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.
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Can audiences keep up with this “new” pace? How fast can we consume this innovative cutting edge material? And what should we make of it all? Fast Food Nation…more like Fast Fashion Nation. I can hardly digest a single issue of W within a month’s time. Please, for the love of God, slow down!
The world isn’t slowing down and people are voraciously consuming commentary and repurposed content. I happen to think giving real produced content adds a little bit more value as that dialog is going to happen whether we contribute or not. I happen to think contributing is right answer!
I must say that a lot of photo students go through this if they are hard workers. I personally have at least fashion 3 shoots a week, plan them by myself, while balancing 19 credits, and shoot for my photo blog. I think that it’s no small feat what you’re producing but a lot of people do the same thing weekly at art school.
Julie, keep up the good work. You are a visionary!
xxi-Well then maybe you should show us your chops then! That sounds like a gauntlet thrown.
Not having gone to art school though I would imagine that the homework for said 19 credits should probably be doing shoots yes?
I haven’t yet seen an art student (well one that isn’t a famous person’s child at least) using Elite models, Oscar De La Renta from next season, and an entire professional team to produce and publish within a few days but if they exist they should come work with us!
Julie, I am not here to debate, just noticed your comment to xxi and wanted to mention that there is an art student named Elias Tahan who works along those lines (top agency models, entire professional team, etc), and he is amazing.
That is all.
Stella-I just checked out his portfolio. He is super LA! I enjoyed his Didier shoot in particular. I am going to email him to see if he has more fashion than what he has on his site. It looks like decision is the most fashion oriented on the portfolio
Once my site is up, I will be more than happy to pass along the link. I must say I work with models from all sorts of agencies [DNA, Q, Major, etc] and while I might not have access to the fashion you’re promoting, I must say that I don’t care to. I’m about shooting the clothing not the fact that it’s Oscar from next season before anyone else has shot it. Like Guy Bourdin, I’m about the texture, the colour, the shapes, not about being the first to shoot a style or a specific designer.
A little under half of my credits are essay/reading that are mandatory classes for Parsons and the other classes I have about 3 shoots a week for. Totally different styles and topic choices, the price you pay for being an overachiever and not opting to take 3 credits your final semester. Those assignments are due every week, and I never reuse an assignment for two classes, like many students like to. On top of that I’m publishing a book for my friends senior thesis and have to take care of that aspect as well.
I wasn’t trying to throw anything down, but I simply trying to point out that some people do what you’re doing, even if it’s not being published the way you’re publishing it.
xxi-Respect! Last year I was one of the jurors for the Parson’s senior class and I was blown away by the workload the seniors had.
Though I wouldn’t say we are just about the access (though we do feel privileged to have it) as we visit and actively promote the smaller showrooms (like our Archetype and Riot visits from last week) and spend a lot of time shooting smaller lines that we believe to be interesting and valuable (Lorick and Fremont from Girl Porn are great examples).
We are all overachievers here so Xxi totally throwdown. I am game for it. But in the end the difference between simply working and what we do is the fact that in the end its something we must publish, show to the world and say this is our taste, this is our vision, and this is our access. That aspect of public business is the final step in the creative process. We can no longer say we are learning (even though we are) because we must stand by the final product as a creative and salable entity.
And lord knows we are always happy to have people we respect with a little bit of throwdown do it with us.
Right now we are just waiting for a few final things to fall into place- namely
the return of clothing from overseas and several model bookers.
After that, it’s smooth sailing.
And I dare say the “traditional media” are starting to feel the heat.