Wednesday, January 14, 2009

bill cunningham

When I was in Paris, for my first season of Ready-to-Wear shows in October of 2007, I first noticed this rumpled old man, hunched over, walking around outside the most important shows with his REAL FILM camera, clicking away and causally chatting with the various fashion big wigs. I could not, for the life of me, figure out who this man was. He seemed to be everywhere and know everyone and everyone seemed to know him too. Finally, on one of the last days of fashion week, when my boss decided to take me to the Stella McCartney show, for which I was devastatingly not prepared and under dressed, this old man, with his camera said "Hello, how's the leg?" while we were exiting the madness at the Trocadero. Who is this man? I thought, how can he know about my bosses leg? Godfrey, always friendly, said "Oh hi Bill. The leg's fine, thanks."

It turns out, this funny old man, was none other than Bill Cunningham of the New York Times. The man behind years and years of street photography and the Sunday Styles feature On the Street. I've been looking at those pictures since I was very young, and they are some of the first swipe I started pulling.

I recently discovered these great Audio Slide Shows on the International Herald Tribune's website. You get to listen to Bill knowledgeably chatter away, he has been in the industry for over 50 years, about the various women and styles that he photographed with his camera that he "uses like a notebook".

Fashion Barometer

Riding High


Keepers

They are a great way to pass 15 minutes. There are more of the fun Audio Slide Shows here.

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