PHOTO NOBUYOSHI ARAKI
FASHION DIRECTION NICOLA FORMCIHETTI
VOGUE HOMMES JAPAN OUT TODAY!!
Sep 9, 2009
MORE PAOLO ANCHISI BY HEDI SLIMANE
VOGUE HOMMES JAPAN ISSUE 3
PHOTO HEDI SLIMANE
STYLING NICOLA FORMICHETTI
Sep 8, 2009
VOGUE HOMMES JAPAN ISSUE 3 - PAOLO ANCHISI BY HEDI SLIMANE!!
FLASH BACK
PHOTOGRAPHY HEDI SLIMANE
STYLING NICOLA FORMICHETTI
MODEL PAOLO ANCHISI (FORD)
Sep 4, 2009
VOGUE HOMMES JAPAN ISSUE 3 - COVER STORY BY STEVEN KLEIN
ISSUE 3 COVER
PHOTOGRAPHY STEVEN KLEIN
STYLING NICOLA FORMICHETTI
MODEL RYAN KONING (MAJOR)
COVER STORY - 30 PAGES SPECIAL BY STEVEN KLEIN
MODELS- STEPHEN NOVOK(REQUEST), TRAVIS HANSON, RYAN KONING, ORAINE BARRETT, JASON MORGAN, DOUG PROTER, COLBY JAMAR, ANTHONY GALLO (MAJOR)
VOGUE HOMMES JAPAN ISSUE3 OUT SEPT 10!
Sep 1, 2009
MORE LADY GAGA / V MAGAZINE
SHE OBJECTIFIES HER OWN BODY, GLAMOURIZES SEXUAL EXPERIMENTATION, PUSHES THE OUTER LIMITS OF THE AVANT-GARDE, AND PROBABLY TAKES HER CRAFT WAY TOO SERIOUSLY. THAT'S WHY LADY GAGA IS THE NEXT QUEEN OF POP
Photography Mario TestinoStyling Nicola Formichetti
By all rights, Lady Gaga should be exhausted. She has just spent a whirlwind weekend in Toronto at the MuchMusic Video Awards where she turned in an elaborate performance that culminated in fire shooting from her breasts, and afterwards was present for at least part of an ugly postshow confrontation between her pal Perez Hilton and members of the Black Eyed Peas; it was all over the tabloids. “We haven’t slept,” admits Gaga. “We just got off the plane and came here. It’s like, Get some orange juice and coffee, motherfuckers! Let’s get to work! It’s not every day you get to shoot with Testino.”Quite. Mario Testino, the man at whose altar the world’s most glamorous fairly genuflect, spends five hours with his lens trained on the
“The concept was really shooting the essence of Gaga, who she is,” explains best friend Matthew Williams, creative director of the Haus of Gaga, the singer’s design collective. Gaga adds, “You know, the glasses, the hair, the tan—I’m known for that. So we just made me übertan.” And pumping through the speakers all the while? Naturally, “Poker Face.”
It is the year’s most inescapable song. From the “Mum mum mum mah” robo-Gregorian chant of the opening to the slinky verse to the singsong hook—it’s 2009’s “I Kissed a Girl,” “Since You’ve Been Gone,” and “Womanizer” rolled into one, at once sillier and smarter than all three. It’s one of those tunes against which resistance is futile. Even rockers like the Arctic Monkeys, Weezer, and Faith No More have busted out their own versions this year, much to Gaga’s delight.
“I looove Faith No More! Their song ‘Epic’ was my burlesque number at the bar I used to work at! I used to fog myself and dance to it. When I found out they did ‘Poker Face,’ I was like, Shit!” Of course, it’s not Faith No More, nor influences David Bowie, Queen, or the Cure to whom Gaga is most often compared. Rather, it’s to the goddesses of platinum pop: Madonna, Britney, Christina, and Gwen—comparisons the singer finds a bit lazy. “Look, when I was a brunette, they called me Amy Winehouse. When I was a blonde, they called me Madonna. Then they called me Christina, then Gwen. I just don’t think most people’s reference points go back very far.” While she does share a name with Gwen (Gaga’s given name is Stefani Germanotta), while she once engaged in a bitchy back-and-forth in the press with Aguilera, and while she wrote a song for Spears (“Quicksand”), it’s Madge who seems closest to the mark: both are Italian-American girls who pulled themselves up by their bootstraps in the big, bad city, both are given to spectacle, both are sartorially adventurous and driven, and neither one apologizes for being pop.
