Interview September 2013 by Mert & Marcus

The Exhibitionists
Photographer:
Mikael Jansson
Stylist: Ludivine Poiblanc
Hair: Anthony Turner
Make-Up: Mark Carrasquillo
Models: Malgosia Bela, Catherine McNeil, Tilda Lindstam, Jamie Bochert, Aymeline Valade, Freja Beha Erichsen, Liya Kebede, Daria Strokous, Missy Rayder, Lily Donaldson, Arizona Muse, Lily McMenamy, Kati Nescher

interviewmagazine.com

HQs


streeters via lookbooks
 
Peter Lindbergh Interview




2magnament.com
 
Bought the issue in Washington, D.C. area today, great issue, certainly worth the US$9 price they charge in US bookstores.

By the way, not sure if anyone noticed, but I'm pretty sure they got Ondria Hardin's age wrong -- She's only 16 years old, not 23.
 
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Epic Issue! All the eds are great, it's so hard to pick a favorite. The styling is genius (esp The Cool & The New Breed). The interviews are great and interesting as well, Lindbergh's interview is my favorite. Such a great issue for Sept!
 
Only 9 dollars? A girl told me they are selling it for 26€ here in Portugal. I almost fainted. (Its more than 30 dollars)
 
Didier Fernandez – Steven Pan – Interview Magazine – September 2013

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Inside Interview magazine’s September issue, our Didier Fernandez chats with journalist, David Colman, about his prolific career as one of the industry’s preeminent agents. Steven Pan photographed Fernandez, as he speaks about his start in fashion, the 1990s supermodel craze, and the very first time he met Linda Evangelista. After the jump, read their conversation in full.

DAVID COLMAN: How did you end up in the fashion world?
DIDIER FERNANDEZ: By accident. I was born and raised in Paris, and I started in the modeling business in 1990. I had never been interested in fashion. I was going to be a pastry chef until I discovered that the hours were terrible, so I ended up being a colorist and started meeting models in the salon. That’s when I got a little more interested in it. After six years, I quit to go back to art school, but then I got a phone call from one of the owners of Elite in Paris. I didn’t know why he called me, but he called me again, and I decided to go meet him. I started working the next day for the company. That was March 1990.

Did you think, What have I gotten myself into?
I was interested to see what it could lead to and I had nothing to lose. My first big moment was when they tried a few B-girls on me, and I got a French Vogue cover with a model named Heather Stewart-Whyte. She was then more of a catalog girl who nobody really believed in—until she got that cover. That led major girls like Linda Evangelista and Naomi Campbell to call me. They were with Elite, but managed by other agents, and out of the blue they switched to me. That was ’91. By the end of that year, I was with about 20 models—which was insane, considering they were all working nearly 300 days a year.

It seems 1992 was a peak supermodel year.
Yes, it was a big explosion. It was the beginning of a very exciting time for everyone in fashion.

This is a naive question, but if they were doing so great already, why did they come to you? What more could you have given them?
I didn’t really know, but I got very passionate about it. I was working 20 hours a day. I was living with Linda in Paris. I was spending my time with all of them going on shoots, going backstage, traveling. So maybe they liked how passionate I was about their careers. I love photographers, I love designers. I guess that did translate in our relationship. It was a very strong moment for all of us. We felt the sky was the limit.

What do you remember about your first meeting with Linda?
The first time we met—before she made that phone call—she was shooting couture with Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel. I was delivering the contract for her and she barely looked at me. It was one of those moments where I felt like, Okay, I’m invisible—which changed drastically a few months later.

So what was your first meeting with her like when things changed?
Well, she made that phone call. I guess we were all in New York when that French Vogue [September 1991] cover came out. It was the September cover. There was a little group—Naomi, Linda, Christy, Yasmin Le Bon, and Gail Elliott—and I think they were all in the same room when they made the phone call. They asked me if I would work with them, and I could not say no. I was very flattered.

Do you remember just thinking, Wow?
Everything was wow after that. I mean, some designers were fighting to get the girls on the runway when there were conflicting times, or when they wanted an exclusive, there was a war being fought on who would get the girl. There were Italian designers fighting over Linda or Naomi. It was just endless. We were starting at eight in the morning and finishing at midnight because I was dealing with New York, too. Most of those girls were based in Paris then, so the American editors were calling Paris, because they knew we had access to the girls and they’d get their answers faster. At the time, I was probably doing 75 percent of American Vogue‘s and Harper’s Bazaar‘s covers, which did not really please the New York office, because suddenly they’d lost touch with the main magazines. But the magazines knew I would give them a straight answer. And having those major models was definitely a plus. But it was also exciting to develop new talent—Amber Valletta, Shalom Harlow, Nadja Auermann. Nadja was really my first young new face. She arrived in Paris, I met her the next day, and signed her that same day.

