Paul Rowland

Raquel Zimmerman profiles a runway perfect body in Vogue Paris August 08: PH Mario Testino via tfs

Natasa V photographed by Paul Rowland

I popped over to the Women/Supreme offices last week just as the kids who work there were distributing popsicles. After assuring myself that a little sugar and ice never killed nobody I indulged, even while clocking that Paul's new intern was rocking some pretty genius moccasins with very 70's shorts. Work hard. Give them outfits. Now these are some real fashion kids!

Irina K:IMG:PH: Chadwick Tyler via chadwicktyler.com

In the new photographers sweepstakes TI truly loves the work of Mr Chadwick Tyler. From his collobarations with Paul Rowland on the Supreme show package to his unexpectedly raw edged snaps of Irina K, you can feel something very organic and textured in his work. Which is very welcome these days.

Editorial AND Sexy! PH Sorrenti for V53 via thefashionspot

I have to say, nobody in the modeling industry of New York behaved in a predictable way last week. Or have they? From the blood bath (or bloodletting depending on how you care to look at it) at DNA and Women to the delightfully un-corporate IMG agency image in the new V magazine, nothing is quite the way it was . But that's good for fashion and the modeling industry, because despite its efforts that business remains bound by fashion's tendency to change...abruptly, randomly with maximum cruelty . A hundred question abound in the wake of this shift... What does this mean for the girls? What does this mean for clients ? For mother agencies?
Well the more things change... the more you change with them. There was a meeting this morning at MDC and the big decision was to get the POV of all the parties in involve and post a full-on piece of journalistic writing as to the powerful implications of that shift. Tomorrow I pop over for the first time since the shift to the Women/Supreme offices and it will be interesting to observe this new power-pairing of Rowland+ Chabon .

By 1.30 pm, Fri Feb 8th, the Fall/Winter 2008 Rad Hourani was done. Rad, Hung Vanno (make-up and emotional motivation) Nicholas Grasa (stylist ) and their team had worked relentlessly hard on crafting a very dedicated vision. As its casting director I'm too close to deliver any kind of critical verdict on it, but I do know I apreciate Rad's indulgence in allowing a daring follow through on an exclusive engagement for Sunniva and a newcomer I considered to be a beautiful bookend, Camille to walk the show. I also loved the loyalty Rad as a newcomer inspired in prompting agents to give him two other girls, Rena and Kathleen also for his show in NY only. Behind the scenes there was lots of drama and screaming and... uhmm moments of "coming together" on my part. In that regard I'd like to extend my total gratitude to first and foremost, Paul Rowland and the team at Supreme and to Karina @ IMG, Michael Schwartz @ Women, Heinz Holba, George and Christopher @NY Models, Neal Hamil and Roman @Elite, Tammy @Next, Duane@ Trump, Sonny@One, Cheri@Marilyn and David @ Major. A big shout out goes to MDC's Betty Sze who was invaluable the entire week. I also am grateful to TI's latest contributing photographer, Pablo Ravazzani for snapping these backstage pics. They allowed me to see the clothes with a clean and clear new eye. I think they are incredibly appropriate as the photographic style of Pablo's pictures is totally in sync with the graphic precision that drives Rad's work .

Rad Hourani FW 08: PH: Pablo Ravazzani:Julia: Women

Supreme Show Package: FW 08

Listening right this minute to Aphex Twin's “Logon Rock Witch” from the Richard D James LP and its a great backdrop given all the talk of “witches” that flew around yesterday. Are witches going to rule the Fall/Winter runway season? Who knows but they sure would be a great corrective to all the florals and prints and color clashes ruling the edits this season. I wasn't in the office on Thursday evening when the messenger dropped off a copy of the Supreme show package so I popped by Mr Rowland's inner chamber Friday afternoon to check it out. Every time I catch up with Paul, I try to suss out the source of his ability to pick that one girl on his board that goes on to the Italian Vogue covers and the W shoots and the Prada runways. Last season it was Meghan Collison. There is a girl in the new package, Katriina who I loved, loved and loved when I first saw her at Rad Hourani's SS08 show in Paris. She's the kick off girl in the new Supreme show package and if NY bites that would be a thrilling thing to see. So how does Paul see success so far in advance? How does he consistently see stardom in girls that other managers reject? “I'm a witch ,” joked Paul.
Interestingly enough Lera Sheremata, after a brief respite in the Ukraine, is back in town. I saw her sweeping around the office and my heart beat faster. What is about that “green eyed rebel” as the fashionspotters say, that has us so captivated. Is she too a witch?

The shapeshifting beauty that is Denisa Dvorakova

Balenciaga SS08: First Look

For TI the Paris booking sweepstakes came down to one crucial moment. The first exit at the Balenciaga SS08. The honor, as is visible, went to one Kasia Struss at Women, the nicest Polish nineteen year old you could ever hope to meet. Given all the girls who came out after her, I think that was a little bit genius of Monsieur. Give that girl another season of model currency! The clothes,as was the case at Prada, served as a kind of summary of the the last three collections. Coloration that reminded you of SS 07, shapes seen at the FW 06 and the global pattern recognition strategy from FW 07. Its all I kept thinking in my blissfully jet-lagged state..."pattern recognition system" at the mad chintzs and super-70's fabric treatments that poured out. Stylists will be mixing the Prada and Balenciaga pieces with maximum ease thise season. Look, after that rapid rush of ideas over the last two years, the guy is allowed to provide a summary collection. And god bless him for that 7am call time

Pilar from the Supreme SS08 showpackage as seen exclusively at MDC

I spent much of the morning of August 23rd circling the Soho/Chinatown district that surrounded the Women/Supreme offices, intent on being the first client to nab the Supreme show package. I was literally sitting in La Esquina, downstairs when I got the text that the damn thing had finally arrived. When I got to Paul Rowland's office, the scale of the production left me gobsmacked. An army of assistants were compiling these massive cards into huge black photographer's boxes, neatly wrapping the whole proposition with a black grosgain ribbon. "Now this is what you called boutique," I thought. I fled like a thief to the MDC offices to make sure that package got a priority scanning and uploading!
Sure enough, next day, the phone rings and its a symphony of dismissal and sniping. "Unnecassary" "pretentious" "over-done" were some of the more polite bleating that went one. But I love excess as much as I love discipline and was moved as to how commited and also how mad the whole production Paul had wrought, really was.

Toni/Women: The Only Calvin Klein SS 08 exclusive that counts

Instant sensation Toni Garrn opens AND closes Calvin Klein SS 2008.