Interview February 2016
Riccardo Tisci
Photographer: Fabien Baron Stylist: Karl Templer Models: Mariacarla Boscono, Jamie Bochert, Chris Gray, Adam Adam Auslander, Luca Jamal, John Kolic, Rob Lelle, Shawn Lindo, Damien Medina, Sean Morales, Tyso Oaki, Laurence Rodriguez, Greta Varlese & Dominic Weir Make-Up: Marla Belt Hair: Duffy
Interview April 2016
Rick Owens
Photographer: Fabien Baron Stylist: Miguel Enamorado Models: Anna Cleveland, Hanne Gaby Odiele, Katlin Aas, Binx Walton & Natalie Westling Make-Up: Mark Carrasquillo Hair: Anthony Turner
Interview May 2016 Models & Designer: Molly Blair, Odette Pavlova, Sam Clay, Xavier Buestel, Roberto Sipos & Kim Jones
Photographer: Fabien Baron
Stylist: Miguel Enamorado
Hair: James Pecis
Grooming: Cicci
Makeup: Mark Carrasquilo
Manicure: Eri Handa
From Madonna’s ‘Sex’ book and Kate Moss’ Calvin Klein campaign: Fabien Baron on 40 years in fashion
The sought-after art director’s new book looks back on a four-decade career
Baron says glossy magazines are in decline as brands now create their own content; as for influencers, they’re too generic and not luxury enough, he says
The son of a newspaper art director, Baron moved to New York in his early 20s to try his luck as an image-maker but also to move out of his father’s shadow, a strong figure who has loomed large.
“I was in awe of him,” says Baron. “He was tough and I always wanted to do better than him and I became an art director because he was one – if he had been an architect I would probably have done that. I understood that I couldn’t be myself under such a powerful character. He was great, and strong, but I needed a clean sheet and a new place, and I had to feel alone. That’s how I felt when I moved here in my 20s, like an immigrant. I understood what it felt like moving to a new country. It takes a long time to adapt but it makes you stronger, more flexible, less judgmental, more open to the world.”
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Baron’s open mindset is not something the fashion world has always embraced, but it has been forced to contend with more inclusive social attitudes, where cultural appropriation and blackface references will bring trouble.
“We are careful with all that we do and I look at some of the work that I did in the past and feel I couldn’t do it today, and wouldn’t want to,” says Baron. “I like this idea of the world as one and the reason you have racism is that there are so many people still holding on to the past.”
Even in commercial terms the fashion world has been myopic. “If you go back 20 years, you didn’t even think about China in the luxury world and look at it now, it’s all about China,” says Baron. “Back then it was only Europe and America talking to one another across the pond.”
While Baron has been taking photographs since he was 17, he is first and foremost an art director, “telling the story of a product in ways that are surprising, interesting and artistic”. Whether it’s a Dior campaign or designing a perfume bottle for Calvin Klein, Baron’s job is to define the visual DNA of a product.
“Brands now have to create content, and that’s why traditional magazines are in decline,” he says. “Brands have a voice and a point of view and an opinion, which they can express through different channels; instead of paying magazines for advertising they’re producing their own content, which feels closer to what the brand is about.”
Baron says all visual content that photographers, stylists and art directors produce for the pages of glossy publications now reaches a wider audience on Instagram, whether it’s a Vogue cover or a Gucci campaign.
But what of the influencers, who with their millions of followers wield more power than magazines and whose loyal audiences relate to their candid, unfiltered images?
“It’s going to run its course because it’s too generic and not luxury enough,” says Baron. “The dream factor needs to come from the brands in a very precise way that you haven’t seen before. Gucci understands this very well. Their Instagram is not middle of the road with some random influencers saying, ‘Look at my shoes.’ It is well produced with a strong point of view. If brands don’t get that right they lose their power and are finished.”
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