I remember seeing her walk on the runway in ’94. She was so tall and thin.
She is nearly 6’1″. The legs are probably more than half of her body—it was shocking. Designers just went out of their way to make sure they made clothes for her.

What was your first date with Linda like?
It was very sweet. She’s a very friendly person when she wants to be, and we were not in public so it was very natural and very simple. I can’t remember details but just that we clicked. And soon after we sealed the deal, she flew me on the Concorde to New York, where she was shooting a documentary with Peter Lindbergh. That was my first flight on the Concorde, so I was impressed.

How long were you at Elite?
Seven years. I remembered the owners telling me, “You’re going to burn in two years.” But I guess it took seven. I quit July 14, 1997. I remember I was watching the Défilé, the French army parade on TV. After that I just I traveled the world for a while with Naomi and Linda. My quitting kind of came out of the blue and I guess they wanted to keep an eye on me. I went to Australia with Linda, I went to India with Naomi… They were on jobs but they just took me to be there and to enjoy. So that went on until March ’98, when Linda asked me to come meet her at the Ritz in Paris for lunch. We sat down and she asked me if I’d consider coming to New York to live and work exclusively with her and a few other girls. I wouldn’t commit, but I came, and I rebuilt my life here and I never lived in Paris again.

You founded your own agency?
I briefly had a separate office in the headquarters of Elite called Special Agent Management, because I felt some loyalty to Elite. Then I had a short time with Wilhelmina. Trudi Tapscott, the modeling editor at Vogue, was a good friend of David [Bonnouvrier, the founder of DNA], and put us together. We met and hit it off, and we started working together. That was 11 years ago.

Some people have talked about how social media has influenced modeling. Do you use it? Or have you tried to get your girls to use it?
No, no. I don’t do it. I don’t think it’s relevant. These are great models, and people are going to call for you and you are going to do covers and campaigns and eventually get contracts, but it’s definitely not your Twitter account or your Instagram that’s going to get you there. I just don’t see how that could change anything in their professional life. What are you telling them? What you had for breakfast, that you’re getting on a plane, or you’re on the set but you can’t say where? And then what? It’s not relevant.

What do you miss most about the days when supermodels stalked the earth and reigned supreme?
The collaboration with a team. I’m talking designers, photographers, hair and makeup, editors, stylists, where I remember creating stories and ideas from scratch. It was really amazing—back then, it was very easy to be able to put all of those people together and create images or a moment on the runway, helping the young designers who were broke. That’s what I miss most now in the corporate world of fashion. There’re so many players, you can’t talk directly to a designer or a photographer or an editor. I remember editors picking up their phone and calling you without an assistant passing the phone. Liz Tilberis would call you out of the blue to ask you a question. The same with Franca Sozzani—a quick phone call to see if we could make something happen. And it was a yes or no—the deal was sealed in four minutes. Now, there are e-mails and 300 people between you and the person that you want to talk to, and it makes it impossible to achieve what could be achieved in a phone call. But I guess that’s the modern world now.

dnamodels.com
 
David Bonnouvrier – Steven Pan – Interview Magazine – September 2013

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Our founder, David Bonnouvrier, is profiled by journalist, David Colman, for Interview magazine’s September issue. Bonnouvrier opens up about completing his duty in the army to starting his career in fashion, the first time he laid on eyes on Karolina Kurkova, and the distinct qualities he looks for when signing a model to DNA. Read their complete conversation, after the jump.

DAVID COLMAN: What was your entry point into all this?
DAVID BONNOUVRIER: When I came back from the army, I got a job at Elle magazine in France, which, in 1985, was like American Vogue. It was the fashion bible. I loved the magazine side of the business. I was in heaven. After a couple of years, I was going to leave to work for a production company that made TV commercials, and I was really excited because that was ultimately what I wanted to do. They were working with people like Jean-Paul Goude. But my father had started his own agency in 1975, and the day before I was about to sign my contract, he called me and asked if I would come and work with him. I said yes without thinking about it—it took me years of therapy to get to the bottom of that. Several years later, I was offered a job to work at Wilhemina in New York. My girlfriend at the time was at Columbia University, and I was getting tired of flying every other weekend across the Atlantic Ocean. So I took a job and left for New York. I only worked there for six months.

What did you do after that?
My dad and I found an investor to start an agency in Paris and New York. That didn’t work, so at the end of those two years, we parted ways to start DNA.

