Inner Projection

This is my first post about an entire editorial. I shot it months ago, but not long after my arrival to New York City as a permanent resident.

If you've followed me on other forms of social media since April or May, you have seen my complaints about not working, not shooting, feeling as though I had wasted my time moving. I had assisted, my now good friend, and amazingly talented stylist, Ani on a few shoots. I also worked on and assisted shoots with my good friend, Lisbeth, another amazingly talented stylist. However, when you're used to being top dog and working on big projects, that's what you do and nothing less. After a while, a photographer I have worked with before, Tak (HT Pixels) contacted me to shoot two editorials. When he presented the concepts, I immediately dismissed one, it was a little boring for my taste. I love finery, beauty, glamour, and drama. One of the stories was quite the opposite.

Both stories were for Z!NK Magazine, I acquired the information through working with another photographer (another story for another day, but most likely in person).

The idea behind this particular story was inspired by an old Gucci campaign where they projected different vanities around the models in the scene. The story started off as just very simple wardrobe, by which I mean, flirty minimalist designed dresses, with maximalist ideas. For that inspiration, Tak sent over Dolce and Gabbana inspiration. However, one thing I'm know for is taking a look at a mood board, saying screw it, and doing what I want. I don't know if that's always the best thing, but that's been me all my life. Again, another story, but most likely we should talk about that in person.

My thought process after I saw the shoot, immediately shifted because I had seen The Great Gatsby. I had read the book prior to, but it had been a while. The movie reinvigorated my inspiration for the shoot because I was drawing a complete blank. I was immediately researching the glamour of Gatsby. I wanted to recreate the luxury and nonchalance of those society women, but mix it with a noir edge. I'm completely obsessed with all things sexy, maybe one of the reasons I count prostitutes as a source of inspiration. 

When I began pulling I constructed a list of about 50 showrooms that I wanted to pull from, but only ended up pulling from 27, and ended up with around 34 different brands on my shoot. That was a world away from my last serious shooting, where I had pulled from maybe 5 or 6 designers and my racks weren't even full. 

The outcome was a 6 page spread for the Fall Fashion Issue of Zink Magazine featuring brands that I've long admired. Here are a few of the images, you can always go to my website, http://raymondgee.com, and let me know what you think.

(Amanda in Helen Yarmak, Houghton Brandon Sun, and Emm Kuo)

[Clara(L) in Mathieu Mirano, Helen Yarmak, and Charlotte Olympia; Amanda (R) in Helen Yarmak, Brandon Sun, and United Nude]

I want to take a moment to thank my team. They were amazing, every last one of them, seeing that we did two shoots that day, and this was the latter shoot. They all worked extremely hard during this shoot and I feel that we had an amazing product, one that I'm quite proud to include in my portfolio.

Photography: HT Pixels

Hair: Kia Sterling

Makeup: Maria Ortega

Styling Assistants: Rachel Addison and Angelina Scantlebury

Models: Amanda @ Major & Clara @ Fenton Moon

Thoughts on Art

Many people write off fashion as an art form. They dismiss most of the fashion industry as a group of blonde zombies, with air bubble heads and ill conceived notions on what is actually happening in the world. That, in fact, would make anyone who works in the fashion industry, myself included, incapable of being artistic, writing, creating, or anything useful, most of which we do with ease.

Our most championed ‘art form’, fashion design, has been married with the art form in which we as an industry have achieved very high recognition, fashion photography. As a stylist I commonly work with photographers on editorial projects (I consider this my niche in styling). In these editorial shootings what we hope to do is sell an idea, whether realistic, or a complete fallacy, there is always an idea and clothing is needed to tell the story. Yes, there are entire images that are not ad campaigns composed solely for the purpose of telling a story using clothing. I’d like to think my position in these projects are the most important, but that is far from true, and completely unfair to all of the talented hair stylists, makeup artist, manicurists, creative directors, photographers, magazine editors, and most importantly, the true artists, the fashion designers.  Everything that any of us brings to that final image in any fashion is of the utmost importance.  Details matter.

As a young child, I used to write poetry, something I plan to do again. I used poetry as an outlet for my emotions at the time;. I was struggling with my sexuality, accepting myself, and my desire to be accepted by others. I reference that because any time I go into a project now as a stylist, if I send out a mood board for a concept I have created, every section is accompanied by words. I don’t consider myself to be the most talented writer. I am not as critical as Cathy Horyn or with the nonchalant air of intelligence similar to that of style.com staffers,  but I have always turned to the written word as my favorite form of communication. I am nostalgic for hand written love letters that I might never receive and I can write Spanish much better than I can speak it. Writing itself is possibly the most respected art form in the world (thank the Bible). I remember reading books and plays by Ralph Ellison, Chinua Achebe, George Orwell, William Shakespeare, and Charles Dickens amongst others in high school and these writers are some of the most revered humans who have ever lived. What I want you to realize is that books, poems, little scraps I found on the street all have shaped my perspective in life and through that I convey my take on fashion as a stylist. I am an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy novels. I read anything from Harry Potter to Goosebumps, one of my favorite series, Diadem, is out of print. These books shaped my imagination and my approach to fashion. I always try to include a sense of fantasy or ethereality in my projects.

