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Throwing the Line Out There with Jamie Ferguson
458 Plays1 year ago
Join us for an extremely wholesome and illuminating conversation with genuine Canadian, Jamie Ferguson. We discuss BEING A REDHEAD, the Stan Ray Painter Pant, Intramural sports, Trial and Error, Bucket List Items, Imposter Syndrome, and “Bob’s Your Uncle,” this time on Apocalypse Duds!
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Updates
00:00:00
Speaker
So you may have noticed that we don't have intro music anymore. That is forthcoming. Someone is working on it. I don't know who it is, but it is in the works.
Meet the Hosts: Connor Fowler and Matt Smith
00:00:17
Speaker
Oh, by the way, I'm Connor Fowler. And I'm Matt Smith. And you are now listening to Apocalypse Dud.
00:00:29
Speaker
here we are again on a it was a pretty good pretty good Wednesday I would say gray but not altogether terrible yeah I I didn't I had the opposite experience I hit five thrift stores and bought zero things so
A Day of Thrifting: Unexpected Outcomes
00:00:50
Speaker
That was my Wednesday. Dude, I haven't been to five thrift stores in one day, like probably since I was 18. Yeah, I mean, that's pretty average. That makes me very sad. Most of my days, yeah, it just depends on where I am and how many stores are in the vicinity.
00:01:17
Speaker
But yeah, five stores in a fucking goose egg today. That was my day. So I'm glad that your win say was better. Well, I'm just trying to keep the PMA. Yeah, you got to. I'm very hoarse.
Vocal Strain and Recovery Techniques
00:01:36
Speaker
There's nothing else.
00:01:37
Speaker
Yeah, sorry, my voice sounds like shit. You're sounding better, though. Sounding better, but I had a long day in practice on Sunday where I screamed a lot for four hours. So, yeah, just trying to recuperate from that and trying to learn proper ways to do this because it's not something I've ever done before.
00:02:05
Speaker
Yeah, that's why I sound like shit. I wanted to... Yeah, Carter and I, I missed the anniversary, but...
Music Throwback: Rage Against the Machine
00:02:18
Speaker
The Battle of Los Angeles by Raging Us the Machine came out 24 years ago this month, and Gorilla Radio debuted the video 24 years ago a couple weeks back. And yeah, outside of being just a fucking banger from beginning to end, I, in the early inception of this
00:02:45
Speaker
our cute little show that we do. Program. I came up with the hashtag Gorilla Clothing Show and we've been using it ever since and I'm kind of proud of that. Connor and I like
00:03:03
Speaker
have a good relation with our love of Rage Against the Machine. So shout out. Rage partners. Yeah. I mean, like Matt did come up with that. And it's very funny. Yeah. I don't know. I think possibly one of Matt's best jokes, even like very, very rich.
00:03:31
Speaker
I feel like I have a good number. And we are. That's what we are. I think that that sets us apart.
Music Recommendation: Officer May
00:03:39
Speaker
You got it. Yeah. From what most clothing shows or podcasts or whatever the fuck you want to call them are doing.
00:03:51
Speaker
Yeah. Uh, another thing that I have been listening to a lot for the past few days is a very like weird or not weird necessarily, but a very obscure, like early 2000s, late nineties Boston Bay and called officer may. Um, they have 28 monthly listeners on Spotify. Um, but uh, yeah, just fucking nuts. And like, if they came out this year, that record would be massive.
00:04:21
Speaker
um it's uh it's kind of like equal parts murder city devils uh nirvana and the jesus lizard it just like it's
Spotlight on Jamie Ferguson: Menswear Photography
00:04:31
Speaker
been on repeat for me for like the three days since my buddy matt uh man bird uh factors collection fame shout out factors uh since he recommended it in one of my insomniac uh
00:04:45
Speaker
nights that I had a couple of nights ago, but, uh, yeah, highly, highly recommend it's on Spotify. They apparently like self released a record before it, but if you like runs, if you like nineties indie, if you like, like, just like kind of aggressive, but like not hardcore or at all aggressive, definitely worth checking out. Yeah.
00:05:10
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I've said it around and I think I think that's a that's a fair categorization. Like it's not very screamy, but it's like. It gets the point. There's a song smoking in a minor. Oh, God, yes, really.
00:05:29
Speaker
Yeah, also, fun fact, there's a video of that on YouTube from them playing it at like South by Southwest 04, I think, at Emos, the iconic Austin venue that so many fuckers have played over the years. Worth a shot. Worth a shot. Again, Officer May is the band name and Smoking in A minor is the record.
00:05:58
Speaker
Yeah, we had a fun conversation coming coming forth with Jamie Ferguson, a menswear photographer that lives in the UK. And it's just like an all around cool dude. If you've been in this shit for the past decade, you've seen his photos. But yeah, it was super fun to talk to him and kind of get his perspective on
00:06:25
Speaker
A lot of things, um, just the menswear, like tumblr, uh, 2011 to 2014 ish times. And then, you know, how that's translating into his work today. Um, yeah, just, just an overall cool dude.
00:06:49
Speaker
Hell yeah, it was a great show. Yeah, it was a great show. And he recently shot a Ralph Warren campaign, which we talk about a little bit, because we got to talk about Ralph on every show. We're contractually obligated amongst ourselves to talk about Ralph.
00:07:07
Speaker
We're getting millions and millions of dollars from the Ralph Lauren. Yes. Yes. Yes. Actually, yeah, that's that's a bold face lie.
Supporting the Podcast Financially
00:07:17
Speaker
Yeah. Ralph Lauren, if there's anyone in your corporation listening, you know, bang our line, bang our fucking line, because we will we will do a Ralph segment on every episode that is selling out because Connor and I both love it. But I digress. I digress.
00:07:38
Speaker
Anyway, thank you for sticking around. Thanks for listening. If you would like to send us a couple of dollars because you like what we do, we're totally down with that. Conner's Venmo is at conner-fowler. His PayPal is connerfowler at gmail.com. And sincerely, we thank everyone that listens and thanks for the feedback. And yeah, stay tuned for Jamie Ferguson.
00:08:08
Speaker
Cock-a-doodle-doo.
Introducing Jamie Ferguson: A Fashion Journey
00:08:10
Speaker
Good morning to all you chuckleheads out there in Daytona Beach, Florida. You are now listening to 66.6 BEAZFM with Matt, Jamie, and Connor in the morning. Have we got a show for you? Honk, honk!
00:08:23
Speaker
Ladies, extremely unlikely, fellows, friends, and folks, I'm not going to waste any more time. We must introduce our guest. Fashion fetishists and style seekers prepare to have your sartorial senses scintillated like never before in your life. We've shined our podcast tractor beam on a men's wearing lifestyle photographer who is about to knock your socks off.
