i-D celebrates its 25th anniversary
April 05, 2006
 "The question I always come back to is 'why would someone want to spend money on a magazine as opposed to having a beer'" Terry Jones It is hard to believe that two and half decades have past since fanzine born i-D decided to go where no other magazine had gone and report style from the streets delving into the heart of urban cultures. i-D had the courage to give space to forms of fashion, art and music before they became part of "regulated" systems. Rather than just reporting mass culture, i-D encourages the empowerment of individuals, a magazine where contrasting but constructive opinions can be found. Twenty-five years down the road and i-D is still true to its roots sticking strong to the underlying editorial ethic that distinguishes it - to give space to a range of people regardless of religion, race social background or sexual preference. i-D made the mould which hundreds of magazines have followed. You could say there's a bit of i-D in every news stand around the world. To celebrate this landmark birthday a touring exhibition, i-Dentity, curated and directed by Terry Jones, started its journey at the London Textile Museum, London in October 2005, went on to the Biennale of Sao Paolo and Chelsea Art Museum in New York, and is soon to be opened in Hong Kong, 4-19 April. It will then travel on to Beijing, Paris, and Tokyo. i-Dentity is more than a nostalgic look back of i-D's resonant past, rather a journey through multi sensorial experience of still images, short films, 3-D sound, graphics and smell through the i-D world what came before, is now and to come. On a freezing Thursday night we met the main man himself, Terry Jones. Even though we have met Terry on numerous occasions the thought of interviewing him was quite daunting. i-D epitomises the bright side of fashion and in many ways it is what we look up to, to be like when we grow up. But when we got face to face with Terry any nervous feeling that I might have had disappeared amidst Terry's down to earth nature and ability to make you feel at ease. ITS: With this exhibition you are looking down a long path. How do you feel looking back? Favourite moments in the long history of i-D? Terry Jones: It is difficult for me to choose a favourite, I have so many memories. I had to think back for the family tree (installation at i-dentity). I started thinking about how we started out and different it was. In the beginning when we ran i-D from our home some people from Japan turned up on our door step to buy the magazine. Working with Fiorucci in the 80's. The i-D world tour. There are so many moments. ITS: Was it nostalgic looking back? Terry Jones: No, not nostalgic. I don't normally look back unless it is for a reason. I have to force myself to look. In this case it was for the family tree, it was difficult to think of all the connections. |
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ITS:What is identity today? Terry Jones: I think that i-D today is about mongrels, we are all an eclectic mix. That from both a fashion and lifestyle viewpoint. I think that the idea of fashion having a way of communicating across language has always interested i-D. I think breaking down prejudices is a key aspect of the magazine, to try to demystify the kind of uniforms and avoid the confrontational aspect of two cultures fighting. The cultural mix in fashion is kind of global humanity it has nothing to do with nationality. All of those aspects are part of the aims of the magazine. And you see the creative community and that is where we have always tried to reach out to; that creative community. Even people that work in banks or science or any kind of job can be empowered by seeing someone either who stands out of the crowd in some way, who inspires people to develop their own identity. I think today fashion isn't about making major bold statements but is about subtleties of communication that definitely have evolved through the eighties and today it is the brave that stand out from the black camouflage. ITS: Will identity survive big brands and globalisation? Are they really a threat? Terry Jones: I think that the purpose of identity and fashion's role in identity is that fashion is in someway a disguise to identity. It can give some clues but identity goes deeper than the outside wrapping that often hides an inner self, I think that identity goes deeper than fashion. It's so many different aspects, I don't think brands are the threat. I think that they can possibly be acting towards a solution, as the brands become more differentiated they move to support diversity. I think that production distribution is the problem. What is under threat is how to produce something in affordable price range. Fashion can be like artwork, like a prototype and you pay an enormous price and you go into mass production and I think that it's a consumer choice and that consumer choice is often how much money you have in your pocket. ITS: Who have been the greatest actors for democracy of style in these last 25 years? Can you name the baddies? Terry Jones: I'd rather someone else answered that question, really. ITS: What would you have been if you had not become a full time "human observer"? Terry Jones: I'd like to think I would have been a gardener but I don't think that would have got me very far. But certainly as an occupation I think it is a good one. I guess I often classify what I would be as a daydreamer. ITS: Do you feel any responsibility to be considered as an opinion leader? Terry Jones: I never consider that my opinion is any more valid than anyone else. I think I would be more interested in people developing their own opinions rather than being considered an opinion leader. The only thing that I would possibly say is in the editing process I have the permission to have the final say on something. In the job I do I try to listen to the team. I'm working with material that is supplied to me from a wide range of people so with their contributions, my role is more like the of a caretaker. There are times on commercial jobs where I am being paid for how something should look and I'm happy to do that. I guess what I enjoy is creating a concept, being responsible for a concept that a lot of people can take part in and channel energy through that concept. On that level I suppose I am like the bus driver and as long as people want to go down the route I'm going I'm happy where they jump on. |
