. "He behaved like Jackie Kennedy did when her husband was assassinated," recalls Peter Frankfurt, who knew Andy from childhood. "He was determined t

---