All interesting, you might say, but will we be talking about Gaga in thirty years? That, of course, is a much bigger question. Decades-spanning superstars may well be a thing of the past. But those who predicted Gaga would be a one-and-done dance-pop footnote have already had to eat their words. And as for her being branded trashy? We’ve all heard that before. “I remember the cover of Madonna’s ‘Vogue’ single and the lingerie and her hair—my mother was like, ‘Ucch,’” laughs Gaga. “But I used to play it over and over.” And now, all these years later, Queen Madge herself is attending Lady Gaga shows, or one last spring at least, at New York’s Terminal 5. That night, as Gaga recalls, there was a show on and off stage. “My sister texted me and she was like, ‘Madonna is 15 feet away from me. And there are two guys having sex in the audience. This is awesome!’ I just remember thinking, Wow, this is exactly what I wanted. I’ve got Madonna and I’ve got gay sex!”
Gaga herself has copped to a certain degree of bisexuality, but says she never played it up because “I didn’t want my gay fans to think I was using their community for edginess. You know, Ooh, she’s edgy!” She considers her song “Future Love” to be in part an endorsement of same-sex marriage, and vows to never stop playing gay clubs, no matter how big things get. “With the exception of God, my family, and Matthew, and the Haus, and Vincent Herbert [who signed and discovered her], the gay community is the single reason that I am here today. I started out playing gay clubs in America, then I went to London to play G-A-Y, where I didn’t think anyone knew who I was, and there were thousands of people there. How could I ever turn my back on those people who really fought for me? And besides the loyalty factor, playing in gay clubs is fun.”
And yet, Gaga says what she does is not camp. “See, we don’t see it that way. To us, it’s just beautiful,” she says. “The idea that Gaga is just kooky for the sake of being kooky is so wrong.” Hmm, where would people get that impression? The cone-head hair she sports on occasion? Or the stilettos-on-the-shoulders outfit she wore recently? Or the moment at this shoot when Gaga, lying on the floor in shimmering blue Balenciaga, hikes up the dress’s hem far enough that the stylist feels the need to place down there a platinum blonde tuft that perfectly matches her hair? Tsk-tsk.
But say what you will—and plenty have—Gaga goes for it. Whether with a lightning bolt painted on her face, big bows in her hair, space-age cat suits, or that Chalayan-inspired bubble dress with matching piano, she can evoke David Bowie, Grace Jones, Björk, Stacey Q, Klaus Nomi, or Suzanne Bartsch. Throw in some Sprouse here and Margiela there and it’s like hip fashion’s greatest hits. Well, some might say misses, but what the checkout aisle arbiters of taste have to say won’t keep Gaga up at night. “Us Weekly putting me on a worst-dressed list? I couldn’t care less.” On the other hand, she adds, “If Karl Lagerfeld called me an ugly hag, then I’d be upset. Because it’s Karl Lagerfeld.”
Whatever his opinion, Lagerfeld might want to stand back from Gaga’s latest creation—the aforementioned fire bra unveiled in Toronto. As with most of her ideas, its execution fell on the shoulders of Matthew Williams, part tailor, part craftsman. He says of the bra, “It’s really just sparklers—the old sparklers on the tits trick.” But Gaga accuses him of modesty. “I called him from Hawaii and I was like, Matty, we need to make my tits blow up!” And he made it happen.
No word yet on whether the bra will make an appearance on Gaga’s upcoming fall tour with Kanye West, another artist fond of outsized shows that spare no expense. But she does admit that the two are “exploring aesthetics and new technology that neither of us have traveled, and we are attempting an epic story.” Gaga talks a lot about her art, her work, the technology, the Haus, her creativity—and she knows it. “I’m sure to some people in the press it’s like to a nauseating degree,” she concedes. “There’s Lady Gaga again, yakking about her art.”
