magazine junkie

Fashion Editor Superstar

A friend recently introduced me to the wonderful Nicola Formichetti. Nicola was born in Japan in 1977 to an Italian father and a Japanese mother and grew up traveling between these two countries. He eventually landed in London working as a retail buyer. And it was there that his unique style--a blend of European and Eastern style--attracted the attention of the editors of Dazed & Confused and his career as fashion editor began.

Nicola currently holds the post of Creative Director at Dazed & Confused while at the same time  overseeing a bunch of other glossy titles as Fashion Director of VOGUE HOMMES JAPAN, Senior Fashion Editor of ANOTHER MAN, Contributing Fashion Editor of V, and V MAN.

As if those magazines didn't keep him busy enough, Formichetti also consults and styles for a mirage of both high-fashion and mass-market labels that include PRADA, D&G, COSTUME NATIONAL, MISSONI, ALEXANDER MCQUEEN, ISSEY MIYAKE, UNIQLO, TOPMAN, H&M, MAX MARA, ADIDAS, NIKE, PUMA, LEVIS and MAVI just to name a few.

 

Lastly, on his spare time, Nicola has also styled a slew of celebrities that include Robert Pattison, Ashton Kutcher, Kirsten Dunst, Scarlett Johansson, and Justin Timberlake. Thought most notably his best styling collaboration has come with the one and only Lady Gaga. Most recently styling the video for her latest single Bad Romance. This video is, IMHO, the best video that has come out in years. The fashion alone is out of this world.

About working with Lady Gaga, Nicola says that much like his own work, she wants her style to be "something no one's seen before, something that's a bit tongue-in-cheek and outrageous. And maybe some people would really hate it." Sounds like a match made in heaven!

To browse more of Nicola's incredible collection of work, click here

To view the kick-ass video for Bad Romance, click here

To follow Nicola on his blog, click here

Special Delivery from Miki Sato

I received this super sweet promo in the mail this week. And I just loved opening it. Wrapped inside a beautifully hand-made burlap envelope with brown stitching and uneven edges and tied carefully with a pretty ribbon, was a set of postcards from Toronto-based illustrator Miki Sato.

I particularly like this promo because it is a little work of art in and of itself. Miki's collage-style work incorporates fabrics and other found materials with embroidery threads to create very unique three dimensional pieces. And what's also great about Miki's work is that it's not just about the pretty pictures but also about having some great ideas behind them.

Click here to see more of Miki's wonderful work. Or visit her Etsy shop to purchase some of her illustrations available as prints.

My girls are here!

I introduce you my new toys - Holga and Diana. Aren't they cute? I think so.

Holga and Diana are plastic, inexpensive, medium format cameras. And--like most cheap cameras with low quality plastic lenses and with a predisposition to light leaks--they produce images that usually have vignetting, odd colors, very low contrast and are often blurry. Okay, so they don't sound so great on paper, but it's all those same qualities that make these cameras so popular, and give their pictures a very old fashioned and dreamy look. And I, for one, can't wait to get out there and start using mine.

If your curious to see what kind of pictures these lovelies take:

Check out this gallery of the Top 10 Holga Photos from the Wired.com Holga competition.

Check out this Flickr group dedicated to Diana 

Note: The pictures above were taken using the ShakeItPhoto app on my Iphone. It's like having a mini polaroid on your phone. I totally love it!

Man About Town

I must admit that, in general, I'm not crazy about men's fashion magazines. I find them a little boring. Surely, I appreciate the design of titles like GQ, Esquire, Arena and Homme Plus. And, I do love fashion. But, overall, they are not the type of magazines I buy regularly or even keep around if I do. But Man About Town may change all that.

MAT is produced by British creative agency Saturday. They specialize in advertising, branding and editorial consultancy for high-end brands. And I just love love love what they have done with this magazine. The design feels modern and current without being trendy. The typography is functional but sophisticated, and I'm totally diggin' the whole monochromatic look. I also really enjoy the combination of gloss and uncoated papers that gives this magazine the look and feel of a beautiful book. And since it's only published twice a year, each issue is very special and kind of a keepsake. Definitely won't be ripping the pages off this one!

Anyway, if you enjoy men's fashion or simply want to look at a beautifully designed magazine, pick up Man About Town. Issue # 5 (Autumn-Winter 09) is out now and it includes a feature photographed by the über-talented Hedi Slimane.

If you're in SF you can find this issue at birch.

Or you can also browse at their past issues here.

