Christian from Basic shone in his debut for Rad SS 09

"To keep the tedium of casting interesting I usually make up a kind of movie in my mind to help sharpen the filter. Last season I played Aphex Twins "Logon Rock Witch" all session long in my head as my kind of dream soundtrack that all the witch girls were gliding to. This season its Grace Jones' "Walking In The Rain" to which I'm dreaming of an army of sleek, shiny, aerodynamic people all angular and machine-like, like cyborgs but deeply deeply individualized. Boys and girls...the same feeling with different complexions...shifting features....That's my fiction for Rad SS09."

TI : Sept 3 2008

This morning I had a "I Survived Another Fashion Week" breakfast with Mana my editor from Spur. Though the assignments sometimes fly fast and furious from that magazine, I must say every time I tete a tete with Mana I'm freshly charmed by her graceful way of navigating a conversation between politesse and clear business. I learn from her. We shared our feelings about the NY shows and parties, about how politically the whole scene is driven by overlapping cliques and she also put me on the fresh hunt for a Vanessa Traina style profile.
I also discussed my feelings about casting. I don't want to do it for a living...as my bread and butter..in other words. I much more see myself culling a living from writing or shooting video or pursuing reportage style photography than nestling down for a long life ...casting.
I don't find casting glamorous or fabulous but I do love immersing my self in anything beautiful. I love beautiful art, movies, architecture, music, clothes, girls, boys, rooms, phones, food. If it is beautiful, I love it and I want to be surrounded by it day in, day out. The seductive thing that keeps me pinned to the modeling industry is those odd days...maybe you're a little bit stressed out or depressed ....and then an impossibly beautiful thing walks into the room, often times not knowing how very beautiful they are. It is like an epiphany.
I had one such epiphany yesterday backstage at the Rad Hourani. Even though I was going through a moment around the not very professional disappearance of a male model (that would be Matvey ) I looked up and saw an assemblage of "the sleek, shiny, aerodynamic people, all angular and machine-like" in various races, genders and ages, just as I had dreamt about it 10 days earlier on TI.
That epiphany made all the work this week completely worth it. Today I just felt happy and so grateful that Rad had given me so much freedom in contributing that to his over-all vision. Which is why I want to thank him publicly for that particular kindness. My complete gratitude also goes to Neal Hamil at Elite for attending the show as a gesture of support, Stephan, Betty and the full team at Models.com as well as Scott and Christopher at One, Katia and David at Major, Heinz, Carlos and George at New York Model Mgmt, Kwok and Cheri at Marilyn, Stephen at Next (especially for perversely propping Ms Karmen Pedaru in the front row) Duane and Valarie at Trump Lisa at IMG, Marta at Basic, Joseph Bleu, Sam at Ford, Earnest Wiliams at Fusion, Agel Raya at New York Models Men, Dave and George at Red, Gaspard at Request, Lana Winters at VNY and Kevin Apana at Wilhelmina.

A bird's eye view at Rad Hourani SS09: Image via coutorture.com