Hasta La Ideas

Juergen Teller, “Pettitoe, Suffolk, 2011,” a photograph from his “Keys to the House” series exhibited earlier this year at New York’s Lehmann Maupin gallery.

“I can achieve something in a very quick moment. But it does get very personal. I think I open up a lot too. I don’t come around as the archetype fashion photographer dude, playing the big guy with the horde of assistants. I let them know I’m also nervous or insecure. Then I let them relax. The way I photograph is quite hypnotizing. I found a way to hide my insecurity—I have two cameras and I photograph like this [mimes cameras in each hand moving hypnotically] and this helps me to figure out what I should do, where they should go…it’s so intense, so psychologically draining, it’s like my brain works on overdrive in those minutes—or hours or days—I’m photographing. That’s why I can’t do it so much because I’m really super-concentrated. Other people think it’s a stupid snapshot—I get that a lot—but it’s very precise. And it has to be very fast because if I’m on a job or something, I can’t just doodle around and days go past and I take a picture. Sometimes there’s a lot of money involved and I have a responsibility to the client to get the fucking thing done. A lot of other people say, “Stand like that, stay like that,” and they do a Polaroid and everyone—all the assistants, the hair and makeup, everyone—stands around looking at the Polaroid or nowadays looking at the screen, then they say, “Let’s do it, shoot,” by which time the model is so tense the Polaroid is better than the end product. I ease that up where they don’t feel necessarily, ‘This is the big decisive moment.’”

–Juergen Teller interviewed by Tim Blanks in the fall 2012 issue of Style.com/Print

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“I think I just do what I feel is good to do. Everybody can give me their suggestions, but at the end, the final risk is mine because it’s my name on the magazine. So I only do what I really feel. Everybody tries to influence you, of course: ‘Oh, this is the right moment to do this’ and ‘This is the right photographer to choose,’ and ‘This is the right model to have…’ I listen, but I must go my own way. When you take risks, it means that you know every month people are there to judge you. Some months are good; some months are bad. When you make a mistake, they call you immediately. And when you do something good, they send flowers to the stylist. So this is a way to say that I want to do it myself. I don’t care if you like it or not. I do the magazine that I think is correct. If you like this issue, I am more than happy. If you don’t like this issue, you will like the next because we do 14 issues a year. So once in a year you will love, no?”

–Franca Sozzani, editor-in-chief or Vogue Italia and editorial director of Condé Nast Italy, in an Interview interview with Livia Firth. On May 4, Sozzani will be in New York to discuss her career (and, if history is any guide, a lot more) at the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Register here to attend the free event.

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As Chip Kidd’s crackerjack TED talk—“Designing books is no laughing matter. OK, it is.”—delights design junkies and design neophytes the world over, we asked the man himself to tell us about the challenge of distilling a career’s worth of memorable book jackets into a brief yet memorable and cohesive (and funny!) presentation—delivered whilst wearing a “Lady Gaga skanky mic,” no less; his overall TED experience; and how his distinctive sartorial flair was received by an audience that tends to view khakis as dress-up pants.

How did you approach the task of distilling what you do into a few minutes (or at least 17 minutes and 16 seconds)?
That was the hardest part, because I’m usually given anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour or more to speak, and I use it! And what I don’t use is notes or a script of any kind. But TED of course has strict time limits (which they do for very good reasons) and encourages all speakers to write out what they’re going to say, memorize it, and rehearse, edit, rehearse, edit, rehearse, etc. So that is what I did, and boy am I glad. I knew I wanted to start with the ‘Apple’ lesson (which has nothing to do with Mr. Jobs’ company, in case that was unclear) and end with 1Q84. It was what went in between that I really sweated over. I cut a lot from the first version and along the way.