But all that yakking is just part of Gaga fighting the good fight. She insists time and again that pop is not lowbrow, dance music is not soulless, and that she is not playing a character but creating something with meaning. Her sincerity of purpose is admirable. Considering the well of blank R&B ciphers and Disney eunuchs into which 21st-century pop has thrown itself, maybe a performer who talks about creative vision, aspires to be avant-garde, counts among her circle of creative people designer Benjamin Cho and violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain, and sings the praises of drag queens—just maybe that’s a good thing. Roll your eyes if you like—and yes, maybe she ought to wear her heart and art a little less on her sleeve—but Gaga truly believes in all this.
For the day’s final tableau, the Lady slips into a brown leather Fendi bustier and boots; her Haus of Gaga circuit-board glasses lend her a savage, vaguely Aztec look. Mario Testino snaps away—the woman with an album (and song) called The Fame and a single called “Paparazzi” shot by a fashion photographer known for his images of that ultimate victim of fame, Princess Diana. “Yes, Diana was the most iconic martyr of fame,” says Gaga. “She died because of it.” But Gaga adds—and this is no small point in a world of YouTube, Octomom, and Real Housewives—her album should not be seen as a glorification of celebrity. Rather it’s about “the dream of wanting to make something of yourself,” a dream that Gaga is undoubtedly realizing. “I took off those circuit-board glasses and looked at the computer monitor and I cried. I thought, We did that! We’re doing something right!” John Norris
Aug 29, 2009
Aug 26, 2009
VOGUE HOMMES JAPAN ISSUE 3 - PREVIEW COVER BY STEVEN KLEIN!!
PHOTOGRAPHY BY STEVEN KLEIN
STYLING NICOLA FORMICHETTI
MODEL TRAVIS HANSON AT MAJOR
ISSUE 3 - OUT SEPT 10
STEVEN KLEIN'S BONDAGE WARRIOR
PAOLO ANCHISI BY HEDI SLIMANE
LADY GAGA BY ARAKI
UNDERCOVER X MARC JACOBS
DIY FASHION
Aug 13, 2009
Aug 12, 2009
GARETHE PUGH FILM BY NICK KNIGHT!!!
FILM DIRECTED BY NICK KNIGHT
STYLING BY NICOLA FORMICHETTI
FRIEZE - A BLUR COLOUR, REFLECTION AND FRANTIC ANIMATION - WITH GARETH PUGH HIM SELF MAKING MORE THAN A CAMEO APPEARANCE- THIS EXCLUSIVE FILM IS CRAFTED FROM ARCHIVE VIDEO RECORDED ON THE SET OF NICK KNIGHT'S SHOOT FOR THE OCTOBER 06 ISSUE OF i-D.
Aug 2, 2009
Jul 29, 2009
Jul 16, 2009
INTERVIEW ON MODELS.COM!!
// INTERVIEW //
If there is one man whose name is on everyone’s lips right now it would have to be Nicola Formichetti. From his work as creative director of the always influential, Dazed and Confused to his innovative styling, Formichetti is one of fashion’s most engaging power players. Taking a break from his busy schedule, Nicola talks to Christopher Michael about changes within the industry and working with fashion’s best and brightest.
// Guest Interview by 1 Management’s Christopher Michael //
- see more interviews on the One Management Blog -
View all the models.com interviews
Q. Japanese Mother, Italian Father…two very strong cultural influences to be born of. What traits do you carry today that you would put in the column of your Father/Italian side vs. the traits you may associate more with being the influences of your Mother?
Both cultures are a big part of my life and work. I am east meets west….Spaghetti sushi!! From my Dad’s Italian side I have picked up a love for tacky things but as well I love the glamour of it all and am a bit of a Romantic.. Due to my Mothers Japanese culture I have a huge collection of crazy toys and love for Japanese food.
Q. Just reading off your titles and credentials listed in the number of Publications where you are an editor or Creative director is quite exhausting, how is that you are able to consult for so many labels on top of these publications and then go on to style Celebrity?
I know, so crazy, right??!! I’m currently in Japan working with UNIQLO for few more days here, then going back to NYC to start working on the next issue of Vogue Hommes Japan…Thanks to my blackberry I am always up to date with everyone, everywhere, any time!! I have really great relationships with all of the magazines I work with, (Dazed & Confused, V Magazine, V Man, Another, Another Man and Vogue Hommes Japan) you can never be too busy for things!! I work hard and play hard….but traveling across so many time zones constantly could be tiring but its so much fun what I do.. I’m always so excited to visit new places! I recently started working closely with lady Gaga. My new fashion icon! My collaboration with her goes beyond the typical stylist/ celebrity relationship!
she is so into fashion that she needs to change so many times a day!! love it!!