00:08:43
Speaker
He rolls from the great white north. This Canuck isn't just any wump with a lens. He's the ginger hair genius of men's fashion photography. His shots are as sharp as a maple leaf's edge and as vibrant as the summer sunset over the Rockies.
00:08:57
Speaker
Good morning, Jamie. Welcome to our little show. Yes. Welcome. Thank you so much for that intro. And that was incredible. Thank you. Oh, thank you. Thank you. That was 100 percent Connor. It almost always is 100 percent Connor because that is just how his brain works. Well, I thought it would be funny to do like shock jock style. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if they have those. I guess they have them all over the world, right?
00:09:27
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. Less now. Lower key in the UK, but yeah, very much aware of this style. Yeah, much appreciated. That was very good. Hell yeah. How's your day going, Jamie? It's been good, man. Yeah. Yeah, all good. It's really weird. I don't know about you guys, but working freelance is kind of like your days are kind of really weird and made up of a lot of different segments. And sometimes it's just kind of like
00:09:56
Speaker
Yeah. I'm just getting coffee. Right. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It seems like you keep pretty busy also. So, you know, there's, I feel like you're posting some new projects are working on nearly every day or every couple of days. Like that's, that did. Yeah. So, uh, where, where are you from? Um, or where did you grow up? I guess.
Jamie's Cultural Influences and Style
00:10:16
Speaker
And, uh, where do you live now? Yeah.
00:10:20
Speaker
Uh, so, uh, it's really weird. Uh, so I, it's funny, everybody that I meet nowadays, especially in the UK, everybody's like, oh, you're funny. Like the easiest thing is for me to say I'm from Toronto. Right. I'm slightly outside of Toronto. So I can tell other, any time I'm speaking to other Canadians, I'm just like, I'm actually from Guelph. That was where I was born and raised. Um, until I was about 15. Um, and then I moved over to the UK where my family is originally from, um,
00:10:48
Speaker
back to Scotland. So my mother's from Edinburgh and my father's from Belfast. And then we basically were in Scotland for like my last few years of high school at university up in Aberdeen in the north of Scotland. And then my wife and I, we moved down to London where we lived for about 10 years. And I am currently residing now in Ireland in the countryside just outside Belfast. Oh, that's awesome. Wow.
00:11:17
Speaker
So we've kind of got a pretty good tour, though. No kidding. No kidding. It's really, really messed with the accident at times, depending on who I'm around. But no, that's funny because I was going to say it. The it came. The Canadian came out a little, but it's changed.
00:11:37
Speaker
over the course of the interview already so I think that's extremely interesting. The vocabulary is really mixed up and it's really funny because it's and it depends like wherever whenever I'm traveling whatever it's it depends on who I'm around who I'm with and you know you kind of fall into that the that habit sometimes the rhythm of like
00:11:58
Speaker
trying to adjust your cadence, your tone, the melody of your voice or your accent to whoever you're around. It always depends on who I'm at. Either more Canadian will come out or I'll tone it down a little or it gets super weird if I'm in Italy or Japan or France or whatever. Then that's really nice.
00:12:24
Speaker
Yeah, that exists in America, I think, weirdly with the kind of, there's a sort of southern creep that happens to some people, I think. Like my father, for example, is not from the south, although being from Maryland is being from the south. And like the further south he goes,
00:12:47
Speaker
the more southern his accent becomes. Yeah, yeah. He can just tell. He feels it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. You always want to fit in though, I guess. Yeah, exactly. I think that's a huge part of it for me was always that kind of trying to like that desire to please extends into kind of every part of my lifestyle where it's like,
00:13:10
Speaker
Yeah, where I'm even trying to mimic the way that, you know, the people that I'm around, the way they speak to try in my head to try to put everybody at ease. But at times, I think it just means I end up looking like a weirdo. Don't we all? Don't we all? Yeah. But that's kind of the weird thing, though. It's like the and this extends to dressing, too. It's like the harder you try, the worse you look. Yeah, definitely. Definitely.
00:13:37
Speaker
And that's not true for everybody, but like I think a lot of the times if you are trying really hard, you look uncomfortable. You look like you don't fit in. And it's like the time that you like overslept and you like threw some shit on and ran out the door. Everyone is like, my God, what a great outfit.
00:13:56
Speaker
That is very true. It's such a weird thing because, like, ever since, like, you know, this menswear kind of scene or whatever you want to call it, kind of has exploded. There's so many people that are looking for this kind of, like, some of the guys that I work with, like, Simon Crompton at Permit Style, like, there's every, like, there's always these, I remember the earlier days where everybody was like, the rules of menswear and like, what you, you know, like, and wanting a quick fix to kind of like, okay, well, what do I wear to this? And it's just like,
00:14:24
Speaker
there seems to be very little room these days for like that thing of like messing up and you know trial and error and kind of like that's all these guys that we hold up where we're like man they're amazing dressers it's like we've all been through that like they've all been through that thing where they're like they'll swing at something and absolutely miss it sometimes and it's that kind
Jamie's Menswear Evolution Through Tumblr
00:14:43
Speaker
of trial and error getting through it where it's like you say
00:14:45
Speaker
You do get to the point where, you know, you are looking amazing, but you've made no effort at all. But it's taken that time of trying to make a lot of effort and not, not quite, not quite hitting the mark. Oh, totally. Totally. It's a pretty unforgiving.
00:15:01
Speaker
Yeah, you learn with experience. And if you don't have that, like, no one is, you know, no one is born looking like Ralph Lauren. You know, like, no one comes out of the womb dressed in a fucking great suit and, you know, perfect shoes and shit like we all. Yeah, I think that's I think that's the funny thing is that there's there is even with, you know, people like Ralph Lauren, there's this assumption that they've always looked that way.
00:15:28
Speaker
And then Ralph would have gone through the same stages and trials and tribulations that we all go through. Oh, totally, totally. Figuring out your personal style and stuff like that. Yeah, and back in the day- There's goofy stuff for everyone. Yeah, there's goofy shit. Back in the day, it wasn't talked about either. There weren't three nerds sitting around talking about, oh, this is how a coach should look. This is the tie that you should own, or the five ties that you should own. It's like, oh, yeah.
00:15:57
Speaker
That this was this was pretty good. I can't believe you didn't have a gimbal. Right, right. So I can't believe you walked out of the house like that. Right. Speaking of dressing, Jamie, what did you wear today?
