This Is Not a Fashion Spread

Designer Scott Sternberg, behind cult-favorite lines Boy and Band of Outsiders, pokes a finger (lovingly) in the eye of the establishment.

Jason Schwartzman was holding hands with a mannequin during a fashion photo-shoot in Hollywood one afternoon last spring.

“Look longingly into her eyes, and touch the fingertips of her hand,” came the photographer’s direction. “Now look over your shoulder like you’re scared shitless.”

“Now look at the camera and scream ‘What the fuck?!’”

View Our Gallery of Scott Sternberg's Look-Books.

These aren’t exactly typical guidelines for a high-end fashion spread, but then, this wasn’t exactly Vogue. The photographer was Scott Sternberg, the designer behind cult guys ’n gals lines Band of Outsiders and Boy, and he was shooting Schwartzman, a good friend and gushing admirer, for his fall menswear look-book. Sternberg, a former talent agent whose interests range from plastic troll dolls to French New Wave cinema, has evolved a whole new art form from the traditional fashion campaign. For his look-books, a winking homage to old-style photo spreads, he recruits celebrities (Kirsten Dunst, Sarah Silverman, Marisa Tomei) and non-celebrities alike, dresses them up and throws them into odd situations—sometimes literally. In another scene from the Schwartzman shoot, Sternberg instructed his subject to tumble down a rusty flight of stairs.

High fashion used to be all about glitz and gloss: the finest photographer, the best equipment, the most expensive suite in the most exclusive hotel in St. Barts, all in pursuit of just the right angle of fading light in which to capture a single outfit on a pliant model making five figures a day. But as quickly as Anna Wintour can junk a September issue spread, the recession stripped those luxuries away. Now, photo budgets have been slashed, McKinsey is marauding around Conde Nast, and not even Annie Leibovitz can afford Annie Leibovitz anymore.

Sternberg’s been doing his thing since 2001, creating relatively affordable, well-made clothes that have attracted a hip and growing fan base. His designs riff on classic sportswear just as his look-books riff on classic fashion campaigns, adding clever details and wry twists to more traditional style. For a skirt, he takes ribbons that might tie back the pigtails of a Catholic schoolgirl and wraps them bandage-tight around a woman’s bottom. An impeccably tailored sports jacket becomes an impeccably tailored mini-dress. Instead of trousers, some of his male customers will wear sweat-shorts this spring. And now, he’s at work now on a line of Polo shirts called “This is not a Polo shirt.” “It was just to piss everyone off, including my lawyers,” he says. “But actually we’re totally scot-free.” He describes the line as “a meditation on Polos,” using unusual fabrics like high-gauge pique and cotton-poly (“but not in a gross American Apparel way”) and playing with stripes and pockets. The logo on the shirts is “(logo).”

The son of a dentist and a Williams Sonoma sales associate, Sternberg studied economics in college and moved to Los Angeles to work as an agent at CAA. He switched to fashion after a few years. “My parents love it,” he says. “They come to all the shows. My mom has her own press collection, it’s really horrifying. They are confused as to where this, you know, came from. It’s a strange sort of craft, fashion design, a strange sort of skill. It’s confusing to them, but they love it.”