Photographer Todd Selby has become recognized for his interiors work, as popularized by his blog, The Selby, and his food imagery featured in T: The New York Times Style Magazine's Edible Selby column. His latest work, however, explores the world of the fashion industry, showing designers, stylists, models, and more in their studios or homes. "There’s a whole side of fashion that people don’t really know about or think about," Selby told The Daily Beast. "People know all about the big designers, but there are all of these other people: color experts, people who raise angora bunnies, [and others who] make brooches out of broken mirrors." Featuring over 90 percent previously unpublished photographs, Selby captured the work flow and design process of an array of fashion industry stars, from British actress Virginia Bates's antiques shop to famed French fashion designer Isabel Marant's studio. "One really surprising thing to me was, when I saw Isabel Marant, I was shooting her in the process of doing a fitting, but there was no fit model. She tries on every piece of clothing herself. She’s looking in the mirror, she’s looking behind, she sees how it feels. Normally a designer would have a fit model and they would look at them and turn them around. But it’s very personal for her." It's these intimate details that Selby hopes to deliver to a new audience through his signature photographs and the questionnaires answered by his subjects in Fashionable Selby (Abrams, March 2014), where he captures some of the fashion industry's most creative names in their most personal settings.
The Selby
In designer Bas Kosters's studio, there's a penis-printed t-shirt, a mini-dress shaped (and decorated) as a hippo, and beanies adorned with monster faces. "How can I possibly describe Bas?" Selby writes. "He is a fashion designer, yes, but he's also an illustrator, magazine editor, DJ, doll maker, and installation artist." The Kosters's multi-faceted career and personality allows for the production of wildly eccentric pieces in collections named "Clowns are People Too" and "The Munchies," as well as more appropriate commerical collaborations with companies including Buga-boo and Heineken. "The studio has two faces," he said of his aesthetic. "There's a side that warns about alarming social issues, and a part that creates enthusiasm and happiness."
The Selby
"I am inspired by Kumade, a Japanese traditional amulet, which guards against every negative accident in a coming year," designer Yoshikazu Yamagata of writtenafterwards writes. His pieces have a playful, youthful aura to them, as Selby captures garments adorned with plastic toys, oversized flowers, and other random accessories.
The Selby
Marisol Suarez creates wearable pieces of art, made from hair. Designing collections inspired by "the memory of [her] grandaunt's swimming cap" and "the sometimes funny elegance of characters such as Charlie Chaplin or Audrey Hepburn," Suarez's pieces have been featured in magazines, museum exhibits, and on the runway.
The Selby
Elvis, Sylvester, Buddy, Clark, and Cher are just a few of Ambika Conroy's sixteen angora bunnies whose hair is cut every three months and spun into two-ply yarn. Her "friendly furs," as they're described, are meant to show an alternative way of keeping warm, without submitting to animal cruelty—Conroy crafts hats, soles, and vests from the fur.
The Selby
"I love antique clothes for the mystery and life they had before finding their way to me," Bates told Selby, who first noticed the shop owner when she starred in the haunting 1971 film, A Clockwork Orange. "The cut, the textures, and even the faded colors make the garments irresistible works of art." Following a few brief acting stints, Bates opened her own vintage store, aptly named "Victoria Antiques." Selling everything from curtains to clothing, Bates's store hit the radar when Helena Christiansen and Naomi Campbell purchased petticoats there in the early-nineties and sported them during London Fashion Week.
The Selby
In Brooklyn, Aurora James designs shoes inspired by her ancestors, Africa's Khoikhoi tribe that invented the "vellie" in the 1600s. Today, James has translated the old-world idea into practical and cool Kudo leather shoes created in Swakopmund, Namibia. "By supporting goods made in Africa," she told Selby, "we are working to boost the productive capacities of these countries, instead of undermining them."
The Selby
"Country is the mother of rock and roll," Manuel, a longtime fashion designer and costumer, writes. Photographed in his Los Angeles showroom, Selby captures Manuel's embellished, classic Americana style that has been admired by the likes of Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and Elvis. Nicknamed the "Rhinestone Rembrandt," Manuel creates pieces that posses that perfect blend of, as he mentioned, country and rock and roll.
The Selby
Selby captures Christian Astuguevieille in his Parisian studio, where he produces an array of creative pieces and ideas—Astuguevieille, who is responsible for creating Comme des Garcons's Odeur 71 scent, crafts rope into artwork and designs jewelry sold at Dover Street Market in London. His pieces, which range from "unreasonable garden gloves" to a "torque necklace for a dream princess I saw crossing the Palais-Royal garden," are brightly colored, beaded and jeweled, and overly eccentric. "When is something finished?" Selby asked the polymath. "Jamais," he replied.
The Selby
Iris Van Herpen has become one of the most celebrated Dutch designers with her quirky pieces that have earned recognition from Lady Gaga and Björk. Her workshop, as Selby discovers, is filled with inspiration boards and mannequins clad in her famous laser-cut pieces and 3-D printed fabrics, including the "Silicone Bird" dress, the "Capriole," inspired by parachute jumping, and the designer's favorite, the "Hybrid Holism." "For me, fashion becomes art when the viewer or wearer changes the perception of what is beauty, what are clothes, what is function, what is identity, and what is the future," she said. "My process is chaotic, like a labyrinth. I'm always searching for my way out."
The Selby
UK-based accessories designer and blogger Fred Butler earned her claim to fame when Lady Gaga donned her blue telephone helmet in the music video for "Telephone." "I've always loved the fantasy side of fashion—the drama, narrative, spectacle, and art in special pieces," she writes of her geometric, brightly-colored, and somewhat-futuristic pieces. Pulling inspiration from things like bumblebees and sea creatures, Butler creates everything from elaborate headpieces to serious statement baubles. "I want to create work that uplifts and inspires people," she said, "and opens dialogues between strangers."
The Selby
Hair designer Katsuya Kamo's home and studio are decorated with a variety of trinkets: insect collections, collages crafted from old packaging and magazine spreads, and countless pieces of his intriguing art. His headpieces, which have been created in collaboration with the likes of Junya Watanabe, Comme des Garcons, and Chanel, are designed with the same precision and assortment of materials—there are spikes, gems, feathers, thorns, and more.
In her Brooklyn backyard, Audrey Louise Reynolds dyes clothing for the likes of Pamela Love, Nike, and The Elder Statesman, using all natural ingredients, including a dehydrated heirloom beat, algae, and yes, even squid ink. "I work with color, I work with it in every possible form, and I'm always searching for new experiments and tones," she tells Selby. "And it's also about helping people wear healthy things on their skin, which happens to be our largest organ."
