Full Article Text
Wayne Scot Lukas and his beloved Patricio: "Horses have changed my life," he shares.
• Stylist to the stars
Wayne Scot Lukas
falls in love with the
equestrian lifestyle.
OVIES AND BOOKS
are filled with stories
about dewy-eyed
youngsters bonding
with a pony and de
veloping a life-long passion for riding.
(They usually win the big race at the end
of the film to boot.)
Another story is heard far less often:
The story of adults who perhaps thought
the horsey life had passed them by. They
stumble onto a barn or get a free riding
lesson, though, and suddenly-long after
most people have given up on learning
anything new-they find riding. In fash
ion maven Wayne Scot Lukas' case, per
haps riding found him.
"Maybe everybody wouldn't feel like
this;' avers Lukas, "but it's changed my
life. Horses have changed my life:'
A stylist and fashion guru, the six
foot-four Lukas is at the top of his field in
the entertainment world, crafting looks
for artists like Justin Timberlake, Tina
Turner, Cindy Crawford, Lauren Hutton,
Meryl Streep, Halle Berry, and especially
Janet Jackson, with whom Lukas has
worked for more than a decade. He also
launched and co-hosted the TLC hit cable
show What Not to Wear and has numer
ous other projects in the works.
A busy, busy man, perhaps the last
thing Lukas wanted was a new endeavor
that would push him to get up early or
stay out late almost every day. That's ex
actly what he got, though, after his father
died and an old friend called Lukas to in
vite him on a day trip to visit her horse.
"I said, 'You have a horse?'" remem
bers Lukas. She said, 'Yeah, his name is
Willie: So we drove up to the barn and I
walked into the barn, and Willie walked
over to me and wrapped his head around
my neck and pulled me into his chin and
By Michael Giltz • Photographs by David Paler for Show Circuit
SHOW CIRCUIT @ FALL 2005 E
~
RIDIN(. IN SrfLE
Lukas and Claudia Schiffer ... ... with Tina Turner ...
Magazine covers display Lukas' styling genius.
... Cindy Crawford ... . .. and Halle Berry
SHOW CIRCUIT @ FAll 2005 he started to purr and whinny. I thought,
'What the heck is this?' And then I walked
away and she said, 'You need to ride.'
"So then I went back and started
brushing Willie's tail, and Willie turned
around and started to lick my arm and
watch me brush him. And she said, 'You
need to ride: And then I was walking
out to the field, and Willie hooked his
head over my shoulder and walked
along with me. And she said, 'Wayne,
you need to ride.'"
Lukas' friend followed up this exhor
tation with a gift of Der-Dau boots and
other riding equipment for Christmas.
Another acquaintance sent Lukas out to
the riding stable ofJonathan Soresi, a
trainer who works with professional s
and regular people but is also known for
his celebrity clients. Lukas praises Sore
si's gentle way of encouraging people's
strengths rather than critiquing their
faults. "He always teaches with compas
sion and compliments;' Lukas describes.
Soresi insists it is simply a pleasure to
teach someone who takes to horsing so
quickly.
"Wayne has a great passion;' enthuses
Soresi, the owner and head trainer of
Soresi Show Stables (www.soresishow
stables.com) in Morris County at the
North Jersey Equestrian Center. "He's got
a tremendous sense of curiosity, and he'll
ask a lot of questions and is really inter
ested in many aspects of it. Horses, horse
care, the horse business-it's a whole new
world for him. As a rider, he's rocketed
right along. There's an example of some
body for whom it was meant to be:'
Like many converts, Lukas fell hard.
He started riding six days a week, espe
cially loving the early morning and late
night sessions when everyone else was
gone, and the barn was like a cathedral.
"I didn't realize that being a rider
meant being an athlete;' admits Lukas,
who keeps an apartment in the Chelsea
neigh borhood of New York, but spends
most of his time at Spring Lake on the
Jersey Shore. "I lost 40 pounds in three
months. The weight just poured off me."
His client and friend Janet Jackson
raved about how skinny Lukas was, not to
mention his riding chaps. That led Lukas
to buy her half-chaps that he customized
into boots with four inch heels. He creat
ed an equestrian look that swept into
fashion magazines just as the love of
horses became "hip" thanks to Jackson,
Madonna, Angelina Jolie, and others. He
hopes to inspire some changes in style at
competitions as well.