Collector's Item - Egoïste

French magazine Egoïste has been described as "the most beautiful magazine in the world" and "a little jewel of chic". It was founded by Nicole Wisniak, who was, I don't know, super woman?  She acted as the editor, consultant art director, advertising director, production controller and distributor of the magazine. She run it from her home, and it had no press deadline. It came out when "it's good and ready" (I guess if you control the whole thing you can do that!)

The first issue appeared in 1977 featuring Andy Warhol. It had a print run of 4,000 copies, 3,000 of which ended up gathering dust at the home of Wisniak's parents. Staff photographers included Helmut Newton and the legendary Richard Avedon, who photographed most of the editorial content until his death in 2004.

The last issue, published in 2006, had a print run of only 35,000. Today, most issues are collector's items so keep your eyes open for this one-of-a kind magazine, I know I will. 

Illustrator of the Week - Marta Antelo

One of the best things about my job is that I get to work with some really amazing artists. This week's illustrator of the week is no exception. Marta Antelo is a Spanish illustrator living in Madrid. She's young, very talented and I recently had the pleasure of working with her on a story about relationships (see bottom right illustration). I knew from the moment I saw her colorful and whimsical illustrations that she would do a really great job with the story, and she did. Her illustrations added that extra special tone to an already wonderful story. I love her textures and painterly style and she gave us so many wonderful concepts to choose from, it made it hard to decide which ones to go with. She is truly a dream come true.

Another super awesome thing about Marta is that I got to practice my Spanish. Didn't need to, she speaks perfect English, it was just fun doing an assignment in Spanish. I can't wait for the next opportunity to work with her.

Marta was recently featured as one of the "fresh" artists on Communications Arts. Check it out

To see more of Marta's work, head over to Anna Goodson Management, you'll love it!

Happy Anniversary, Interview!

I've loved you since the first time I laid my eyes on you. I got all misty as I flipped thru the pages of your 40th Anniversary Issue. Your, um, interviews continue to be entertaining, provocative, and candid even after all these years. There's something about celebrities interviewing other celebrities that gives you an interesting insight into the lives of the people who are shaping popular culture. Thanks to all the amazing photographers for 40 years of wonderful photos. And finally, thank you Fabien Baron, for continuing the legacy left behind by the amazing Andy Warhol. He would be so proud.

To view an archive of Interview covers from the past 40 years, go here

To read an interesting story by Art Director, Steven Heller, about the early days of Interview, go here

Fashion Story

I'm so excited to share that I'm going to be working on a fashion story with the incomparable Claudia Goetzelmann. Claudia, a German native living in San Francisco, is an amazing storyteller. Her images are fresh, witty and visually stunning. She's a very sought-after photographer that has been recognized with countless awards for her wonderful photos. I met Claudia a couple of years ago when she came by our offices to show us her book, and I knew then that I had to work with her someday.

Finally that moment has arrived! I can't reveal any details of the shoot as we're still in the planning stages but it's going to be good. So stay tuned.

In the meantime, head over to her award-winning website to check out her beautiful work.

Stylist Extraordinaire!

Paul Lowe is a food and prop stylist out of New York. He's also an amazing crafter and cookbook author. He counts fashion as his biggest inspiration, and says that he gets ideas from "a feeling, a color, a texture" and then likes to recreate that in his own images. He's currently working on a cake story inspired by Elsa Schiaparelli's circus collection in 1939 (can't wait to see that), and a meat story for a Scandinavian magazine.

Paul produces most of these type of stories - coming up with the idea, making everything, cooking and styling. Basically he does everything except take the pictures. Tho' I'm pretty sure he would do that too if asked.

Paul's work has appeared in countless magazines and advertisements, and he has published 18 cookbooks.

To see more of Paul's work, check out his very inspiring blog Sweet Paul. Or check out his portfolio at Vivian Artists.

Field Trip - part 2

The highlight of my field trip yesterday was of course the Richard Avedon exhibit. SF MOMA is the only venue in the U.S. to show this retrospective so I feel very fortunate to have seen it. The show features close to 200 photographs, including one of his most iconic and my all-time favorite "Dovima with Elephants."  Dovima, the first true supermodel, is photographed wearing the first evening dress designed by Yves Saint-Laurent. I can't tell you how excited I was to see this photo in person. I love Dovima!

The other cool part about this show, was seeing the vintage Harper's Bazaar issues on display. Richard Avedon was hired as a staff photographer in 1945 by another one of my idols, art director Alexey Brodovitch (more about him later). Richard's career with Harper's Bazaar lasted 22 years and his fashion portfolios paved the way for how fashion is shot today. After Harper's Bazaar, Richard Avedon became staff photographer for Vogue.

If you're in San Francisco and you haven't seen this show, I highly recommend it. Otherwise, head over to his website to check out his amazing collection of work.