This type of conceptual work is what I consider to be my strong suit because these stories, while challenging to source clothing for are the types of work I most enjoy doing and where I feel the most comfortable.

In fashion, designers often reference great artists or artworks in their pieces. Andy Warhol, is a common reference, Dolce and Gabbana referenced mosaics in their recent FW 2013 showing, John Galliano constantly created collections that were inspired by the world, art and theater.

"Part of his research involved studying real flowers, spending an hour watching the light change on a parrot tulip, for instance. That partly explained the collection's wonderful colors, especially the vibrancy of the dégradé effects. You could attribute the rest to Galliano's contemplation of images by the two great flower photographers de nos jours, Irving Penn and Nick Knight. Dior himself obliged with the silhouette, a tulip shape that Galliano seemed to feel Mr. Christian had never really made the most of. He certainly sorted that out." - Tim Blanks on John Galliano's Christian Dior FW 2010 Couture collection.


Some designers create pieces that are worth of being pieces of art itself.

Christian Dior Couture, Dolce and Gabbana, Iris Van Herpen Couture, Alexander McQueen, Christian Lacroix, Viktor and Rolf, Zac Posen.

Through imagery and countless articles the fashion industry creates testaments to the art, or art inspired pieces that designer create. As an industry we champion not only designers, but musicians, painters, photographers, cinematographers, child prodigies, and the singularly talented individuals who make this billion dollar industry run. That being said, all of you who dismiss us as legally blonde imbeciles think on The Devil Wears Prada, everything that you will ever buy has been selected by the editors in the office of a fashion magazine, the buyers in a department store, stylists that you will never hear of, and designers who have underwent many years of schooling to create that organic tee shirt that you feel makes you environmentally conscious and still excludes you from the decisions we air heads make.


Excerpt from The Devil Wears Prada:

"This... 'stuff'? Oh... ok. I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don't know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean. You're also blindly unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets? And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of eight different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic "casual corner" where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room. From a pile of "stuff."

Conversations

Conversations seem to be the most important thing, and possibly one of my greatest challenges and triumphs as a New Yorker.

Conversations not related to fashion, with people who aren't my friends seem to be as impossible as those of Schiaparelli and Prada, thank you curators at the Metropolitan Museum. In New York (where I have been a resident for just over three months now) conversations are integral to survival, especially for an up and comer. These past few mornings while taking a shower I used the time to reflect on the importance of conversations in my work, as well as my life. In fashion, the best work, the most inspiring clothing, the most creative editorial stories, or most provoking articles all start conversations more quickly than the juiciest celebrity gossip. They create an intellectual buzz and we all want to give our opinion and have our voice heard, no matter how silent they are in our internet times.

Personally, I find it very difficult to relate to people in everyday life. I can carry an extensive conversation in a showroom or with fashion friends and designers. Recently I met a guy who I find to be very attractive but I found it difficult to relate to him via text message after meeting him. I wondered if I had lost touch with anything not related to fashion. What if I would never be able to relate to the person on the street who is extremely nice and just wants to take part in small talk? Then again, this is New York; who in this city has the time to stop for small talk?

In the fashion realm, Christian Lacroix has taken the helm of the revived House of Schiaparelli, a conversation piece for sure. For me, Lacroix is everything that a true couturier should be (#1 is alive to create beautiful work). I also count Lacroix as one of my favorite designers--I found him alongside John Galliano for Christian Dior in my first foray into the pages of Vogue. His collection spoke to his own and Schiaparelli's past with nods to his past couture collections.

In the words of André Leon Talley there is a famine of beauty and Lacroix has been called in to restore our famished industry. 
This has been inspirational for me in my own work. I've been focusing on working at a higher caliber than I was before and to strive to create pieces that will be the center of a conversation. Hopefully someone will discover a new designer, be inspired by the story for their own work, or just talk about the concept and what it means to our times. I remember in the documentary, In Vogue: The Editor's Eye, the editors spoke on how important Vogue was to the changing times, how every piece was a discussion, even incited backlash from the readers. Everything that those editors did changed the way women thought about dress and inevitably the style of women within that culture. Much like Coco Chanel making women's pants, as an aspiring fashion editor, I want to create work that will challenge the thinking of the people around me. I don't think I've accomplished that just yet, but I am steadily working towards it.
What exactly do Coco Chanel making women's pants, Christian Lacroix returning to fashion, and my incapability to ask a guy out for a drink have to do with one another one might ask? Through conversations with myself I was able to look into each of these subjects and find insight into what many young people of our time struggle with, simply having a meaningful conversation. 
Curated Conversational Pieces:
From Identity Politics by Grace Coddington and Craig McDean (Joan Smalls) Vogue July 2013

From Destination Detox by Phyllis Posnick and Mario Testino (Karlie Kloss) Vogue July 2013

From Beyonce Knowles x FLAUNT Magazine by Tony Duran FLAUNT July 2013

Dovima with Elephants Richard Avedon