"I just designed these amazing men's
riding coats;' explains Lukas, who uses a
revolutionary fabric with inserted silver
thread called Microsilver to craft them
and gave one to Soresi as a gift. ,"They're
just beyond. They breathe, they thermal
regulate, and because they are antibacter
ial, they don't hold odor, and I put in
these amazing shoulder pads inspired by
Kelly Klein's riding coats. I'm talking to
someone about making waterproof rid
ing coats for kids. Kids spend time on the
horses, and they get soaking wet in a
thunderstorm the first class and have to
ride three more events. So we're talking
about making waterproof, seasonless
wool Microsilver coats.
"It could be fun. The only way to
change the horse business clothing-wise
is to go a little to the left. You can't disre
spect the tradition. I'm just trying to
change the fabrication so people can see
there's a better way. Your wool riding
jacket can breathe! Your wool riding jack
et can stretch! Kids don't have to look like
they're 50 year old women in ill-fitting
riding clothes anymore. Come on. My
job is not to bulldoze; my job is to respect
the tradition of the horse business, but
you move [it] forward."
If he succeeds, it will be just the latest
coup for Lukas, who went from a paper
route as a little boy to cutting hair on his
mom's porch and then rocketed to inter
national success. Along with a film and
TV production company, Lukas has his
own website (www.waynescotlukas.
com), a Web page on Amazon.com
(called a "Wayne's Favorite Things Bou
tique") devoted to what he loves best, a
fashion book in the works, a lucrative
arrangement with Spiegel catalog (whom
Lukas states simply he helped rescue
from bankruptcy), and QVC plans to
begin selling his lines of equestrian
themed clothing, Ez-Pieces and S'wrap, Patricio is an IS-hand dark bay 13-year-old Holsteiner.
SHOW CIRCUIT @ FALL 2005
black stallion Thorn, who was twice
honored with the designation of
American Trakehner Association Horse
of the Year. Soresi is wearing Lukas'
newly designed men's riding coat, which
uses a new fabric with inserted silver
thread called Microsilver. "They breathe,
they thermal-regulate, and, because
they are antibacterial, they don't hold
odor," notes Lukas. RIDING IN STY"LE
which was co-designed with Marcella
Leone, wife of Olympic silver medalist
rider-trainer Peter Leone, on its channel
in November.
Lukas has also become very involved
in the riding world, attending competi
tions, encouraging his friend Deborah
Cox (the star of Broadway's Aida) to
perform at charity events held in the
equestrian world, and even purchasing
jumps created by the famous German
SHOW CIRCUIT @ FALL 2005 designer Olaf Peterson. (Lukas and Sore
si plan to donate this jump to a charity
benefit in Wellington in the fall with the
proceeds going to the Equestrian AIDS
Foundation.)
''I'm getting ready to explode to an
other level of being Wayne Scot Lukas;'
he asserts, saying that eight years of thera
py have helped him keep the attention
and intensity in perspective. "I've learned
what you do with fame. You go on TV to
get more endorsements to sell more
things and get better products. You don't
go on TV to get famous. TV is a too1:'
However frantic and successful his life
continues to be, Lukas knows his passion
for horses will remain integral.
"I got so hooked I was mucking stalls
and cleaning up manure and trying to
learn how to clean horses. I was 14 again;'
he relates.
Though Lukas had planned to lease a
horse, he fell in love with a 13-year-old
Holsteiner dark bay mount named Patri
cio, found in Florida by horse broker and
friend Michael D'Ambrosio. Lukas and
Soresi flew down immediately to try the
horse. Despite passing numerous med
ical exams with exceptionally good re
sults, the day Lukas was writing the final
check, Patricio fell deathly ill and wors
ened day by day. No one could determine
the problem and-while speaking to the
best veterinarians available-Lukas
reached out to a psychic and even a horse
healer in Arizona named Kedzi Morgan
(who does readings by phone) to help
solve this mystery.