00:16:13
Speaker
Oh man, I'm super embarrassed by this because it's like, whenever I'm at home, it's like, cause I've got two, I've got two kids and you know, you're kind of running around. If you, it's just, just day to day. It's like super low key. Um, and trying to, it is allowed. I don't know, man. I'm like, sometimes I'm like, even with myself, I'm like, man, you should be making more of an effort. And I'm like,
00:16:35
Speaker
Even if it's good for myself. You don't want to slip into the laziness. But I'm like, today it's just super into a big fan of Stan Ray. So I have a lot of their painter pants. I've got a pair of their denim versions on. Nice. A teacher from a friend of mine who he does. What's their name? A generic sporting.
00:16:58
Speaker
generic sporting clubs. It's just a plain white tee from him and a gray shawl collar cardigan, which is super cozy because it is getting cold in Ireland right now. No, no, no, no black tie today, unfortunately.
00:17:20
Speaker
I feel disappointed about sometimes. I'm like, yeah, I should wear more fashion. I'm like, yeah, I should wear more black tie just in the office. Just random. That would be really weird.
00:17:32
Speaker
It's so funny that you were like, oh yeah, I'm just bumming around the house today. And you, you listed off a fit that like, looks great. And like, you know, most people's idea of bumming around the house is wearing like a pair of sweatpants or, uh, you know, pajama pants or like a hoodie. Yeah. Very cool dead, critical dead pajama pants.
00:17:55
Speaker
Nice. Nice. Yeah. Oh, thanks. Thanks. Yeah, you look put together anyway from the limited video that we saw. I mean, and everyone says they look like shit. That's like everyone's thing. It's like, oh, my God, like I came on the clothing show. I didn't wear any clothes. Yeah. Right. But the point of the show is what does everyone wear on a daily basis? Yeah. No, exactly. I mean, look, right now I'm wearing my infamous Hiden Biden tie-dye t-shirt.
00:18:26
Speaker
and a camouflage fishing vest. So like, you know, we're, we're slumming it a little bit. Nice. You're looking good though, man. Looking good. Thank you. You're too kind. And Matt too, as ever. Yeah. Oh, of course. Of course. Sorry. So,
00:18:53
Speaker
What do you, can you remember the first article of clothing that really had an impact on you? I, so, yeah.
Early Clothing Experiences: From Sports to Double Monks
00:19:03
Speaker
So what do you mean like, that I, that I've seen or that I bought myself? It could be something that you saw, right? And you thought like, oh my God, like I saw this kind of skate shoe and I needed to buy it out in the real world. Or it could be like your first suit that you ever bought. I mean, it's, it's really open.
00:19:23
Speaker
Oh, man. Yeah, it's so funny. I grew up so like I have really fond memories of like
00:19:30
Speaker
Like, I played a lot of, like, intramural sports when I was living in Canada when I was growing up. So, like, a lot of T-ball, like, summer, like, basketball leagues and stuff like that. So, I have a huge affinity for, like... I don't know how you describe this, for, like, air techs, sports shorts that I got free at camp. Like, I really love those. Still wear those to this day or still I'm on the lookout for those when I can get them.
00:19:58
Speaker
Oh, that's funny. But obviously, that's the kind of stuff where I'm like, I was getting that for free when I was going to camp or my parents were buying that for me. But I always remember, I was talking about this recently, actually, when I first started getting into menswear and kind of being more aware of clothing and kind of that thing of wanting to test or going down that whatever you want to call it, that road, that route of personal style.
00:20:27
Speaker
I was around about that kind of, you know, Tumblr men's half peg men's were era. And at the time, double monks were everywhere. And I remember that being like a thing where I was like, this is the item, this is the piece I need. And hilariously, and I'm like, oh, man. So it was I remember getting a pair of there was two actually. Do you remember? Was it because it was with Sanders in Northampton as well.
00:20:55
Speaker
but the Mark McNary footwear range. Yeah. And it was like huge at that time. So there was a pair of red, red brick, day night sole, tan, suede, like tan, suede, double month. Yeah.
00:21:10
Speaker
And like super, super versatile. And then, and then because it was McNary, because I was like, oh, this I got to get, this is sick. It was like a pebble grain, tomato red leather with a yellow, like a bright yellow welt and soul, I believe, or might it might as well like what's the word like Oxford. And I
00:21:38
Speaker
I never wore those things. That's a great punch line. I've made it, man. But remember just never wearing them and eventually just selling them because I was like, I didn't know how to wear it. I was like, I like at that point, you know, you're kind of when you start building a wardrobe, you get some of those pieces where you're like, this is incredible, but you don't have the rest of the wardrobe to wear with it. And you're just kind of like, all right, well, they're just going to sit in my wardrobe, which yeah.
00:22:08
Speaker
I would have looked wack with monks in 2012 or whatever. I mean, I just didn't have the right stuff. I saw everyone had them. They were extremely hard. They were just expensive. I was in college at the time, so I was like, whatever. But I did love all the McNary stuff. I thought that was good. I saw him in real life in New York once, and I was like, oh my God.
00:22:31
Speaker
Yeah, apparently, and I didn't know this until recently, his brand is still going. I had zero idea. Yeah. I'm on the mailing list. Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah.
00:22:43
Speaker
It's that weird thing with like a lot of those guys that were kind of like, like, like discovered or not discovered, because obviously he's been around for ages, but kind of like that. I got extremely hyped up in that kind of like early aughts, like, you know, like you said, 2010 to 12, 13 or whatever. And yeah, and then it's like, yeah, like you say, same thing. It's like every now and again, I'll see an Instagram or whatever, like people I follow, it's like, Mark will pop up and I'm like, holy shit, like awesome. And yeah, the brands were going.
00:23:13
Speaker
I just thought it was cool that he did work with his daughter. Daisy, like just put all the daisies all over the camouflage stuff. I thought that was cool. That was cool. Yeah, that was really cool.
00:23:27
Speaker
So what types of styles did you see growing up in early life in Canada and then also Scotland? And to piggyback onto that, was there someone in your life who really taught you how to wear clothes? So quickly answered, no, there wasn't really anybody. It's weird. The older that I get, the more that I'm morphing into my father. But there was never that kind of like,
00:23:57
Speaker
where there was never any kind of that, like where he's like, here son, I'm gonna teach you how to tie a tie. Like there was never that kind of thing, not through me wanting it or him not doing it. It was just, that wasn't really kind of part of my time growing up. Canada, like in Canada was weird. It was like, and obviously I was at a time where like,
00:24:23
Speaker
mid early to like basically the 90s where I'm like, I mean frankly style back then was fucking terrible and Like I remember looking back on it now I'm like it's really weird because obviously everything now is everything's so cyclical and everything now is Coming back all that 90s kind of styles coming back around and like people are taking parts of it now that I'm like, oh snap That's really sick. But at the time I was growing up just I remember being in school and seeing people in like what was the was it northern getaway like the
00:24:53
Speaker
those like pajama like flannel tartan pajama trousers and I'm like you were wearing that like you're in pajamas to school like this really I remember the time being like and then like I can't wait to get me I'm gonna get a pair and then I remember like the first one I got were like this beige tartan is weird as shit and I remember just being like
00:25:12
Speaker
This does not look good. And like, and then you obviously as a kid, you're not bothered about that. You don't have so much, I don't remember particularly having so much of a concern about it. Like I wasn't like odd, you know, a lot of it was more down to kind of sneakers for me at the time, not necessarily even being a sneaker head, but just having stuff that was like a legitimate brand, like Nike or Adidas or Fela not being something from Kmart or whatever.