Q. I was reading about your early days as a buyer in a retail store in London that stocked emerging young designers, was that a conscious choice over working for a store that carried more established brands? Or was the new designer aspect of the store simply a coincidental detail of where you ended up working at the time?
In my early 20s, I helped launch the store Pineal Eye in London. I came up with concept of selling merging young designers because there was nothing like that at the time, and it was what interested me most. We stocked one off things one couldn’t get anywhere else. It was mostly pieces designed by my friends and people around me. Through Pineal Eye I got the opportunity to meet such talented designers as Hedi Slimane, Raf Simons, Gareth Pugh and Kim Jones.
Q. When you were scouted by Dazed&Confused who approached you offering a position as an editor for the magazine, you had never assisted any other stylist or had any real previous experience is that right? I’m quite sure that it was your lack of experience or the fact that you were never really influenced or molded directly by someone already set in their ways, that may have been one of the most enticing aspects of your raw talent… what do you think the difference is between your perspective now as oppose to what it may have been if you had spent sometime assisting someone established prior to your own debut?
I was so lucky, I was approached by Katy England and Alistair Mackie to be part of Dazed, then we all started working together under Jefferson hack’s direction. It was so much fun! And it still is!! From the beginning they gave me complete freedom to decide what I was about, and what I believed in. I was truly able to do what I felt as there was never any fear of doing something wrong.
At the time I didn’t even know a stylist existed, much less that it could be a real job!!! I just did what I loved, which was showcasing things I know around me. It’s amazing to think that I haven’t changed that much in this….to this day I am still doing what I love and what I feel strong about!!
I have never assisted another stylist however sometimes I wish I had…When I started I didn’t know the technique of how to deal with other things like the politics of it all. When you do a shoot it’s a collaboration with lots of other people, there are certain steps you have to go through to make it all come together. It was a double edged sword not knowing this at first, because on one had it made things a lot harder for me but on the other hand, if I would have known I probably would have been a lot more scared to do new things and take risks.
Q. I was reading in a previous interview when you were answering the question of ‘what items are you saving up to buy’ , that you look forward to being able to purchase more art one day… what type of Art is it that mostly captures your eye when wandering through a gallery?
It’s just a little personal dream of mine to have very beautiful things in my surroundings.
Q. When I found myself looking at some of the more abstract pieces that you and Solve had done together it made me curious as to how you both conceived of the idea to shoot the images that way…essentially erasing the models right from the photo and replacing them with anything from a blue sky to a poke a dot pattern…
I’m so sorry about that! I am sure you at a model agency are not a big fan of those types of shoots, with the models face erased. With my work I am most interested in the final image, and if that is what has to happen then so be it. Though this is not the case in every project as I love to promote new faces and good models, so it all depends. Working with Solve, an outstanding image maker, always leads to something more surreal and exciting!
Q. This famous sketch book that you never leave the house without, what would one find while thumbing through the pages of that book? Words? Drawings? Pictures glued on to the pages within?
I just love having a brand new sketch book. I just like the book as an object. as soon as I mark up the first page I am ready for a new one. I have piles of empty sketch books lying around my flat with scribbles on the first page!!
Q. You’ve brought to the ‘scene’ a fresh perspective that comes from your own experience and genuine interest in various subject matter… if you had the ability to Influence the business today in any way you wanted..what is the greatest result you wish to achieve?
I like to give people something positive and fun, just pure love and if I can make money doing so then that’s great. But it is very important for me to give back to people, which is why I like working with young creative designers and new models. The more successful I become the more I can give back, that’s the way I see it.
VIVIENNE WESTWOOD ON CLIMATE CHANGE!!
Designer and activist Vivienne Westwood meets a hero and inspiration of hers, scientist James Lovelock.