Cynics advised Lukas that a horse was
Lukas, Soresi, and famed course
designer Anthony D'Ambrosio 0.) with their
Olaf Peterson Grand Prix Olympic jump
not a pet and that he should not bother
spending so much money on a horse he
had barely ridden. "But I can't think of an
animal or a person as disposable;' reveals
Lukas, who stuck by the horse that made
him feel so safe as a rider that "it was like
jumping a fence on your favorite sofa."
Today, Patricio is healthy, and Lukas feels
they were destined for each other. "We are
the 2005 version of Sea Biscuit. I was
thrown 10 weeks ago and couldn't ride,
and Patricio was down with an illness.
But I'm back on;' reports Lukas. "Togeth
er Patricio and I are training and parallel
ing each other on our way back up to
being fit. It is an amazing journey:'
Lukas took the horse healer's advice
and groomed and grazed the horse at his
vet, Brendan Furlong and Associates,
every day for 28 days, hoping he would
get better. The vets told Lukas that a lot of
horse owners never come in when a horse
is down, he recounts. "They said 'It is such
a pleasure to have you here grazing and
grooming him into wellness.'"
"If I let my heart make the decision
instead of my head, I have the horse that
God and the world knew I had to have at
this point in my life right now;' affirms
Lukas. "This horse came to teach. He
taught us a lot of lessons about love and
about hope and about faith. He's an ex
tremely beautiful horse, and you'd never
think anything had happened to him.
Every day he thrives:'
With business pulling Lukas in a mil
lion different directions, nothing focuses
his mind like being on a 1,500 pound
steed.
"If you don't want to get thrown off a
horse, you've got to be present. And isn't
that a metaphor for the rest of our lives?
You don't want to get thrown out of a
job? You've got to be present. You don't
want to be thrown out of a relationship
-you've got to be present. The thrill is to
completely let go and trust;' Lukas de
clares. "The thrill is to trust yourself and
your connection to the horse:'
"People spend their whole life search
ing for ultimate joy and fulfillment;' af
firms Janet Jackson, his client of more
than 10 years. "My dear friend Lukas has
found it, in horses and riding:' • However frantic and successful his life continues to be,
Lukas knows his passion for horses will remain integral.
SHOW CIRCUIT @ FALL 2005
• Stylist to the stars
Wayne Scot Lukas
falls in love with the
equestrian lifestyle.
OVIES AND BOOKS
are filled with stories
about dewy-eyed
youngsters bonding
with a pony and de
veloping a life-long passion for riding.
(They usually win the big race at the end
of the film to boot.)
Another story is heard far less often:
The story of adults who perhaps thought
the horsey life had passed them by. They
stumble onto a barn or get a free riding
lesson, though, and suddenly-long after
most people have given up on learning
anything new-they find riding. In fash
ion maven Wayne Scot Lukas' case, per
haps riding found him.
"Maybe everybody wouldn't feel like
this;' avers Lukas, "but it's changed my
life. Horses have changed my life:'
A stylist and fashion guru, the six
foot-four Lukas is at the top of his field in
the entertainment world, crafting looks
for artists like Justin Timberlake, Tina
Turner, Cindy Crawford, Lauren Hutton,
Meryl Streep, Halle Berry, and especially
Janet Jackson, with whom Lukas has
worked for more than a decade. He also
launched and co-hosted the TLC hit cable
show What Not to Wear and has numer
ous other projects in the works.
A busy, busy man, perhaps the last
thing Lukas wanted was a new endeavor
that would push him to get up early or
stay out late almost every day. That's ex
actly what he got, though, after his father
died and an old friend called Lukas to in
vite him on a day trip to visit her horse.
"I said, 'You have a horse?'" remem
bers Lukas. She said, 'Yeah, his name is
Willie: So we drove up to the barn and I
walked into the barn, and Willie walked
over to me and wrapped his head around
my neck and pulled me into his chin and
By Michael Giltz • Photographs by David Paler for Show Circuit
SHOW CIRCUIT @ FALL 2005 E
~
RIDIN(. IN SrfLE
Lukas and Claudia Schiffer ... ... with Tina Turner ...
Magazine covers display Lukas' styling genius.
... Cindy Crawford ... . .. and Halle Berry
SHOW CIRCUIT @ FAll 2005 he started to purr and whinny. I thought,
'What the heck is this?' And then I walked
away and she said, 'You need to ride.'
