Sam at NY Models is a late breaking rising star

The consumer is ahead of the producers of fashion these days. This is what I think. Producers might be convinced that the consumer is sitting there all docile, waiting for the runway show, the campaign, the trunk store, the fashion review on a manageable and corporate schedule. But the SPEED with which information spreads now! I was looking last night at Betty Sze's champion footage of Karl Lagerfeld shooting the FW 08 Fendi with Raquel and Brad. By noon today the two quick clips Betty clocked had already been linked at nymag.com and totally jacked onto youtube by something called zdsoft.com. It's not just the speed of the thing, or the ubiquity thereof . It was the fact that a fashion mad audience had already been swept in the production concept of the next Fendi camapign. The massive cabinetry of the logo, the wig on Raquel, Brad's on-going presence, Odile primping the hair, Raquel rocking the featured bag...it was like the coolest making-of, because it was so guerilla, so viral and so organic. There are many houses who still invest in an old school secrecy as to who the model will be, or the hair direction or the aesthetic tone of the photography. But that Fendi coup (and the windfall of free publicity it brings the "brand") makes me realize in a modern world, no-one can control information anymore. You can manipulate it. You can harness the interest in it but you can't keep it behind a wall or on a leash anymore. The kids at fashionspot are going to get into it before it's on the newstands. The Hiss Squad is going to text it globally, from Seoul to LA and all points in between and a cool young woman with a little digital camera that fits into her palm might just be the best PR machine there ever was. Respect!...Speaking of Mr Brad, I've been sniffing around to get news on the fate of that massive volume of photography Lagerfeld has been lensing on him. Well the Hiss Squad hears it is going to be a veeeeery big book with tons of pages...THIS thick. I bet when it does come out it will rival the size of Helmut Newton's legendary :"Sumo" . And that might be appropriate. Kidding. We wouldn't know. Though TI still regrets not going to Scores that night after the Mr Chow's dinner with Mr B and co. Its a long story. Pardon the string of puns....And as is inevitable these days...despite that mob of girls who flooded the runways of NY, Lon, Paris and Milan, you must believe there is another suite of newbies flooding onto the new editorial and campaign market. Incroyable! Look for girls like Sam as an example of late breaking faces clocking enviable moments. I will stop talking in code now. Later!