Welcome to the glorious hell that is the Condé Nast Traveler style director's job. One would think that the after-parties alone would be worth all the pressure (the conceptualizing, the producing, the ego-soothing, etc.) involved with Traveler's monthly fashion spread. Apparently not. We're happy to allow Mark Connolly a place to vent his frustrations in preparing for this October's special Global Style Issue for Condé Nast Traveler.
Who the hell was it on staff here at Traveler that said shooting in New York would be a breeze? Who was it that said it would be much cheaper than flying 7 or 8 people across the globe. Well they know jack!
It’s three days before my first big New York photo shoot, for our first ever Global Style issue no less, with renowned photographer Steve Hiett and there is not a model to be had! Oh there are plenty of them in the city alright, just not for us, not with the idea I had in mind.
See, I had an idea to shoot five of the fall seasons top trends on five different types and ethnicities of girls, three girls per double page spread 15 girls total, let’s go all out I thought, go big, go bold and fill up those pages with dynamic scenes of New York, gorgeous girls and fabulous of the minute clothes.
Not so fast! Most of the models' agents, who are difficult at best, would not let their girls share shots with another girl let alone two at the same time for a rethink methinks! So right now I am looking at the sad offerings from the model agencies trying to repackage the story with just three girls who don’t mind sharing!
Anyway at least I am excited by the trends I have chosen for the issue. Each of the boards you see in the photos below represents one trend per board. All of the looks/outfits have been requested by me for hopeful inclusion in the magazine.
Usually if I order five looks from a designer we are lucky to get one, as most of the press samples are shared all over the globe by all of the different magazines. It’s a crap shoot especially when you are up against US Vogue and W.
Many is the time that I’ve put on my best whiny/pleading voice to prize a sample out of the Vogue closet. Good thing we are well respected in the business so we often get a lot of what we request as you can see.......
All of the tabs that you can see are the samples that have been confirmed to be sent to us by Wednesday afternoon, then on Thursday we will do a massive “run through” of all of the looks within their theme and edit them down to the best ones and then style them with their appropriate accessories and assign then a location and model.
Check in tomorrow when I find out what girls will be available for a casting and where the locations will be....to be continued
A sampling from my "Graphic Black" board
A sampling from my "New Luxe/ Belle Epoque" board
A sampling from my "New Modern" board
A sampling from my "Urban Military" board
A sampling from my "New Cocktail Hour" board
OMG, can agents really be that picky? I had no idea. I mean, I guess the top models' agents can be, since everyone is clamoring for them, but even Agyness has been know to share a page or two! Humph.