00:25:42
Speaker
Which, weirdly, as a dad now, where I'm like, you know, I get why you would buy, like, off-brand sneakers, because the kids just tear through them. Like, they don't care. Just destroy them. Just destroy them. Completely destroy them. I'm like, yeah, in a day. And I'm just like, what have you been doing? Like, just kicking, like, you've been in a quarry. Yeah, putting your foot into a mud puddle. Yeah. Exactly. It's bizarre. Well, the truth is, of course, they do.
00:26:09
Speaker
Yeah, that's exactly what they do. The kids love hanging out in quarries. It's ridiculous.
00:26:16
Speaker
We had, and then when moving to Scotland, we, funnily enough, we moved to a small village in Scotland where my mother actually grew up. And we ended up going to the school that she went to. And I don't know if you, like the majority of schools in the UK, it's like you have a uniform. So that was my first experience then of kind of being like, right, which almost takes all of that kind of worry, especially when you're getting into high school, that worry of kind
Uniforms and Simplicity in Clothing Choices
00:26:45
Speaker
of like,
00:26:45
Speaker
Crap, I gotta, what am I gonna wear today? I gotta look cool to kind of being like, I just throw this, I throw the same thing on every day. Right. Which made it so much easier. So then for like, as I say, the three years that I was there finishing off high school, whatever, I wasn't really looking at it because my peers weren't around me kind of like wearing like stuff that I was like, Oh snap, this is, we're all wearing the same thing. Right. Right. Yeah. And it was weird. So I think like,
00:27:12
Speaker
I don't know, it was weird. I think the first time I started becoming more interested and more aware of clothing and what I was wearing myself was through the internet and through like, as I say, Tumblr and those early street style blogs like The Sartorialist and Tommy Tana and PQ and stuff like that. Yeah, that's probably where it all kind of started for me.
00:27:38
Speaker
That's sick. Yeah, that's interesting. The schools that I work in are uniform schools, too. And there is that's the overriding thinking, basically, is that uniforms sort of flatten the student population and that there's no one who is optically richer. Right. And someone else. But of course,
00:28:00
Speaker
You can just tell, you can tell whose shoes are new and whose aren't like, it's just, I don't know, I think the uniform thing is curious.
00:28:12
Speaker
I personally wanted to know at the top of the episode, because I have thought your outfits were awesome for a long time. Thanks. As a redhead, right? As a fellow redhead. And I was wondering, how do you put them together? Like, what do you do? Because it's a lot of the time it's like very disparate elements. But it works.
00:28:36
Speaker
It's a weird thing, again, it's that it touches back to what I was kind of alluding to a little bit before, where it's that it's trial and error, it's experience, it's flipping time, and it's just figuring out what works for you, not being afraid to kind of experiment with stuff and seeing a lot of other styles on other people that I admire and being like, oh, snap.
00:28:57
Speaker
Man, a cowboy hat, let's try that out. Oh shit, that doesn't work. Okay, cool. Back to drawing board. And like, but every now and again, you'll throw, you know, you'll throw the line out there and hook something that you're like, Oh, actually, this works. Like, this is kind of cool. And that's
00:29:12
Speaker
for me personally that's I think certainly a way of where you draw in those as you say disparate elements where you're kind of like differing from differing you know different tribes different styles you kind of bring it into one anywhere you're like okay this these elements work together and they also work for me and how I want to dress and also a lot of it can be done to
00:29:35
Speaker
environment, you know, like, where am I going to be today? Like, okay, I'm going to be, you know, I'm shooting today, or I'm going to an event tonight or whatever. It's kind of like, I'm still a huge believer in, you know, dressing appropriately for the environment that you're in, because it's like, you know, otherwise, you know, you're going to end up looking stranger. And if you're trying to wear a suit at the beach, you know, for an insane example, whatever. Right. Yeah.
00:30:04
Speaker
that's that's really funny i was gonna say connor has probably worn a suit to the beach but uh i don't want to spread misinformation uh no you know i've gotten a lot of shit for wearing loafers to the beach before but it's like is there a more appropriate shoe than a loafer on the beach i don't know it's a slip-on shoe
00:30:27
Speaker
Exactly. I'm like, yeah, I'm all for that, man. Exactly. You're not going to be swimming in them. You're not going to be wearing, you know, like you get down, you know, you're walking along, you know, in the sand now, easy. Slip them off, like, done. Slip them off and dump out the sand. Exactly. No, it's all good. Thank you. Finally, a reasonable person.
00:30:46
Speaker
i got to address the redhead thing as well because i'm kind of like i hate like i also so i remember i was talking about this recently with my my parents actually i remember before i started getting to anything when i was about i must have been about 15 16 and i remember my sister i was gonna have a younger sister who's um uh uh two years younger than me and she um
00:31:09
Speaker
Well, not full on, but she basically like read my colors or is that what, you know, where she was like, these are the colors that suit you. And for about two years, I followed that religiously. And I blame her for all this, her for putting this in my head.
00:31:28
Speaker
her advice was, my colors were basically like pastels. Oh, she was like, white, it's bullshit. Easter colors, those are your and I'm like, so I religiously like light blue, light pink, light yellow, like, you know, like a light green, soft light green, not a hard, not a lime green, but I was just like,
00:31:51
Speaker
So I avoided anything. I look terrible. You look like you're golfing. You look washed out. Yeah, you look washed out. You look like you're golfing. You look like you shop at Macy's only. It just is bad.
Color Advice and Style Experimentation
00:32:07
Speaker
And at the time, that was the impression that I was wanting to give off. But then, you know, I quickly grew out of that. But, uh, yeah, it was, uh, and then you, but you avoid all these colors where you're just like, which I wear a lot of nowadays where it's like, you know, more earthy tones, like oranges, browns, things like that. I was like, did you hear that you should avoid pink and red and orange?
00:32:31
Speaker
Again, like, yes, there'd be things that you would... Yeah, I think so. You're like, oh, okay, maybe we shouldn't do that. But then it was always...
