i-D Shot in Trieste!
October 17, 2007
| We're sure that every single one of you knows i-D magazine. Those who don't were probably kidnapped by aliens and brainwashed, or are aliens themselves. As the "aficionados" of our website know, we've always had a special relationship with the magazine and their founders, Terry and Trisha Jones, who believe in what we do a lot and support us as much as they can. Looking at the entry forms we receive every year for ITS, an average of 90% of contestants answer "i-D" to the question "which is your favourite fashion magazine?" Now, what's it like to work on a professional fashion photo shoot together with the magazine that every single young fashion designer puts on top of his "favourites" list? Until a few months ago we would have not been able to answer this question.... During ITS#SIX in mid-July, i-D was not only looking for the winner of the "i-D Styling Award" - a month's experience at i-D working on a photo shoot to be published in the magazine (last year Aitor Throup had a whopping 8 page article...we're looking forward to what Justin Smith, this year's winner, will do!). Fashion editor Erika Kurihara was also selecting fashion projects for a photo shoot to be done in our city, Trieste, just after the event. Since we're quite good at organising things and Trieste is our home, we were more than happy to organise the production and select a number of locations for i-D to pick from! |
 On Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 July we showed Erika and Ami Sioux (i-D photographer) the locations we thought could be feasible. They wanted spots by the sea and believe us, it was very easy to grant their wishes! Trieste - north east Italy, on the Adriatic sea - has loads of locations like that! We're water people... Monday 16 July was the day of the shoot. When working outside, the weather becomes your first concern: wind, rain and clouds can ruin everything, but we were lucky and had a marvellous warm summer day with nothing but the sun in the sky. By the way, we had also planned for the worst: In case of rain or bad weather, we had obviously thought of a number of fascinating indoor locations. 7 members of the ITS staff were involved in the photo shoot. Being outdoors and moving from one place to the other, we had Matteo - who had worked with us during ITS#FOUR in the transports office - take everybody around in a spacious van loaded with all the necessary stuff. Our fantastic cook, Loredana, who whips up delicious meals for us making our life in the office much easier, had prepared take away food for the whole bunch: freshly prepared pasta, tasty french quiches... i-D really appreciated it. Italians do it better and she's the proof! Soraya - all the finalists know her since she works in the Schools & Contestants Office - was in charge of the hair styling (she's been a professional in the field for years) and make up. For the kind of styling chosen though, there was hardly no need for make up, just a quick hair check. |
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Then there was Pablo - ITS Organisation Office - assisting Ami Sioux, the photographer. Pablo has recently finished a Master's course in photography at Central Saint Martins in London, so he was the right man for this job and it was an amazing opportunity for him to work side by side with a professional. Michele (one of the many Michele's on our staff), who works in the ITS Production Office, handled all of the permit requests for the locations, while Fabrizio, from our Administration Office, was in charge of buying/finding all of the needed material, from the van to the umbrellas for the sun. Last but not least, Lidia and Barbara - respectively Recruitment Projects Head and ITS Director - who supervised and organised everything.
The garments chosen by i-D were from the following ITS#SIX finalists: Louise Crawford, Nicolas di Felice, Justin Smith (as said before, he's the winner of the i-D Styling award!), Thomasine Barnekow, Maia Van Daele, Heaven Tanudiredja, Nina Fritschi & Simon Burgunder, Taro Horiuchi, and winner of Fashion Collection of the Year Ek Thongprasert. We were very impressed by i-D's quickness and professionalism. All was done very fast, as if it was the simplest thing to do. It would take no more than 20 minutes to dress and style the models and prepare the set. The models themselves were very professional, always understanding the kind of picture that Erika and the photographer had in mind right away and anticipating their thoughts sometimes. The shooting style of Ami Sioux, the photographer, was spectacular: with two Yashica T5 cameras (Terry Richardson uses the same) to always have a camera in her hand with the flash charged, she would literally leap from one position to the other since the camera had no zoom: she would therefore step close to the model, clic clic clic, then a leap back and there she is, far from the model, clic clic clic. Then she would lean down to find the right angle, ask for a certain position, and again, clic clic clic. Fast, physical, slick and smooth. Loads of film and a camera used like an Uzi machine-gun, asking Pablo for a reload every 5 minutes. She used about 15 rolls of film... |
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There were also some very funny moments during the day. While shooting at a beach resort, all of a sudden a man came out of the sea with a big crab in his hands, and everyone turned their heads around in awe, while Ami Sioux without loosing a second (that's the photography instinct!) started shooting pictures of the guy, who turned into the model of the moment! Another hilarious scene happened while shooting at night. An old man (this happens frequently in Trieste...) stopped by while we were shooting and asked "What are you doing, is it fashion business? I have a niece, pretty pretty, she's been our district's beauty queen, you interested?" The results of what was a very special and interesting experience for us can be seen in October's "World Wide Web" issue of i-D. Go check out the 6-page review. There's lots of work behind those 9 photos! |
