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an interview and some background on him from mediabistro.com
So What Do You Do, Joe Zee, Creative Director, Elle?
Name: Joe Zee
Position: Creative director, Elle
Resume: Joined Elle in January 2007; editor-in-chief of Fairchild's short-lived Vitals (2003-2005); fashion director at W; contributing fashion editor at Details and House & Garden; got his start at Allure. Has styled advertising campaigns for DKNY, Banana Republic, Estee Lauder, and the recent "(PRODUCT) RED" campaign for Gap, as well as the company's Madonna-Missy Elliot ads in 2003.
Birthdate: November 23, 1968
Hometown: Toronto, Canada
Education: University of Toronto, Fashion Institute of Technology
Marital status: Single
First section of the Sunday Times: The Magazine
Favorite television show: Top Chef and American Idol
Guilty pleasure: Television
Last book read: The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud. "It's about a bunch of kids growing up in New York City. It's a cross-section of culture and life."
Did you always know you wanted to be in fashion?
I always knew I wanted to work in magazines. When I was in high school, I would sit between my free periods and read fashion magazines cover to cover. People use that term loosely, but I would literally devour every page -- even the ads. I was really attracted to the branding, the designers. I would read mastheads to see who left, who moved up. As a kid in Toronto, none of these people had any resonance for me, but I started to learn doing that. I was attracted to all the fashion photography. This sounds so corny now, but I would look at a fashion story in Vogue and test myself and say, "Is this Louis Dell'Olio for Anne Klein? Is that Claude Montana?" Then I'd look at the credits and go, "Yes! That is it!" I think when I was younger, I translated that as loving fashion -- and I do -- but it was only when I got older, I started to see that I actually loved magazines. Now that I'm even older, I realize I love media. I'm a huge pop culture junkie, so I watch tons of television. I see every movie. I know every Billboard Top 10 song. I read bestsellers. I'm there.
Fern Mallis told me she was voted "best dressed" in high school. Did you have any early indication that you'd be dressing some of the most famous women in the world?
When I was 16, Club Monaco had just opened in Toronto. There was only one store; it was downtown. It was a cool, hip place patterned after Charivari on 57th Street, and Fiorucci. It was the cool hybrid of those two stores. I walked in and I said, "I want to work here." They hired me -- I worked part-time. I'd literally finish school and run downtown and hang out with all the fashion guys that worked there. I was 16 and they were like 25. I was really attracted to that cutting-edge fashion scene.
You mentioned you grew up obsessed with television. Was there someone on the pop culture landscape at the time that had a huge influence on you?
I looked at things from a different angles. I loved Charlie's Angels, but where the average kid would say, "They're so beautiful and glamorous," I also remember thinking, "Boy, that Aaron Spelling has really got it together." I don't think I was trying to be that way -- I was just an old soul. I watched Dynasty and The Colbys -- which I loved, but I thought, "Boy, they are really nailing the TV market."
You have this fabulous-sounding job now, but entry-level jobs in fashion are notoriously tough. What was your least glamorous gig starting out?
People do think my life is so glamorous, but even now, there are so many moments now where it really isn't. I interned at this small trade magazine, Sportswear International. They had no budget at all. I had to return the clothes [to the design houses]. They had an office in the Garment District, and I literally had to return all the garment bags pushing a Gristede's shopping cart like a homeless person up and down Broadway. I look back now and I think, "I can't believe I did that." At the time I was like, "I can't believe I get to go to these showrooms!" I was so excited by the experience. Now, with the interns or even assistants, it's like, "No one is doing that!"
Of course not, they want to run the magazine…
That whole entitlement thing is baffling. When I was doing the shopping cart thing, I was so happy to meet that person at the showroom -- and the person was the receptionist. Nowadays, if [interns] don't go on a photo shoot they are really upset. I think you've got to earn that. I was at W, and I had an intern. On her first day -- she hadn't done anything yet -- she walked up to me and said, "I just want to ask -- if you have a photo shoot with Gwyneth Paltrow, I'd like to come." Half of me was like, "I kind of like that tenacity," and the other half of me was like, "Why don't you do what we need to do here first? I love that you're putting in your order for which actress you'd like to meet. I can't believe you're doing this on day one!"
You worked with Tom Ford when he guest-edited Vanity Fair's Hollywood issue in 2006 and styled several of Gap's ad campaigns. Did you find it difficult to work with a lot of celebrities on those big jobs?
I was embracing celebrity culture early on -- and still -- because I actually respect and appreciate it. I think a lot of fashion people don't like celebrity culture. I think [for] a lot of them, it's been an infringement on their world a little. I love an actress, a musician, an athlete because they have a personality and a dimension they bring to something that I can't get from an 18-year-old model. Celebrities bring something else to fashion, to pictures.
Many fashion designers have told me over the years that they feel somewhat forced to be part of the celebrity game, especially when it comes to dressing stars for award shows. How would you characterize the overall feeling of fashion towards celebrities today?
There is a segment of fashion that really embraces it, and there's a segment that really feels they have to embrace it and there's a segment that says, 'You know what? I can do without them.' I respect all of them because if we were all homogenous, it wouldn't really work. Are we all chasing celebs? I think we all are a little bit. Is it over- saturated? It is sometimes, but I don't see it letting up any time soon. Like it or not, it's part of the culture we live in. [Celebrities] account for a big part of [the fashion] business. Something worn by "X" celebrity can translate into huge sales. Award shows have become red carpets. The Oscar pre-show is more interesting than the awards. People care more about what someone looks like than they do about who won Best Actress. I don't know if someone could remember that [this year] Tilda Swinton won Best Supporting Actress, but they can certainly tell you about the dress she was wearing. That part is fascinating.
So the trend of celebrities supplanting models on magazine covers will continue for the foreseeable future?
Everything is cyclical but for now, they're not going anywhere. People ask "When will the models be back?" I think if it's the right model, they will be back.
Has the celebrity quotient in Elle increased since you've come on board?
Maybe a little bit. We definitely still have our models, whom I love, but there are some celebrities who are Elle girls. That's one of things I talked about doing when I came on board -- redefining that colloquialism: "She's so Elle" or "She's an Elle girl;" having that definitive quality back.
Who is the "Elle girl?"
She's young, she's a rule-breaker, she's slightly rebellious. For me, she's all sorts of different people. She could be Chloe Sevigny or Chan Marshall. It could also be Kate Lanphear who is in our fashion department. She's my style director. They don't feel they need to interpret the runway head to toe. When I got here Robbie [Myers] was so particular about saying Elle is about celebrating personal style. I love that.
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(I'd only seen LQ on Jedroot before)!
