I had the opportunity to talk to Liv Siddall- former editor or Rough Trade magazine. After listening to her talk in university, I was automatically engaged with her as I relate to the confusion she feels about graphic design and not fitting in. I have very little interest in graphic design, yet her advice on making it work for me resinated with me - it was fascinating to find out she got into the industry and how often cutting corners can lead to more success.
Regarding my Dissertation question I've been emailing creatives from within publishing industries (magazines in particular), so I wanted to find out Liv's thoughts about the relationship between fantasy and fashion editorials.
Interview Transcript
At Rough trade it was very much about documenting the people and the music of the time, so no fantasy wasn’t a big part in it. We used photos taken by photographers and musicians all over the world, but wouldn’t necessarily go out and orchestrate something on our own because that’s not what we’re about. Like, records by nature are second hand and pre-owned, so there’s no point creating something new and shiny.
I’ve never done a fashion shoot myself but it would be easier to hone it down into one quote, because just saying it’s about Trump is so broad – or you could just be like ‘Yeah it’s that cap’ because that cap symbolises everything about Trump.
You know those newspaper supplements that you get at the end of each year as a look back of the year, it’s usually one photo with a little caption and it doesn’t have to be a big article, just a little something like ‘This year, Trump has assaulted something like x amount of women’. Say it was 26 women, you could have 26 women featured. Just pick one fact, one, and go with that. Maybe you could find out that Trump only eats one particular thing for lunch, so go off that. It would just make it easier for you because otherwise it’s way too broad. But saying it’s a fashion shoot, does it has to be fashion-fashion, or could it be still life fashion?
If you needed to do still life you could always boil a big ham and put the hat on top and you could represent it in different ways – so when you say fashion I think of companies who pay magazines to put their clothes on the models and there’s a lot of people involved, stylists, a lot of clothes a lot of time, whereas if you were just in control of the aesthetic and maybe doing still life, you could have more fun with it. It would just be up to you to use a studio, maybe use people if you need them, maybe it’s simpler for you.
So, say the fact was that Trump has abused 26 women, or 26 women have come forward, why not photographing those 26 women with Trump iconography to suggest that? Or even working with a make up artist to make a woman look like Trump? I don’t know I’d just think of ways to cut corners and make it easier for myself.
(26 models in Yeezy style with Trump hats on and tape across their mouths) . Trump mask??)
(Really provocative shoot (mayb with trans person) wearing Trump cutout mask)
You need to give yourself a break – you’re never going to do a big Tim Walker style Vogue shoot so… you need to simplify. You get shoots in old issues of The Face or even Dazed, it use to be a street style magazine, so it was literally just kids on the street doing stuff, it doesn’t have to be mega expensive. There’s a woman called Jamie Warren, she’s almost trying to do a Tim Walker but on a budget and it’s hilarious, do it so it’s obviously abit of parody you can be as cheap as you want and people know you’re taking the piss.
Don’t you think that most fashion these days comes from the influence of Instagram? Maybe you could, instead of looking at the most prolific political moments, but what was the biggest meme of this year? But then you could recreate the biggest memes of this year but as a high fashion shoot or something.
It would be something which people look at and would be like ‘ah I love that meme!’ and the fact it would be recreated as high fashion would be hilarious.
*starts looking at memes, Salt Bae to be specific*
At It’s Nice That, this is something we’d look at. You could recreate these memes but as actual photoshoots.
- I asked, how would I actually do that without a huge budget yet again? How can you recreate a meme to be better than the original?
You get one of your models in a white tshirt with the glasses, and that could be glitter and it could be in the studio. It could be abstract, as long as people know. You’d have to do it so people know instantly though that that is salt bae. The eye would be in the detail.
If you have a project in your portfolio and you say you recreated the biggest memes of 2017 as high fashion shoots, everyone would be like ‘omg let me see, gimme. What would make them even funnier is if you went all out to make them a thing, so they were recreated so excessively and so perfectly it would just be amazing.
*starts discussing and looking at meme calendar of 2017 so far*
You could incorporate these memes into shoots, you could make an outfit like that *points to meme*, yet a wig like that, it might also be more accessible than looking at really depressing things which has happened this year. The reason memes are so successful is because they add humour into a world which is so horrible, like, that’s why everyone loves memes, because you need them. They are a necessary thing…
Just get a studio booked, just get a camera on a tripod, in a room with lights, all you have to do is get the people to come in arranged in there, it will save you running about in the cold, trying to find spaces and the lighting will be consistent. All you need is technicians to help you and a friend who’s a photographer, can you collaborate?? If you leave and you’re showing your portfolio and it it you had a frequent collaborator, it looks much more grown up and professional than just doing it on your own and it looking [awful].
My dad told me on the phone once when I was at Kingston, I didn’t understand the coding class because I just don’t get it, and he said to me ‘it’s fine, you’re going to be the ideas person not the person doing the coding’… and I was just like AHHH yes thats true’.
If you can’t do it then thats fine, theres no point spending loads of time on something that isn’t going to happen. Just enjoy it! Thats better than learning something you don’t give a shit about.
After Thoughts
I wish I was more prepared prior to my session with Liv, to generate more 'to the point' questions to ask her more specifically related to my question. As the conversation flowed we got frequently off topic, yet this did raise new ways of going about my practical work.
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