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ITS: Forget for a moment your position as editor in chief. How would you define i-D as an outsider? And from inside, from your position as founder and editor in chief? Terry Jones: It is hard for me to describe from an outsider's position I guess for someone who's discovering it for the first time I hope that they come to it with an open mind and they see that there's a constant line with the magazine in an editorial approach or a rationale to exist. To be supportive for style, fashion, music, art. Our longevity is because we stay true to ourselves. As an outsider looking at the magazine I would like someone to feel that they could understand the authenticity of the magazine that it is created from an original idea? that idea that is growing and that idea has filtered into a global communication system service. There are things that you look at today, you can see? yeah that is i-D all over the place? from websites to mainstream magazines. I look at stylists, photographers and journalists who started their careers with the magazine and are now part of that language. The key thing is that we have always tried to be supportive as opposed to critical so and that as a kind of editorial line would distinguish us from other magazines which I think take a more cynical view point. ITS: You and i-D have supported ITS since the beginning, one of the first who believed in this project. Any impressions or reflections of this collaboration/experience? Terry Jones: I think that what I've found from ITS is that Barbara and the team - that you again followed it from the similar passion that lead talent that needs encouragement and nurturing and you will go out of your way to bring that talent to international recognition. I think that it is very good that Diesel supported ITS from the beginning as well. You have a company behind the project making it happen. I feel the same way as Renzo that we have to protect the future, to protect the weather men, even if you don't have to understand it, even if it does not fit into a commercial form. Because that's the powerhouse, the life blood and where it goes in the future will be very interesting. Since 1980 and till now the awareness of the global population has become interested in what we call alternative fashion. It matters and is growing all the time and I think through fashion it is an excuse for what we do. It is something that has become a big industry that shows that you don't have to have to conform all the time to the fear of what else is going on in the world. I hope that we will be able to continue to do that. ITS: How do you see the future of i-D, what plans, what new markets or even new languages. In other words, what is the next "brain food"? Terry Jones: I guess right now the future of i-D is that we are counting on support from people who have benefited from us over the 25 years. We are kind of in a difficult situation of being an independent at a point where commercial considerations of what we do inside the business of producing a magazine are really very very hard right now. There's an enormous amount of magazines on the market. There are many large action companies that are looking into the same area where i-D started out. We believe that the editing process, what goes through the filter is very important that a magazine is a physical communication circuit of human interaction. We would like to develop a support to that through a web idea and that would need separate financing, and I think in the future as technology goes forward we will be looking at ways of developing something alongside the print magazine that somehow continues the ethos of the magazine about exchanging ideas; human interaction. I think that as we start getting into more territories around the world we open our eyes to ways of producing what we do in each continent. The idea is using fashion as a language that goes beyond borders and that's kind of what we dealt with the i-Dentity exhibition and the whole of last year's 2005 visa was all about exploring the i-D's passport. 
ITS: how do you see the development of ITS? Terry Jones: Big screens Shanghai Tokyo Time Square. You must have a better idea than me. ITS: we want to develop three more areas under the same format. Graphics, motion design and interior design. Terry Jones: Certainly for us in the process of last year the last issue we did was the home issue. The idea of the things we put around us, on one level you have you friendship and then what we put around us, we see as being more important than the clothes we wear. And I think we would like to include that maybe with the food we eat and we care we take of each other. The next part of the year will deal with talent so you will have to tell us all of the talent you've seen, that's kind of the wealth issue and an issue of what makes us happy because I think that's a definition of why we are doing what we are doing; job satisfaction it is not about how much money you earn but how much happiness you get from it. The third thing we are doing is an issue around health because we think that people should be very considerate about a healthy world and we don't think that's being encouraged by enough people. Then we are doing a last project, which Tricia is involved in with a group of universities here in London which has to do with the pressures of student life, the things that they go through, the different things that they have, from stress relate, drug relate, sex relate or religion relate. We are looking for people who came through that period in their lives and are an inspiration. That's our plans for the rest of the year. All we have to do now is hope we get enough support. ITS: Is there anything we can do? Terry Jones: I think you have a really good network, I think that through your network we can make people aware. Thank you to Terry and Tricia Jones and the i-D team for all their support over these five years. For more information on i-Dentity See www.i-dmagazine.com |
