Supreme Show Package: FW 08

Listening right this minute to Aphex Twin's “Logon Rock Witch” from the Richard D James LP and its a great backdrop given all the talk of “witches” that flew around yesterday. Are witches going to rule the Fall/Winter runway season? Who knows but they sure would be a great corrective to all the florals and prints and color clashes ruling the edits this season. I wasn't in the office on Thursday evening when the messenger dropped off a copy of the Supreme show package so I popped by Mr Rowland's inner chamber Friday afternoon to check it out. Every time I catch up with Paul, I try to suss out the source of his ability to pick that one girl on his board that goes on to the Italian Vogue covers and the W shoots and the Prada runways. Last season it was Meghan Collison. There is a girl in the new package, Katriina who I loved, loved and loved when I first saw her at Rad Hourani's SS08 show in Paris. She's the kick off girl in the new Supreme show package and if NY bites that would be a thrilling thing to see. So how does Paul see success so far in advance? How does he consistently see stardom in girls that other managers reject? “I'm a witch ,” joked Paul.
Interestingly enough Lera Sheremata, after a brief respite in the Ukraine, is back in town. I saw her sweeping around the office and my heart beat faster. What is about that “green eyed rebel” as the fashionspotters say, that has us so captivated. Is she too a witch?

Supreme Show Package: FW 08

As you might have read on MDC I was truly shocked and delighted to see the degree of the technical and aesthetic upgrade that Paul and his co-photographer Chadwick Tyler executed in the new pictures. If you are so lucky as to nab a copy, you'll know that the dedication to detail was the absolute in obsessiveness. The things done in the styling, especially in the series where outfits were built from garbage bags...the vision behind the hair and make-up, the defiance of having some girls with their backs to the camera., the poetic lushness of the lighting.... And all the time the clothes were vintage or custom created. I love too that it was all shot on film, not digital and LOOKS like it were shot on film. The girls are so human here, so fully resolved they stopped being models and started being people. If it were a book, I would have bought it and that's not my kissing ass. I said to Paul “But if you're capable of this, doesn't being an agent bore you?”. Paul answered “But I love that too. I love these kinds of girls and I love building a world for them” That he has done and amply so.
At that point in the conversation, Natasa Vojnovic, wearing a little army jacket and combat boots swung the door to Paul's office open and chirped “Oh sorry!”. We went out to say hi and as Natasa bounded over to the Women board he observed “She's a witch too. You can see it in her eyes. When she looks at you her eyes are burning right through you! And deep inside she is the sweetest girl” Natasa with her new bangs and her wiry energy is certainly that. As is the case with brilliant models like her, Natasa is logging a massive body of new editorials and bookings that will place her right back into the blue chip editorial running.
After thinking carefully about what I wanted to say about the Supreme package and watching the MDC team having enough respect for its audience to painstakingly put every last image of that package up on the site, I left to have dinner with Rad Hourani. We were going through the list of his model friends who wanted to walk for Rad and I observed “But Rad, you don't actually need me to cast this. You have them all dying to participate!” “Its not about needing Wayne,” Rad added. “Its about the energy... it just feels right ” . I was really touched and realized the dialogue between Rad and I have never been about “business” with motives and agendas but more importantly, about an inspirational exchange of ideas. I love talking to Paul for exactly that reason. Rowland and I never talk rankings or bookings but simply, the ideal of living a fulfilling creative life. Rad too had seen the show package and found it moving and interestingly (without my ever having mentioned it) evoked the idea that the girls he envisaged for his runway were “like witches”. Sioux Sioux is a big reference point of this ideal so I started building an inspiration board in my mind...Sioux...blood...black silk and satin..chic witches stalking a night street veeeeery slowly.... I can't wait to start filtering the new NEW girls who would work for this.

Supreme Show Package: FW 08

I came away from both these conversations a little shaken. What these two creative forces have stirred up is a desire to also pursue my own creative ideas and creative impulses in a more honest way. In other words for 5 months now TI has been a vehicle out-putting the references and influences that course in my head. Its time to get away from that and build a world of our own. To do this means I have to change the nature of The Imagist and get away from this impulse I have for only reporting and commenting on the talent of establishment figures. It certainly drives traffic but sometimes its not about numbers , no? The dream of The Imagist was always to make it more of a creative outlet for all the exciting and enterprising young writers and designers, stylists and photographers, artists and filmakers out there.
I'll spend the weekend meditating on this, in the meantime I'd love to know what you think the new direction in models/clothing trends/photography/hair/make-up might be for FW 08. And then you must find a way to visualize it, no matter how awkward or humble this might be.