Rather than use models, photographer Craig McDean captured the nominated fashion designers wearing their own designs for the 2009 CFDA Journal.
The designers were playfully styled by Karl Templer. Marc Jacobs sports the infamous Louis Vuitton ‘bunny ear’ headpiece that Madonna wore to the CFDA gala. Michelle Obama's favorite, Jason Wu, wore his dress over his suit.
Other images show Alex Wang and the Rodarte sisters Kate and Laura Mulleavy.
Implications - This Craig McDean editorial is notable for its ability to capture the men and women behind some of the best known (and selling) clothing lines in the world in outfits and accessories as outlandish and brash as their own creations. The shoot humanizes these designers in a way that a thousand interviews could never.
Modeling Fashion Designers
2009 CFDA Journal Shows Playful Designers as Models
Trend Themes
1. Designer Self-modeling - Fashion designers are becoming models for their own designs, presenting an opportunity for disruptive innovation in fashion photography and modeling industries.
2. Playful Fashion Imagery - Using playful and unconventional styling to showcase fashion designers' designs in magazine editorials presents a growing trend, disrupting traditional fashion imagery and presenting an opportunity for innovative photographers and stylists.
3. Humanizing Fashion Designers - A trend in humanizing fashion designers is emerging through unconventional forms of fashion presentation and editorial photography, creating opportunities for disruptive innovations in the fashion industry.
Industry Implications
1. Fashion Photography - The shift towards using fashion designers as models creates potential for transformative innovation in fashion photography, creating fresh opportunities to capture and sell designer brands.
2. Fashion Modeling - Fashion designers modeling their own creations creates opportunities for innovation and disruption in the modeling industry, allowing designers to represent their own brands and creating new modeling niches.
3. Fashion Media - The use of playful and unconventional fashion imagery in media creates space for innovative fashion marketing and advertising opportunities, disrupting traditional fashion media outlets and creating new visual marketing avenues for brands.