A few of the props that powered the imagery for the new Supreme show pack

Brisk morning. Up at 7. Off to the gym then to the Women offices to snap Kathrin Thormann for Spur mag. I popped by Supreme to tete a tete with the kids when Paul Rowland decided to give TI a sneak peek of the FW 09 show package. Betty Sze had peeped it first a few weeks back and had come back to the MDC offices testifying to the mad beauty of the thing. When Paul was done scrolling through the images I started searching for one of those long lost words somewhere in the back of my mind to describe it. What word can you use to describe that experience...that extravaganza of color and sensuality? The word I was found was "seraglio" which wikipedia describes as

"the sequestered living quarters used by wives and concubines in a Turkish household, from an Italian variant of Persian[1] saray (سرای) , meaning "palace", "enclosed courts". The term "harem" is also used to refer to these sequestered living quarters, but has additionally come to refer to the entire sequestered household of women.

In the context of the turquerie fashion, the seraglio became the subject of works of art, the most famous perhaps being Mozart's Singspiel, Die Entführung aus dem Serail (Serail = seraglio)."

Page from one of the references for Supreme's FW 09 show package:

And that was what it was...what Mr Rowland likes to describe as "a world" . The perversity of that world, a world so personal and therefore real ( even though it was completely fabricated and executed with a twisted degree of detailing, filgree and gilding) proves that to succeede and survive in the image trade you have to travel and you have to push and you have to blow open your own borders.
A great or interesting or provocative Supreme show package is par for the course. Those show packages represent a huge creative and emotional investment for the agency. But this one, Fall/Winter 09...it is lush into the point of luscious. It made me want to run out out the office and make love to something and that is the ultimate achievement no? I said as much, which prompted Paul to give me one of the custom made robes from the shoot . "Shoot a boy in one of these for theimagist," he said and I was really touched by that kindness. It was moving not because it was a material thing but because it was Paul's way of saying " Go do a seraglio of your own" . That is the greatness of creativity , when it engages inspires and shares its vision.

A few of the pieces that grace the girls for Supreme FW 09