What was the most exciting/surreal/strange aspect of your TED experience?
I’d say all of it. More specific: meeting and talking with Al Gore; rehearsing in the theater and finally understanding how big it was; thinking that I would not need a speaking coach but reluctantly meeting with Gina Barnett and getting 100% more confident because of her. She is amazing.
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(Junenoire Photography)

Sure, you think you know Stefano Pilati, who last month stepped down as creative director of Yves Saint Laurent. Born in Milan, groomed at Prada (where he sourced fabrics and later designed for Miu Miu), and plucked by Tom Ford to run ready-to-wear clothing design for YSL in 2000, Pilati went on to prove himself an accessory design savant—the house beat profitability targets thanks in large part to his eminently hoardable Tribute sandals and Muse bags—and filled the runway with a daringly diverse range of critical hits (sharp suiting, epic capes, measured flounces), misses (sufficed to say he does not have a flair for the nautical), and misses-turned-hits (two words: tulip skirt). Pilati’s present “vacation” gave him the opportunity to visit New York, where last week he sat down with Pamela Golbin, chief curator of the Musée de la Mode et du Textile in Paris, as part of a series of fashionable conversations hosted by the French Institute Alliance Française. We listened carefully and picked up these ten things you (probably) didn’t know about Stefano Pilati, including what’s next for the charming designer:

10. He’s not crushed or particularly sad about that fact that his YSL contract was not renewed. “Great. Absolutely great” is how he described his state of mind. “I’m very happy, which is unusual for me,” he said, gesturing to the capacity crowd at Florence Gould Hall. “People are interested to listen to me—what more do you want?”
9. He originally wanted to be a land surveyor but quit midway through his certification courses to intern at Nino Cerruti.
8. Complex? Yes. Cool? No. He singled out “cool” as being the most overrated thing in fashion and confessed to wishing the world would up its elegance quotient. “If fashion was elegant,” he said. “It would be nicer to walk around and see people.”
7. When he interviewed for a gig designing womenswear at YSL, he didn’t show Tom Ford him any sketches. “I said I didn’t have any,” explained Pilati with a shrug. Ford later exacted a bit of revenge on his dapper new hire. “One week later, Tom told me ‘I forgot, you have to do menswear as well.’”
6. Nobody has inspired him more than Miuccia Prada, who he praised for her “exceptional, original mind.”
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(Photo: Sasha Arutyunova)

“Brands are like people,” Reed Krakoff has said. “They are all different and you get to know them in different ways.” The versatile designer’s observation on the diversity of brands, quoted back to him by Pamela Golbin, curator of fashion at textiles at Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris, was a fitting way to begin the first in a trio of “Fashion Talks” presented by the French Institute Alliance Francaise (the chic conversations continue tonight, when FIAF welcomes Stefano Pilati, who earlier this month stepped down from the creative helm of Yves Saint Laurent). In two short years (and five runway collections), Krakoff has created a luxury brand—an American luxury brand, no less—from scratch, which in an industry that trades on centuries-old saddlery skills and wildly embellished “heritage” narratives is no simple feat, especially considering that he’s developed his eponymous label while also maintaining posts as president of executive creative director of Coach.

“When I came to Coach [in 1996], I had never done accessories. I was a menswear designer, and what I loved more than anything was starting something that was an amazing challenge, something where I knew I could learn and be on path to discovering what I could do—or not do,” he told Golbin at last week’s sold-out event at Florence Gould Hall. “I really love the idea of learning and challenges, and after fifteen years, I felt that I wanted to do more that was in keeping with my own true aesthetic.” Influenced by everything from ultimate fighting champs and vintage football jerseys to the artful aviary of John James Audubon and design masterpieces from his own astounding collection, that aesthetic is refined but flexible, as likely to embrace a sleek clutch (in matte python) as a bold trench stamped with a painterly monochrome print that only the most eagle-eyed shopper would recognize as an abstracted version of the brand’s geometric logo. “It’s a direct reflection of the things that I love,” said Krakoff. “The aesthetic is a combination of disparate ideas—things that are quite sexy and sensual and romantic, things that are quite minimal and architectural.”
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