When is Fashion Ad Not a Fashion Ad? / Cathy Horyn

"When is a Fashion Ad Not a Fashion Ad?". Cathy Horyn. The New York Times. 04.10.08. 

excerpted quotes and text:

"I told her (Victoria Beckham) 'you're the most photographed woman in the world,'" Mr. Teller recalled. "And fashion nowadays is all about product - bags and shoes - and you're kind of a product yourself aren't you" (Juergen Teller)

"People are always going to talk about what Marc does" (Victoria Beckham)

"If fashion shows are a way for a designer to think out loud, collaborations with a photographer can help spin those disparate ideas into a story. Both Ralp Lauren and Calvin Klein owe a debt to the visionary eye of Bruce Weber, who is really a storyteller. Gianni Versace frequently paid homage to Richard Avedon, whose pictures lent imaginative energy to Versace's designs. And it seems doubtful that women would have felt quite the same about Yves Saint Laurent's pantsuit if helmut Newton had not made them the object of sex and mystery." (Cathy Horyn)

"An astonoshing array of people have appeared in the ads (Marc Jacocs), generally doing nothing in the Seinfeldian sense - lying in the grass, kicking up their heels, teasing a squirrel. The group has included Sofia Coppola, Dakota Fanning, the photographer William Eggleston and Winona Ryder who pitched herself for an ad shortly after her shoplifting trial. Even Mr. Teller has put in an appearance, in make-up and wigs with Cindy Sherman and boldly naked with Charlotte Rampling." (Cathy Horyn)

"I tried to make sense of what the hell she was going to do with a handbag, right? It had to come out of a real story". (Juergen Teller)

"Juergen is very funny as a provocateur, but I think he's dead serious as an artist" (Jefferson Hack)

"That is what they have attempted to do with Ms. Beckham, whose 

participation forces a different question than the banality 'Is she beautiful'". (Dennis Freedman)