00:32:39
Speaker
And the thing that I've learned nowadays is obviously it's like, it's, it depends. This sounds ludicrous as well. It's, it depends on the shade. Again, it depends on, it's, and which is so strange because everybody, it sometimes becomes this, again, these quote unquote men's wear rules where it's like, you're like, Oh man, I can't do this. Cause it's, I read an article where it says, you know, like, never the, never the two shell mix. It's like, well, no, this is actually, um, just finding that right. You know, what kind of pink is it? Like is, what kind of red is it? Is it?
00:33:09
Speaker
uh is it a warmer red is it like that kind of bright you know um i can't remember with the like uh i can't remember where we're seeing it like the um i guess on beige there's a or there's a knitwear company harley of scotland do this amazing like crew net red crew net it's that bright red and it's just like that um i can't think of the word what what a crimson exactly perfect and you're like that's the one that works and then it's also how you wear them what you're pairing them with and like how
00:33:38
Speaker
is it just you know if you're wearing one strong color try not to pair that with another strong color like tone it down or whatever and vice versa and it's it's so it was as i say it's that long road of just kind of trial and error and you kind of like oh actually and never saying never to anything like like i'd hate to think that
00:33:58
Speaker
because of my the color of my hair or whatever that I'm like I can't wear a certain article clothing or certain color I'm like fuck it man I'm gonna try it and then it's like it's real it's like your family tells you this from a very young age you can't wear this it will make you look like shit and then you I guess never interrogate it later like did this person ever wear a good outfit does this person know what they're talking about
00:34:23
Speaker
No offense to your sister I'm saying like in my my mom my mom is a notoriously bad dresser and she was always like you can't wear orange you can't wear pink it will make your skin look bad and it's just like it just is absurd all of it leave me alone mom yeah god i will i am not a redhead i've got some auburn um so i i have zero uh
00:34:49
Speaker
zero anything to add to this discourse except this. I did the one redhead rule or I don't even not even just redheads but like very light skinned people in my opinion should not wear like the like a solid tan sport coat. Like I worked with a redhead. Yes he mad thinks that rule is the truth. Yeah I worked with a
00:35:17
Speaker
I worked for the guy and we were buyers on the team and every time he would put one on he'd be like, I feel like I look like I have jaundice. And I was like, that's a great description because yes, yes, you do. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean, man. It just depends how pallid your flesh is.
00:35:37
Speaker
Yeah, 100%. And like, you could get, you know, I don't know, windburn or, you know, be out in the sun one day and you're kind of like, Oh, snap, actually, you know, I'm looking a little healthy now. Yeah, no, seriously. It's it's that thing of just, again, like,
00:35:55
Speaker
Because my thing that I've noticed and that's something I kind of advise, if anybody ever asked this person, I'm like, this is the thing. I'm like, never shut yourself off to anything. Because I'm like, like you say, a tan sport coat. You're like, I can never wear that. It's never a thing. But then I swear, and it's happened to me with every single article of clothing that I'm like, nah, I can never pull that off. I can never wear that. I don't know how to wear that. That's ugly. And I'll always see somebody. And they're wearing it in a way where I'm like, oh, snap, I never thought about doing that.
00:36:22
Speaker
And then you try and you're like, and it unlocks it for you. It'll suddenly like, Oh, so, you know, never close it off. Cause like one day, man, you might see, you're like, Oh, that's, you know, and then you'd be all over that. All right. All right. I don't want to do this, but I'm going to, you did this to me, Jamie, for the life appreciator garment, the tank top. Yeah. And.
00:36:47
Speaker
I was like, yeah, I could never wear one of those fucking things. And then I saw a picture of you wearing one with an open Hawaiian shirt. And I was like, yeah, that's my skin. That's approximately my hair. This is OK. So thank you. You're welcome, man. I'm glad I can help out. Right, right, right. That's the purpose of this entire show, actually, is for me to confess that you allow me to wear the wife appreciator.
00:37:16
Speaker
Well, I'm glad I could be here for this book. You've hit two of Connor's top things in doing this show, which is trying to figure out how to take a good fit photo and yeah, telling you that you inspired him. So yeah.
00:37:37
Speaker
So you mentioned, you know, you mentioned getting into, into clothing heavily during the like, quote unquote, hashtag menswear time period, which we're all very fond of on this program. And, you know,
00:37:55
Speaker
I think all of us like loved the sartorialist and Tommy tone stuff. Like that was a huge, you know, huge thing for me too. Um, so did, did that inspire you to take up photography or had you been kind of tinkering with it for a while? Um, I think it was, it was weirdly a combination of a bit of both. Cause it was the timing was very serendipitous in terms of, uh,
00:38:23
Speaker
getting more into clothing as well as seeing those kinds of sites and that type of photography that those guys were shooting. And on incredibly, having never really dabbled before, having never really had an interest in it, like seeing that and just kind of flicking a switch in me where I was like, oh, how do you take pictures like that and just
00:38:48
Speaker
from a very basic level just figuring out like, Oh, this is what aperture is this is what shutter speed, you know, all that kind of stuff. And, and that was huge, a huge part for me of certainly my kind of development into photography was
00:39:06
Speaker
just seeing the kind of guys that Tommy and Scott were shooting at Pissy in Florence, because I wasn't encountering people like that in anything that you were seeing before pre-internet, pre-tumblr, where all you were kind of getting were glossy, the stuff that was in advertisements and glossy magazines, or like the few articles in GQ or Esquire or whatever. And that was, I felt, veered a little bit more towards
00:39:36
Speaker
fashion rather than men's wear, which was more, as you say, these older Italian guys in Florence and these Japanese buyers and whatnot, who I was just like, who are these guys? They are dressed so coolly. And then, yeah, I was essentially kind of like,
00:39:54
Speaker
that solidified in my head of my desire to be in the industry as well as trying to figure out a little bit more of, okay, well, how can I try and take pictures like this? Literally just out of a more from a hobby standpoint necessary than trying to planning to make a career out of it. That's a great origin story.
00:40:19
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it really is. It's like, did you write your answers down? You wrote a little essay. No, I mean, it's funny. Like, I've been very lucky and privileged.
00:40:36
Speaker
have the opportunity on other formats of their outlets to talk about this. Because I'm still in the game, man. I'm still into it. I'm still interested in it. I'm still doing it. I'm very lucky to be still doing it. And I've been freelancing now and shooting for over 10 years now.
