The trouble with doing something completely new is the difficulty of establishing a rhythm. Fashion has its own internal logic and that necessitates certain rhythms. Pulling together photo shoots at least in the traditional fashion mold happens at a languid pace. And it isn’t that the process isn’t stressful as the logistics are a complete nightmare.
Pulling clothing from showrooms, publicists and sometimes even straight from the designer’s home takes an inordinate amount of time. Questions like relationships, history, networks, favors and ass kissing all determine what looks you have at your disposal. Add to that booking models (go-sees, re-sees, ohh lord do we have a good relationship with the bookers, how do we tell them the girl has bad skin), scouting locations, preparing equipment, deciding on hair and makeup artists, emailing back and forth inspirations (I TOTALLY think that dark eyes can work for spring, I love this exceedingly banal Steven Meisel shoot that we should totally reproduce) and suddenly its a several week long process to prepare for one day of shooting. And of course don’t forget post production!
In other words, its no wonder that magazines operate on a monthly format. Producing a fashion spread takes FUCKING FOREVER. And yet somehow at Coutorture we are doing things with lead times of no more than a few days. The trouble is that because no one has ever done these fast “guerrilla” shoots before I have no idea what sort of reasonable rhythm the team should be getting into. My motto has been we shoot until we bleed, and then we shoot some more. Naturally we are all a little tired.
Its almost as if we are operating on “stress time” continually. I feel like we have been shooting for years and yet we have only been consistently shooting for about 5 weeks now (not including Fashion Week during which we produced videos, designer interviews and backstage photography). We have produced fifteen shoots to date of which we have published eight.
And I happen to think we have produced very high quality work even at a new media pace. Frankly its a genuine relief to get away from the repurposed content that has become the halmark of blogging. You can make a lovely and well trafficked blog simply by linking to and showcasing other people’s work. Your taste and commentary plus other people’s work is what makes a good blog. A product you like here, an ad you liked there, an article you found interesting here, a few things photoshopped together and you can even have a fashion spread. And that is what everyone else is doing and doing a damn fine job of it I might add. Good enough that I don’t think its worth Coutorture’s time to bother doing it. Someone else will do it better. And I am proud to support our many wonderful bloggers. But the content that Coutorture produces as its own editorial presence is a completely different genre.
Dare I say it, we are evolving fashion publishing and its pace. Not only have we produced some very avant garde work (Brace Yourself really rilled up Foto Decadent) but we have published work that no one has can possibly replicate like our Oscar De La Renta Fall 2008 shoot which went live a mere 3 weeks after the looks hit the runway. We even had James Coviello style a shoot of his own Fall 2008 collection.
Its exciting to be shaking up the traditional time tables for publishing original fashion editorial. I just wish I knew what was a reasonable rhythm. But I am sure the first bloggers felt the way I feel now. On the bright side? I am no longer remotely bored with fashion.
