PHOTO SESSION Part 2

Chris: You’d mentioned Gareth Pugh. Neil: I’d mentioned Gareth Pugh. Gareth’s clothes are more like costumes.

Had you ever worn his clothes before?
Neil: No. He’s doesn’t make many men’s clothes. Anyway, we’d had a meeting with Katy and we talked around various ideas. Actually we just moaned that we didn’t like anything in fashion. Chris: It was a very broad brief, which included everything — including wigs.
Neil: I said my favourite clothes are like uniforms.

Why don ‘tyou like anything in fashion?
Neil: I sort of feel like we’re at the tail end of something, or the beginning of something. We’re at the end of the skinny jeans kind of thing. Sort of the opposite of the late Seventies with flares. I wandered round the shops before Christmas and the new collections were already in and I thought, oh, I don’t really like anything. I should probably really start buying vintage clothes. I’ve thought of having clothes made for me in Savile Row or something. Chris: I felt the same.

I put a lot of effort in, wandering around the shops, all the usual places, and there wasn’t very much happening. It’s not a great time of year, really December, trying to find clothes, because most of it’s the tail end of the sales and not all of the new stuff is in. But also the trouble is it’s the spring summer collection which is never as good as the autumn winter collection. It’s all pastel shades and flimsy little shirts and stuff like that, whereas you want substantial heavy stuff really, don’t you?
Neil: Yeah, summer clothes are never as good as winter.

Chris: It’s all white trousers and pink shirts. Boring isn’t it, really? Summer clothes.
Neil: Also, you’ve got to have a really good body for summer clothes.
Chris: Yeah. Nowhere to hide.
Neil: Summer clothes, broadly speaking, reveal your body, and winter clothes broadly speaking disguise it. I’m into disguise.
Chris: So it was a bit difficult really.

So do you remember what you thought when you walked into the photo studio?
Chris: I remember being very impressed by the Gareth Pugh stuff hanging on the rack. It looks so sculptural. The coat I wore literally could stand up on its own. It didn’t need the hanger. It all looked very solid, very strong shapes. Impossible to wear, mind.

Neil: Also they had some quite good jeans by J. Lindberg. They were really good.
Chris: I liked all the customised Adidas stuff. Neil: Also they’d got a great selection of hats. Actually, although I wore a top hat on the last tour as part of the look, I don’t normally wear a lot of hats, because I don’t normally suit them, but they had loads of great hats. And glasses.

I’ve rarely if ever been photographed wearing glasses — I’m wearing glasses as we’re talking but I’ve not been photographed in them. Glasses and hats together seem to work — I found that quite fun, putting those
on.

And you immediately liked the Gareth Pugh stuff Chris: I loved that coat but it was impossible to wear. It was almost impossible to walk in because it bent your back forwards and you couldn’t lift your arm. So the idea of wearing it for the Brits, it doesn’t really work. But hopefully he’s going to do a range of clothing that is rather more wearable than that rather extreme version. I’m hoping he’s going to have something great because I really like the sculptural quality of it. And it was a bit out there, wasn’t it?

Neil: When I looked at the Gareth Pugh clothes I thought, “They look amazing but one could never possibly wear them,” but then when I put on this big coat thing, and I was wearing boots anyway, it immediately looked quite good on me. I suddenly thought, “Wow, I wouldn’t have thought I’d be able to get away with that.” Also, it makes you feel kind of strong.

Like Cruella De Ville or something. So that was quite a good moment.
Chris: There aren’t many outrageous clothes in the shops generally. Once Issey Miyake stopped doing his menswear...
Neil: Issey Miyake’s silhouettes never changed really.
Chris: He used to do blow up stuff and weird stuff
— you don’t get any of that now. It’s all sensible clothing.

At the time, you thought that first shot in the Gareth Pugh coats would be the look, didn ‘tyou?
Neil: We probably did, yes. But then you see the pictures. It was very strong. I wasn’t totally sure about the hat I was wearing with it but I thought it was very strong, sculptural, memorable.

And you seemed to like the wig, Chris.
Chris: I thought it was very flattering. The pictures look great. I like wigs on men. And it’s an alternative to a baseball cap which I’ve kind of
stuck with. It’s quite a nice disguise. It’s great colour as well. They don’t come that shape — the stylist cuts them into that shape.

Neil: It looks really good.
Chris: Yeah, I like wigs. A lot.
Neil: I didn’t wear one. I wasn’t allowed to, I think.

Whats it like being photographed?
Neil: Being photographed? Normally your mind’s a bit of a blank, really. In fact it’s probably good if it is a bit of a blank.
Chris: That particular photographer, he always has really good music playing. And I’m normally just thinking how good the records are.

Neil: You just stund there. There’s a feeling of achievement when you’ve done one shot and you move onto the next one. We got a lot of looks done this day, and that’s actually quite a good feeling.
Chris: A lot of the lights used were very hot. And that Gareth Pugh coat weighed an absolute ton.
Neil: Mine did, but yours really did — yours was like wearing an armchair. Chris: It wasn’t comfortable.

But you don ‘t actively hate the experience of standing there? Chris: Yeah, of course we do. Neil: No, I don’t actively hate it. Chris: Oh, I do. I don’t like being photographed, for starters. I don’t like looking in the mirror as the make-up’s being applied.

It’s sort of uncomfortable and it’s quite hard work, really. I don’t think people realise what it’s like for models, to stand still for long periods of time. It doesn’t sound like hard work, but it is. They’ve got quite a lot of stamina, I think, models. It’s not something you ever look forward to, a photo session. Except when we’ve had a look where we’ve thought oh this is fantastic, it’s going to be great. Like getting the Issey Miyake sunglasses — “this’ll make a great photograph” — and you look forward to doing it. They’re the exception really. It’s normally quite a long day as well, a photo session. Neil: Yeah, it is. The last set-up’s always torture. Chris:

You don’t know what’s going to work as well. And I generally buy clothes without trying them on because I can’t be bothered trying them on
— I just say, “I’ll take them an ay.” And it was like that all day long — trying clothes on. Neil: I quite enjoyed the day actually. After the relative success of the first shot, we then just experimented more with putting things together. Chris: It’s a great studio. And breakfast was exceptional.