Who were the big girls you had at that moment?
None. [laughs] We had to start from scratch. But what happened is that we came across this young American girl called Annie Morton. Annie became like the George Washington of DNA. Because we had nothing else to do, she became a mission for us, which translated into getting her on the cover of British Vogue. So that got us on the map for a minute. But when we started DNA, there were a few agencies that were extremely powerful at the time—Elite, Women, Next—so the game for us was just to wait it out. Then in ’96 or ’97, one of the top agents at Elite walked away and the whole agency disintegrated. Trish Goff and Kirsty Hume came to DNA. In 1999, I came across Karolina Kurkova and that changed everything. We brought her back to New York, and within six months of her arrival, she was on the cover of American Vogue. We found her in a small agency in Milan. She had this big banana smile on her face and it was like she had an inscription on her forehead that said, “Please take me away.” [laughs] I think Natalia [Vodianova] was a year or so after that. By then, Women had collapsed and Stella Tennant came to us out of Women. It was incredible. That’s when we got involved with defining what the DNA values were, and where we stood in this business versus our competitors.

What are those values?
We have fewer girls than many of our competitors—on the main board, no more than 65 models. We got that philosophy from working with Annie Morton. When we started, we were five agents for one girl. And we know that we can only do that for a few at a time.

So you’re not starting an athlete’s division?
We know fashion. We’re not TV agents, we’re not CAA, we’re not impresarios. The clients that we have—the Linda Evangelistas, the Natalias, the Kristen McMenamys, the Stellas, Raquel Zimmermanns—they’re real models. There’s a twist, which is that social media aspect that has become a part of their careers. For instance, we represent Doutzen Kroes. Doutzen has had an extraordinary career. She’s probably one of the most beautiful women you’ll ever see. She has a Victoria’s Secret contract and a L’Oreal contract. She has like 500,000 followers on Twitter and 300,000 on Facebook. For her clients, it’s very important that she has that following on social media. She uses it very wisely. Clients do ask about that; they do look at that as a huge plus when they’re going to spend two or three million dollars to put someone on contract. But Linda and Kristen McMenamy don’t tweet, and Stella just barely got an iPad, god bless. But we encourage connectivity.

What qualities do you look for in a model?
One thing we look for is someone who is going to be extremely positive and dedicated and is going to take it extremely seriously. You’re only going to get by so far by being the highest-stakes con artist in the world. Social interactions with this industry are key. You’re at a fitting with Karl Lagerfeld or John Galliano, or you’re on a shoot with people like Fabien [Baron] or Steven [Meisel]—they’re going to want to know that they can relate to you, that you understand their visual language. The people who work in this industry, whether it’s a designer or a photographer, are passionate. They know everything there is about it. They don’t want to surround themselves with tourists … The most important and relevant models are those who understood that.

dnamodels.com
 
good for browsing but NOt good for keeping. IMO.

Enjoyed browsing it yesterday, if only to read Lindbergh's words on the supermodel era, never tire of his stories about it and the girls. Never tire of seeing some of his old archive pictures. They are timeless.:heart:

But the quality of format and paper it is printed on are just the worst quality of all of them by far. It is insulting to be honest.
Once it is in your hands it is already damaged. The binding is too tight and not in a good way which means as soon as you open it it is ruined inside too.
For a fussy collector like me,it is my worst nightmare, so I no longer spend a penny on these.
There are some nice images inside, but if you like poor edited magazines then this one is for you. :mrgreen:
 
LOndon

[Q

Anybody know where I can get this in London?[/QUOTE]

I saw one left on Monday in Selfridges and a couple in a newssagent in Marylebone High Street.
Try also the TERRY kiosque opposite Liberty's he sells/stocks loads of foreign fashion magazines.
 
The Originals
Photoraphers: Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott
Stylists: Karl Templer & Ludivine Poiblanc
Hair: Eugene Souleiman, Garren, Malcom Edwards, Paul Hanlon
Make-Up: Yadim, Lucia Pieroni, Lisa Butler
Models: Stephanie Seymour, Kate Moss, Anja Rubik, Joan Smalls, Karen Elson, Daria Werbowy, MariaCarla Boscono, Naomi Campbell, Saskia De Brauw, Karmen Pedaru, Kristen McMenamy, Suvi Koponen, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Sam Rollinson, Stella Tennant, Amber Valleta.



lookbook
 
Can anyone repost (or link to) the HQ images, please? :smile:
 
Wow, 11 pages on Interview. Nothing gets that much love these days.
 
Can anyone repost (or link to) the HQ images, please? :smile:


The Originals
Photoraphers
: Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott
Stylists: Karl Templer & Ludivine Poiblanc
Hair: Eugene Souleiman, Garren, Malcom Edwards, Paul Hanlon
Make-Up: Yadim, Lucia Pieroni, Lisa Butler
Models: Stephanie Seymour, Kate Moss, Anja Rubik, Joan Smalls, Karen Elson, Daria Werbowy, MariaCarla Boscono, Naomi Campbell, Saskia De Brauw, Karmen Pedaru, Kristen McMenamy, Suvi Koponen, Christy Turlington, Linda Evangelista, Sam Rollinson, Stella Tennant, Amber Valleta.

Not very big or HQ, but it's the best I could find!


visualoptimism
 

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