"So then I went back and started
brushing Willie's tail, and Willie turned
around and started to lick my arm and
watch me brush him. And she said, 'You
need to ride: And then I was walking
out to the field, and Willie hooked his
head over my shoulder and walked
along with me. And she said, 'Wayne,
you need to ride.'"
Lukas' friend followed up this exhor
tation with a gift of Der-Dau boots and
other riding equipment for Christmas.
Another acquaintance sent Lukas out to
the riding stable ofJonathan Soresi, a
trainer who works with professional s
and regular people but is also known for
his celebrity clients. Lukas praises Sore
si's gentle way of encouraging people's
strengths rather than critiquing their
faults. "He always teaches with compas
sion and compliments;' Lukas describes.
Soresi insists it is simply a pleasure to
teach someone who takes to horsing so
quickly.
"Wayne has a great passion;' enthuses
Soresi, the owner and head trainer of
Soresi Show Stables (www.soresishow
stables.com) in Morris County at the
North Jersey Equestrian Center. "He's got
a tremendous sense of curiosity, and he'll
ask a lot of questions and is really inter
ested in many aspects of it. Horses, horse
care, the horse business-it's a whole new
world for him. As a rider, he's rocketed
right along. There's an example of some
body for whom it was meant to be:'
Like many converts, Lukas fell hard.
He started riding six days a week, espe
cially loving the early morning and late
night sessions when everyone else was
gone, and the barn was like a cathedral.
"I didn't realize that being a rider
meant being an athlete;' admits Lukas,
who keeps an apartment in the Chelsea
neigh borhood of New York, but spends
most of his time at Spring Lake on the
Jersey Shore. "I lost 40 pounds in three
months. The weight just poured off me."
His client and friend Janet Jackson
raved about how skinny Lukas was, not to
mention his riding chaps. That led Lukas
to buy her half-chaps that he customized
into boots with four inch heels. He creat
ed an equestrian look that swept into
fashion magazines just as the love of
horses became "hip" thanks to Jackson,
Madonna, Angelina Jolie, and others. He
hopes to inspire some changes in style at
competitions as well.
"I just designed these amazing men's
riding coats;' explains Lukas, who uses a
revolutionary fabric with inserted silver
thread called Microsilver to craft them
and gave one to Soresi as a gift. ,"They're
just beyond. They breathe, they thermal
regulate, and because they are antibacter
ial, they don't hold odor, and I put in
these amazing shoulder pads inspired by
Kelly Klein's riding coats. I'm talking to
someone about making waterproof rid
ing coats for kids. Kids spend time on the
horses, and they get soaking wet in a
thunderstorm the first class and have to
ride three more events. So we're talking
about making waterproof, seasonless
wool Microsilver coats.
"It could be fun. The only way to
change the horse business clothing-wise
is to go a little to the left. You can't disre
spect the tradition. I'm just trying to
change the fabrication so people can see
there's a better way. Your wool riding
jacket can breathe! Your wool riding jack
et can stretch! Kids don't have to look like
they're 50 year old women in ill-fitting
riding clothes anymore. Come on. My
job is not to bulldoze; my job is to respect
the tradition of the horse business, but
you move [it] forward."
If he succeeds, it will be just the latest
coup for Lukas, who went from a paper
route as a little boy to cutting hair on his
mom's porch and then rocketed to inter
national success. Along with a film and
TV production company, Lukas has his
own website (www.waynescotlukas.
com), a Web page on Amazon.com
(called a "Wayne's Favorite Things Bou
tique") devoted to what he loves best, a
fashion book in the works, a lucrative
arrangement with Spiegel catalog (whom
Lukas states simply he helped rescue
from bankruptcy), and QVC plans to
begin selling his lines of equestrian
themed clothing, Ez-Pieces and S'wrap, Patricio is an IS-hand dark bay 13-year-old Holsteiner.
