Meisel: The Man Avedon called Xerox
Back in 1992, Madonna and photographer Steven Meisel created a photo book called Sex with lots of nekkid pictures of the entertainer and metal covers that so scratched my book shelves, I sold it. I probably should have held on to it as today, Meisel is having a moment, what with a book of his […]
R.I.P. Barbara Mullen
Barbara Mullen, whose modeling career soared in the 1950s and then crashed after an indiscretion that made her a key character in my industry expose, Model, has died at age 96. The New York Times obituary by Alex Williams properly highlights her career accomplishments. But “Ms. Mullen did not achieve name-brand recognition outside industry circles,” […]
Post Toasts Supermodels
It’s a supermodel moment…again, and tomorrow’s New York Post gives hat tips both to my 1995 book Model and Model Model, the 1992 profile of Christy Turlington (shown with me a few years back at a Staley-Wise Gallery opening) that caused Veronica Webb to admonish me, Linda Evangelista to call me out as evil, and […]
Who Sez Print is Dead?
Print may be imperiled but Palmer and Park (where I’m, respectively, the Editor-at-Large and the Special Correspondent), are thriving, over-sized, advertising-stuffed, old-school magazines. In the current issue of Palmer, I write about controversial new ordinances that either threaten to alter or promise to update the world-famous style of Palm Beach gardens. And the new Park […]
Kate the Great: A Case Study in Celebrity Management
My second-ever story for Air Mail Weekly considers Kate Moss‘s new career as a supermodel mogul. Add millions of dollars to sex, drugs, and rock and roll celebrity spawn–and stir.
A Shaded View of Me
I first wrote about Diane Pernet when she was a New York designer in the mid-1980s. Now, she’s a fashion critic, entrepreneur, film festival founder, critic and blogger. Wearing that last hat at A Shaded View Of Fashion, she’s just posted a lengthy interview with me, looking both backward (I recall some of my favorite […]
New Doc Pokes Fashion’s Blind Eye
You’ll want to watch it, Gerald Marie (shown on Ibiza with ex-wife Linda Evangelista) might want to watch out, and Jean-Luc Brunel and John Casablancas are likely twitching in their graves. It’s just been announced that Scouting for Girls: Fashion’s Darkest Secret, a blistering three-part documentary on the sexual abuse and trafficking of aspiring fashion […]
R.I.P. Patrick Demarchelier
Fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier, who died of cancer on St. Barthelemey last week at age 78, was one of the most popular and belovedmembers of his profession from the late 1970s into the next century. He appears in both my books Model, on modeling, and Focus, which focuses on post-war fashion photography. For an unexpurgated […]
Rats on the Run
Jean Luc Brunel is dead, perhaps by his own hand. Gerald Marie, in self-imposed exile on Ibiza, must wonder what fate has in store for him. The story told in Model: The Ugly Business of Beautiful Women in 1995 still has legs thanks to these two villainous model agency bosses, one gone but not forgotten, […]
Epstein, Maxwell, Brunel: The Never-Ending Scandal
With the trial of Ghislaine Maxwell over her role–if any–in Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual predation providing more dirty details daily, Epstein’s other alleged rabbateur, model agent Jean-Luc Brunel, still in French custody as the criminal case against him proceeds, and multiple documentaries in production about Brunel, his Elite Models counterparts Gerald Marie (target of a civil […]