00:41:01
Speaker
But, and everybody in their job, everybody has those days where they're just kind of like, oh man, everything kind of becomes routine or you switch off a little bit, which equally happens with being a photographer. But then every now and again, sometimes you'll have those times where you're like,
00:41:21
Speaker
man, this is, you know, I'm not in the office. I'm not, and you know, when I was growing up, I was working all sorts of weird jobs before I kind of got to, you know, as the sayings of the industry and was working for brands and then was shooting. And I remember those times and I'm, you know, I always remind myself like very lucky to be doing what I'm doing. And the fact that I'm interested, that kind of thing of like, what's the adage where it's like,
00:41:47
Speaker
you know lucky to be doing what I love or you know if you love you'll never you'll never work a day in your life yeah exactly and I've been and it was an incredibly circuitous route to get to where I am um but I wouldn't have made it to where I am if I hadn't gone down that route and I'm lucky to be doing what I'm doing um so yeah so yeah it's nice and I so I still think about it quite a bit
00:42:16
Speaker
I think it's easy for me to answer kind of a question like that. Totally. We have a lot of lucky, humble people on the show. Yeah, yeah. And it's also, I think about this a lot. We're all freeing 90s kids and being able to shoot fashion photography
00:42:38
Speaker
for a career is like not something I ever would have imagined as a 16 year old. And you
The Pivotal Photo: Choosing Photography as a Career
00:42:44
Speaker
know, I sell vintage clothes here living like I never would have thought that that would be a viable option to sustain myself, you know, like the for all its false technology and the the interconnectivity of everything, especially like, especially in subcultures, like, like,
00:43:01
Speaker
clothing or whatever subculture, like being able to connect with those people that share a similar interest and passion is so important. 100%. So do you think like there was a photo that kind of solidified your here? Now I'm a photographer, like this is no longer a hobby for me.
00:43:32
Speaker
Oh, man. Yes, 100%. It's really weird because like, I remember thinking I've been asked a kind of a slightly similar question before. And I remember kind of being like, which, and I think it was weird. I just wasn't, I think I wasn't really being honest with myself. And, but I know exactly which photo it was. And it was, it was one of
00:43:52
Speaker
I can't remember which pity it was. It was, I don't even know, I think it was a summer, it was a June pity. And basically it's, I believe it's up on my website, but it's one of the first shots that I took of Yasuto Kamashita and it was just smoking.
00:44:12
Speaker
having a cigarette outside where he was wearing this vintage uh one of his suits in a kind of like this darker tan with this kind of like rust colored lacoste i think it's lacoste uh old lacoste polo and he's just having a cigarette and i'm shooting from far away and so he doesn't know that i'm photographing him
00:44:32
Speaker
and he's talking to a friend and he's just standing in front of this kind of yellowish building and slightly behind him is this kind of red fire extinguisher box. And it was just everything with him, the moment of him like laughing to his friend, like having a genuine moment, a genuine conversation and you know, and seeing that kind of natural smile and the clothing where I was and the tones of everything. And I was just like,
00:44:59
Speaker
Oh snap and I, and I remember I took a few, a few snaps, and then when I got back and was editing on my, on my laptop I remember it was at that moment I was like,
00:45:12
Speaker
Yeah, if this is the only photograph that I get at this week of being in Florence, I'm happy. Or even the next one, I was kind of like, yeah. And for me, that was, I think, a huge part of me figuring out what it was that I, not just in what I like photographing, but what I like photographing in menswear. It was that kind of candidness, levity, that
00:45:38
Speaker
lightness, that kind of, the realness of that person at the time, like, that was a huge moment for me, yeah. And one of my favorite photographs that I've ever taken. And at the pure, and like, not planned, not, you know, I hadn't asked him to pose, there was nothing, he didn't know I was photographing, I was shooting long lens from very far away. But like, that was a huge, like, yeah, a real kind of pivotal moment in terms of the direction that I then wanted to go.
00:46:08
Speaker
with what I wanted to kind of try and achieve down the line in the future. I think I'm looking at it right now with the peak lapels. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember that photo. Yeah. I followed you forever on various platforms and I distinctly remember someone, maybe you or someone else on my Tumblr dashboard posted that and I was like, holy shit, that's awesome.
00:46:38
Speaker
And really, he is one of the most stylish human beings on the face of the fucking Earth. I don't know if I've ever seen a bad photo of him, but he kills it. He always kills it.
00:46:52
Speaker
He's got the glasses in the pocket and everything. I mean, it just is like nice. So these days, what draws you to want to take a photo of someone?
Street Style Photography: Capturing the Moment
00:47:07
Speaker
Not when you're doing a shoot for a brand or whatever, but when you're just taking photos. It's funny because like,
00:47:21
Speaker
Yeah, like you say, it's a weird thing where, because there's a lot of, there's a wide spectrum now, obviously, with the photography that I'm doing, where it's like you're working for a client, where there'll be a specific brief sometimes, so you're kind of like, okay, this is how I have to take those photographs. Sometimes you'll be in an environment where you're doing more reportage, it's event photography, maybe, and you're like, okay, I got to make sure I get some of this and some of that. I mean, I keep coming down to like any time that I'm in,
00:47:48
Speaker
like will be the odd times maybe when I have some downtime when I maybe travel through London or another city where I maybe happen to have my camera on me and I may be talking to friends or some of that and you know oftentimes it's like what they're wearing that often tends to be the first thing it's like the outfit that I'm is what I'm drawn to I'm kind of like oh this looks I really love how they've combined
00:48:12
Speaker
the various items that they have in their outfit or the colors or the patterns or the proportions, the fit of the items themselves. And then it tends to be like the location where we are, like is the light really nice? But oftentimes it'll be at places like Pity where you're kind of shooting the street style, where you're there to kind of do
00:48:39
Speaker
you're on the lookout essentially for you like okay who looks who looks good who looks cool and that that's always that's still probably in terms of me shooting for myself and what i like to see is still that would be the main um
00:48:54
Speaker
The main point that I would look for is I'm like, do I like the outfit? Do I think this is a cool outfit? And yeah, I mean not even necessary I'm like would I wear it? But I'm just like because sometimes you see people and you're like like yes, it's a or whoever and you're just like I could you know, I could definitely I'm not cool enough to pull off that but this guy looks amazing how to shoot that and yeah, and so that's it's oftentimes it's a
00:49:21
Speaker
I've got an instinctual thing that kind of would drive me to want to photograph somebody. If first, even just trying to, as I say, trying to capture the outfit and then those other two kind of components, like the location, where are we? And then what's the light doing? Does it look nice or whatever? Yeah, it's probably those. Yeah, absolutely. So have you got any camera advice for people, including me?
00:49:50
Speaker
The photos are very, very good. You talk about good lighting. We know in the morning, we know at night, but do you have any? I don't know. Shooting people is hard. I think as soon as they see you, it's over.
00:50:05
Speaker
Yeah, it's funny, like that was a huge thing for me was I remember when I first bought my 70 to 200 2.8 Canon lens, that was again, that was a game changer for me where previously when I've been photographing people, especially street style, where I was coming up to them with a 50 millimeter, so you have to get close and
00:50:28
Speaker
And you're then interrupting their conversation and they're kind of like, you know, everybody was very, you know, oblige you, you know, and they're like, yep, happy to have their picture taken. But at the same time, it stops immediately the thing that you were wanting to capture. So, yeah, you're still trying to capture the, you're still able to capture the clothing, but I loved that clothing in the moment of what they were doing. So, like, either the movement, you know, as you say, or the moment of, you know, if they're with company or, you know, talking with friends or whatever.