SHOW CIRCUIT @ FALL 2005
black stallion Thorn, who was twice
honored with the designation of
American Trakehner Association Horse
of the Year. Soresi is wearing Lukas'
newly designed men's riding coat, which
uses a new fabric with inserted silver
thread called Microsilver. "They breathe,
they thermal-regulate, and, because
they are antibacterial, they don't hold
odor," notes Lukas. RIDING IN STY"LE
which was co-designed with Marcella
Leone, wife of Olympic silver medalist
rider-trainer Peter Leone, on its channel
in November.
Lukas has also become very involved
in the riding world, attending competi
tions, encouraging his friend Deborah
Cox (the star of Broadway's Aida) to
perform at charity events held in the
equestrian world, and even purchasing
jumps created by the famous German
SHOW CIRCUIT @ FALL 2005 designer Olaf Peterson. (Lukas and Sore
si plan to donate this jump to a charity
benefit in Wellington in the fall with the
proceeds going to the Equestrian AIDS
Foundation.)
''I'm getting ready to explode to an
other level of being Wayne Scot Lukas;'
he asserts, saying that eight years of thera
py have helped him keep the attention
and intensity in perspective. "I've learned
what you do with fame. You go on TV to
get more endorsements to sell more
things and get better products. You don't
go on TV to get famous. TV is a too1:'
However frantic and successful his life
continues to be, Lukas knows his passion
for horses will remain integral.
"I got so hooked I was mucking stalls
and cleaning up manure and trying to
learn how to clean horses. I was 14 again;'
he relates.
Though Lukas had planned to lease a
horse, he fell in love with a 13-year-old
Holsteiner dark bay mount named Patri
cio, found in Florida by horse broker and
friend Michael D'Ambrosio. Lukas and
Soresi flew down immediately to try the
horse. Despite passing numerous med
ical exams with exceptionally good re
sults, the day Lukas was writing the final
check, Patricio fell deathly ill and wors
ened day by day. No one could determine
the problem and-while speaking to the
best veterinarians available-Lukas
reached out to a psychic and even a horse
healer in Arizona named Kedzi Morgan
(who does readings by phone) to help
solve this mystery.
Cynics advised Lukas that a horse was
Lukas, Soresi, and famed course
designer Anthony D'Ambrosio 0.) with their
Olaf Peterson Grand Prix Olympic jump
not a pet and that he should not bother
spending so much money on a horse he
had barely ridden. "But I can't think of an
animal or a person as disposable;' reveals
Lukas, who stuck by the horse that made
him feel so safe as a rider that "it was like
jumping a fence on your favorite sofa."
Today, Patricio is healthy, and Lukas feels
they were destined for each other. "We are
the 2005 version of Sea Biscuit. I was
thrown 10 weeks ago and couldn't ride,
and Patricio was down with an illness.
But I'm back on;' reports Lukas. "Togeth
er Patricio and I are training and parallel
ing each other on our way back up to
being fit. It is an amazing journey:'
Lukas took the horse healer's advice
and groomed and grazed the horse at his
vet, Brendan Furlong and Associates,
every day for 28 days, hoping he would
get better. The vets told Lukas that a lot of
horse owners never come in when a horse
is down, he recounts. "They said 'It is such
a pleasure to have you here grazing and
grooming him into wellness.'"
"If I let my heart make the decision
instead of my head, I have the horse that
God and the world knew I had to have at
this point in my life right now;' affirms
Lukas. "This horse came to teach. He
taught us a lot of lessons about love and
about hope and about faith. He's an ex
tremely beautiful horse, and you'd never
think anything had happened to him.
Every day he thrives:'
With business pulling Lukas in a mil
lion different directions, nothing focuses
his mind like being on a 1,500 pound
steed.
"If you don't want to get thrown off a
horse, you've got to be present. And isn't
that a metaphor for the rest of our lives?
You don't want to get thrown out of a
job? You've got to be present. You don't
want to be thrown out of a relationship
-you've got to be present. The thrill is to
completely let go and trust;' Lukas de
clares. "The thrill is to trust yourself and
your connection to the horse:'
"People spend their whole life search
ing for ultimate joy and fulfillment;' af
firms Janet Jackson, his client of more
than 10 years. "My dear friend Lukas has
found it, in horses and riding:' • However frantic and successful his life continues to be,
Lukas knows his passion for horses will remain integral.
SHOW CIRCUIT @ FALL 2005