The Sartorialist

Job?
Fashion designer

Best Sartorial advice from your parents?
When I was twelve my mother took me to get my first custom made jacket and shoes ? she gave me the essential basis of a perfect wardrobe

Style Icons?
Loulou de la Falaise, Frida Kahlo, the Gainsbourg-Birkin family.

Describe your personal style
It?s usually quite androgynous with super feminine touches.

Personal Style quirk
I always buy trousers (with creases) at least two sizes bigger than my size – in order to style them my own way.

Favorite designers
Forever and ever: Monsieur Yves Saint Laurent

Most underrated item in menswear/womenswear?
The hat; we should all wear a hat more often!

Your next “must have” purchase?
A vintage yellow gold Rolex chronograph

Favorite Book?
Alice in Wonderland

I’m not just saying that because we were dressed so much alike when I took this photo.

So I found a really great shop in Madrid yesterday called Just One.

Cesare Attolini, Tom Ford, Edward Green, the shop is full of classic labels but bought and displayed in a very cool way. I’m still learning about the shop but it will definitely be a very good reason for me to make Madrid a more common stop on my trips to Europe.

Here are the details for my book signings in Spain. I hope to meet some of you there!

Madrid

Book Signing
Tuesday Nov 17th
5-8pm
next to Caf

If you’ve read some of my interviews lately for the promotion of my book, it seems everyone wants to know what I never shoot.

My answer is almost always cowboy boots. I don’t know why, I just never see them done in a cool way (and maybe I saw them done in too many bad ways when I was growing up in Indiana).

However, in those same interviews I also say that what I am always looking for is something done in a way I haven’t seen before, i.e. a color combo, pattern mix.

So, this weekend while I was in Vegas to celebrate my Mom’s birthday (Happy Birthday Mom!!) a rodeo broke out.

My sister, who is a part-time cowgirl, pointed out the cowboy boots on one of the bull riders. He was wearing typical boots, but he had wrapped the ankles with a leather strap so they would stay on while he was riding the bull.

Well, that opened the floodgates. Everywhere I looked I saw such cool cowboy style. Notice the guy below with his pressed and creased jeans. My sister pointed out that if he was from Texas his shirt would have been more starched.

For the next three hours Garance and I filled card after card with cowboy cool.

In those same recent interviews I mentioned that in the next year I want to add more “national costume” photos from exotic locations like Peru or India. What I realized while I was shooting is that “The Cowboy” would have to be one of America’s most important national costumes.

Bruce Weber has always championed the idea of backyard photography, and this is my first attempt at sharing an even wider world of style with you.

Recently I had a chance to work on a great project for Burberry.

Over a several month period I was to shoot 100 different people wearing a Burberry trench or Burberry outerwear.

So, during my trips to Venice or Berlin or Toronto I was constantly looking for subjects while still doing my “regular” job for the blog and GQ.

The results of this project were unveiled today at Burberry’s new website Art of the Trench.

It is a great site that celebrates the heritage and history of the Burberry trench.

I have to admit that this project is probably my favorite collaboration that I have done with any big brand. I was quite flattered by the total freedom and support I was given by the Burberry team. I know how closely they guard their creative output, so to have such freedom was very liberating. Actually, the only thing they kept requesting was more diversity of the subjects, which I was more than happy to try and find.

Here are just a few of my favorite shots from this project.

Berlin

New York City

David Bowie, Dennis Hopper & Fred Astaire

Personal style quirk?
Always leave room for assumption!