00:50:57
Speaker
So that was a huge thing for me was, as you say, not bothering people, not interrupting people and having that piece of equipment that allowed me to do that. It's weird nowadays, though, because it's like I say to everybody, I get a lot of questions on Instagram or people email me every now and again, and they'll be like, you know, what equipment should I use? What editing software? How do you edit your photos? That kind of thing. And I'm like,
00:51:27
Speaker
It's weird, like everybody nowadays compared to when I got started, like everybody's got an amazing camera, everybody's got like an amazing camera on their phone. Like if you, if you, everybody has access to that now, it's not so much. And also in even camera equipment itself is so much cheaper than it was, you know, back in, you know, even kind of, kind of when I was getting started, it was becoming more affordable and you did have affordable models and lenses on the market.
00:51:57
Speaker
But even before that it was like that was the biggest deterrent to kind of getting into the industry was it was like you know film or Or the you know the camera bodies the lenses themselves were so expensive that it was just like only a select few were kind of allowed in and nowadays like it's being democratized like tenfold so and you know biggest piece of advice is
00:52:21
Speaker
is make sure you're shooting something that you're into. If you're not into what you're shooting, then you're not gonna be able to shoot in a way which you find interesting. It's so hard to, and having done that sometimes, even just as an experiment, trying to be like, okay, I'm gonna try and shoot some landscape or whatever, or architecture, and I'm like, I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. I think that looks okay.
00:52:46
Speaker
You're like, that's great, but I'm like, I don't know anything about this building. I don't know, what is this hill? And then I look at other landscape photographers or architectural photographers, wildlife photographers, what have you. And you're like, why is my photograph not as good as that? And it's just like, I'm not into it. I'm not into, I don't know enough about it. I'm not into, I'm not super into it. I don't have the subtext.
00:53:07
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. And I think that's, if for anything, if you had to point to one thing in terms of my photography, it's that I'm fucking nerd about this stuff. I know what I'm shooting. I know the clothing. I know what this person's wearing.
00:53:26
Speaker
And I know how. Ding, ding, ding, ding. And it's just been down to how I want to see it. I'm like, that's how I want to try and capture it. And I think that's the biggest thing. It's just it's less about the equipment these days. It's like that will obviously help, but I think it's not going to help you unless you have that that love of what you're, you know, if you're not into what it is that you're trying to capture.
00:53:53
Speaker
Yeah, you can't buy a good fit pic. Certainly. Yeah. I mean, I guess you could pay someone to take a good one of you. But yeah, a photographer friend of mine, I we were talking about something a couple of years ago when he said something that really stuck with me, because I'm not a photographer. I take, you know, I take photos because the camera on my phone is pretty solid. And he was like, you know, the best camera in the world is the one you have on you at all times. And I was like, wow, that
00:54:22
Speaker
Yeah, that makes sense. Like, you know, just documenting, you know, documenting the dumb shit that I see at a yard sale, or like, a really, you know, some, some really cool painting that I'm, you know, that I see on the side of a building, like, I don't know, like, it kind of changed the painting that Matt is going to see in the thrift store and not buy for me. Yeah.
00:54:46
Speaker
Yeah. Right? Connor gets very mad because I find really cool art, but like shipping art is not a thing that I really want to try to do. From Georgia? Yeah, would just be preposterous. Yeah. It was a beautiful nautical, it was a nautical portrait, not in a schlocky way. It was like an oil painting of a captain in a huge
Photographing Fashion Events: Challenges and Joys
00:55:11
Speaker
frame. It was tight.
00:55:13
Speaker
yeah it was like it was also like left it in the store it was like four feet by three feet you know it that would have been a pain in other words more reason to buy it you could have hand glided it up here you could have hung glide yeah yeah attach it to a couple of pigeons should just send them on their way yeah yeah exactly i can tell this is not a sore point at all but uh yeah no certainly not
00:55:40
Speaker
We'll retread that tire later on this year. So you went over what you look for. What is your favorite street style Pokemon to capture? Oh man. It's weird. It's nowadays.
00:56:02
Speaker
It's weird because the majority of what I shoot tends to be at pity in Florence and I don't I'd love to actually maybe one day maybe that is the way of looking at it is to try and do go and do Paris or Milan and fashion weeks just to kind of just for something different I feel like
00:56:18
Speaker
In terms of the type of style that I'm into, I don't think I'd necessarily see as much of it in those cities as I would in Florence. So one of the reasons why I keep going back to Penny is because I know I'm like, it's fish in a barrel. You're like really concentrated in one area and you're like beautiful, you know, beautiful city. So, you know, you're going to see what you want to capture. Florence is also an incredible place. Like, Florence in general is just phenomenal.
00:56:49
Speaker
Exactly. So you luck out with the backdrop that you have to shoot those people on. But I think it's weird having been gone twice a year for over 10 years now.
00:57:05
Speaker
I've kind of photographed a lot of the guys that as you say that The people that I want to I want to capture like I think I feel like I've mostly got Everybody that I wanted I've wanted shoot or got a good shot of them like where I'm pleased I'll still want to you know because obviously everybody's gonna be always wearing stuff different things and you know new and interesting styles in a different way or whatever and
00:57:27
Speaker
So you're always gonna want to reshoot those guys. But nowadays it's more, I love trying to find, and obviously Instagram has made this even harder where the guys who have great style, understandably, are held up on social media and on these kind of platforms. So a lot more people know about them. And so at events like Pity, they're,
00:57:54
Speaker
everybody photographs them but trying to find that one guy where you're kind of like oh snap nobody knows about this guy like i want to um you know i want to shoot this guy like i remember when i did um
00:58:07
Speaker
when I brought my book out, this guy, one of the guys that I wanted to use in the book was Gerardo Cavalieri, who everybody knows now, but at the time, he was pretty low key. I mean, I don't know if Instagram was maybe that small, it was smaller back then or whatever, but I remember I had only come across him on Matt Rannick's Instagram and I asked Matt, I was like, hey, could you introduce me? I'm working on this project.
00:58:37
Speaker
You know, you have this Italian Indiana Jones on there. I'm like, can you please, I'd love to have him in the book. And I, you know, Gerardo was very sweet and was very, yeah, considering like this random dude's like, you know, email about the bloom is just kind of like, hey man, I want to come take pictures of you and your city. He was like really like, you know, like absolutely, it was incredibly generous with his time. Showed me around Rome, which was great.