"If young people don't listen to him, they're either stupid or they just don't care." So saysVivienne Westwood of James Lovelock, the maverick scientist and climate change guru that she interviews in this short film. A few months ago, I was invited to document this meeting, and you can read the full feature in this month's issue of Dazed, in which he reveals some very uncomfortable predictions about our future. Vivienne and I had first talked about this piece over a year ago, when she guest-edited an issue of Dazed, but James was too busy working on his next book at that time (The Vanishing Face of Gaia, published by Allen Lane). As such, it was exciting to be able to revisit the idea; as he approaches 90, James remains one of today's most influential thinkers and – despite the terrifying nature of his predictions (billions of us will die in the coming century due to climate change) – in person he is warm, engaging and a pleasure to talk to. Here is a short film (nine minutes or so) with snippets from that interview mixed in with some footage of Vivienne at the G20 protests, and some of her recent Active Resistance manifesto readings.
James Lovelock, speaking to Vivienne Westwood for Dazed & Confused: "One of the most harmful analogies that has been around recently is the 'tipping point'. Because it seems to imply that if only we pull back at this point then all will be well. It won’t. It’s already changed and it is changing. You see, in the last few years, ice that is in the north polar regions… it’s all going and the whole lot will be gone in between five and twenty years. When it dies, the amount of extra heat absorbed from the sun during the Arctic summer will be equivalent to all of the heat from all of the CO2 we’ve added to the atmosphere. So, suddenly the heating doubles and that’s something we can’t stop at all. We can’t do a thing about it... and that’s only one of many what we call ‘positive feedbacks’ in the system where the earth is moving rapidly to its hot state. We’re not going to stop it. So, what we should be thinking about is not trying to stop it, but preparing for the new world that is to come. It’s not a bad world but it’s not fit for seven billion people. There’ll be lots of places, not only on this island but all of the Arctic places – places like Canada, Siberia and so on – and we’ve got to make wherever we are a civilized and a fit place. It’s an enormous challenge and I hope that we’ll succeed. History tells us we might, you see, humans have been on the earth for a million years now and there have been seven events like the one about to happen during that time... the last one happened only 14,000 years ago. And when they happen, there are massive deaths... that’s were the legends of the floods come from, because the sea-level rose 120 metres at the last one – that’s huge amount. It flooded an area equal to the size of Africa as a continent. So, there were massive deaths during that occasion and on one of those – geneticists tell us – only 2,000 people survived. We’ve all come from that 2,000. It’s amazing, really."
James Lovelock, speaking to Vivienne Westwood for Dazed & Confused: "One of the most harmful analogies that has been around recently is the 'tipping point'. Because it seems to imply that if only we pull back at this point then all will be well. It won’t. It’s already changed and it is changing. You see, in the last few years, ice that is in the north polar regions… it’s all going and the whole lot will be gone in between five and twenty years. When it dies, the amount of extra heat absorbed from the sun during the Arctic summer will be equivalent to all of the heat from all of the CO2 we’ve added to the atmosphere. So, suddenly the heating doubles and that’s something we can’t stop at all. We can’t do a thing about it... and that’s only one of many what we call ‘positive feedbacks’ in the system where the earth is moving rapidly to its hot state. We’re not going to stop it. So, what we should be thinking about is not trying to stop it, but preparing for the new world that is to come. It’s not a bad world but it’s not fit for seven billion people. There’ll be lots of places, not only on this island but all of the Arctic places – places like Canada, Siberia and so on – and we’ve got to make wherever we are a civilized and a fit place. It’s an enormous challenge and I hope that we’ll succeed. History tells us we might, you see, humans have been on the earth for a million years now and there have been seven events like the one about to happen during that time... the last one happened only 14,000 years ago. And when they happen, there are massive deaths... that’s were the legends of the floods come from, because the sea-level rose 120 metres at the last one – that’s huge amount. It flooded an area equal to the size of Africa as a continent. So, there were massive deaths during that occasion and on one of those – geneticists tell us – only 2,000 people survived. We’ve all come from that 2,000. It’s amazing, really."
text by Rod Stanley, photograph by Lina Scheynius
CHECK OUT THE VIDEO ON DAZED DIGITAL
Jul 10, 2009
DAZED AUG 09 - 3D SHOOT FEATURING MARIOS SCHWAB A/W 09/10!!
PHOTOGRAPHY TERRY TSIOLIS
STYLING NICOLA FORMICHETTI
MODEL JULIA HAFSTROM AT IMG
ALL CLOTHES BY MARIOS SCHWAB
DAZED AUG ISSUE OUT NOW!!
COMES WITH 3D GLASSES!!
Jul 9, 2009
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