00:59:05
Speaker
hell yeah and he and he looks amazing and then hilariously i remember i was like understandably ranic snaked me and ranic that was the first one matt released uh his the first issue of his magazine that was dorado on the cover understandably and i remember being like
00:59:21
Speaker
Damn it Matt! He beat me he beat me to the punch but I'm like and then since then like you know um I see Gerardo understanding like being featured um everywhere and everybody's holding him up rightfully so it's like this incredibly stylish man. I just remember seeing him on Matt's uh on Matt's Instagram and being like
00:59:44
Speaker
He was I always I embellish or misremember things and I'm like in my head he was basically wearing this like chambray shirt with like I think a red neckerchief or bandana or something like that these kind of like high-waisted army fatigues or something and in my head I think this is where I'm embellishing he was had like this leather gun holster all around me
01:00:09
Speaker
That did not go where I thought it was going to go, but sure. And he's standing next to this biplane. And basically, he was like, I think the caption was something like, I've just flown this baby down into it. And I'm like, wait, what? This guy? And so every time I go back to the picture, I'm like, right, there was no gun holster. But in my mind, I'm like, he just looks like this awesome guy from, as I say, from Indiana. I thought he was the Italian Indiana Jones guy. Road war, he did well.
01:00:37
Speaker
And I was like, I was like, wait, what? And then he's like, oh, and then he's in Rome and he's being you know, he's in his atelier, you know, creating these beautiful tailored garments and stuff. And I'm just like, who the fuck is this guy? This is nuts. And wow. But yeah, it's and it's.
01:00:53
Speaker
to kind of come back around to what we were talking about. It's trying to find those kinds of guys who are finding those people where I'm like, holy shit, who is this? I've never seen. And it's become much, much, much harder these days purely because, as I say, everybody's got a phone, everybody's got a camera on them. So it's being, you know, this style, these people are being documented far more than they ever were when I was kind of coming up
01:01:21
Speaker
But I feel like every now and again, you can find them. They are out there, man. They are. Yeah. It's all just dumb luck. You gotta catch them all. Yeah, exactly. You gotta catch them all. Exactly. Just out of curiosity, and I'm just not remembering, but have you ever shot Luciano Barbera? No, no. Oh, okay.
01:01:47
Speaker
There's a couple, there's a friend of mine, another Canadian guy called Neil Watson, I believe, who has this amazing photograph of him. I think I'm correct in thinking it's, I think it's Luciano Barbara. And it was, he had this, I think he shot him, shot him with film as well. And it's this incredible photograph of him and I just being like,
01:02:09
Speaker
Yeah I get so professionally jealous at times when I see some of my peers or other photographers work and I'm just like oh my god like and that I remember that shot in Neilsuk I was like this phenomenal and I just had never it's that sometimes that thing where you're not
01:02:25
Speaker
around like he uh you know these people aren't either turning up or like i remember i don't know i'm too sure where this gentleman lives but there's um a gentleman who scott schumann always shoots beppe modanese um and like very very old town gentleman not too sure where he is in italy but he was another guy where i'm like oh man i'd love to shoot him but it's like unless these people are attending pity i'm like it's gonna be much harder for me to kind of try and um try and photograph them so
01:02:51
Speaker
Yeah, it's weird. That would also be people that I'd still would love to photograph one day if I could, but the likelihood of that is probably less so than the people I'd come across in Florence or London, for example. Right, right. Well, I hope that that comes to fruition for you. Thanks, Matt. Thank you. Yeah, fingers crossed.
01:03:16
Speaker
So, uh, I think it was either last week or a couple of weeks back. Um, you, you know, you posted some stuff on, uh, on Instagram from shooting a polo campaign.
Shooting for Polo Ralph Lauren: A Unique Experience
01:03:27
Speaker
Um, of course we have to meet our, our Ralph quotient for the, or our, sorry, for the show. But, uh, what is the process like of shooting such a huge international brand?
01:03:41
Speaker
Um, so that was, uh, it was amazing. Like I, um, Ralph and I, we've kind of Ralph, like we, we have danced around each other a bit. So I did something for them, something enough ages ago where.
01:03:59
Speaker
when this guy came out there, and obviously they're a huge global brand. They have many, many different departments globally. And the UK, I think the UK arm of their PR department reached out and they liked the book and they basically were like the idea of doing something similar. So I basically got, I think it was four of my friends and they were wearing
01:04:27
Speaker
polo collection from I think it was no from that autumn winter whenever it was either autumn winter 19 or autumn winter 20 and it was specifically for the producer they had just launched the polo app and they kind of wanted it was a similar idea like so these guys wearing styling out polo in their in their manner shot in the kind of their environments around London and stuff
01:04:51
Speaker
and it featured on the app. And loved that, loved working on that. It was great. You know, for me, that was like, again, a bucket list thing to kind of be like, oh, snap, I've shot something for polo now, which is amazing. And then obviously COVID hit. And yeah, and then everybody's kind of just been kind of picking themselves up and getting themselves back on their feet, whatever, you know, in the last three or four years. And we've kind of been in touch with each other either sometimes from the US department, sometimes from the European department,
01:05:20
Speaker
of just like availability and stuff like that. So they'll always reach out and kind of be like, check on my availability for certain things. And unfortunately, in the past, it's like we haven't been able to land on anything. And it just so happened that this time around, they were basically preparing the launch for this massive launch for their new collection for Polo called Polo Originals, which they had shot at Goodwood at the racetrack there.
01:05:46
Speaker
And they were essentially launching part of it over the same weekend as the latest Goodwood Festival of Speed. So they were one of the two major sponsors for that festival. And the idea was they asked me to go along with another photographer to kind of capture guests that they had invited to the paddocks where they were. So they had this Ralph Lauren area right on the starting grid of the race.
01:06:16
Speaker
and where all these kind of vintage cars race incredible incredible festival and they basically were like can you do what you do and reach out you know do what you do and photograph the event and photograph these people coming through like so basically like reportage event photography um and which then was going to sit alongside the campaign that had been shot um at goodwood um you know by um i can't remember the name of it um the gentleman who um shot it
01:06:46
Speaker
But alongside that the incredible campaign that that was shot then and I was just like, Oh my god, that would be amazing. And, and it's always that thing it's that kind of pinch me moment where you're always a bit like,
01:06:59
Speaker
hopefully it comes off and you know there may be something they're gonna turn I still suffer incredibly from imposter syndrome and I'm like now they're gonna turn around and be like oh wait we sorry we thought you were somebody else we don't want you to like it's not you we want this guy to shoot and I'm like waiting and made out there and
01:07:21
Speaker
managed to kind of one be in that environment at Goodwood, which was incredible, see all the stuff, the Ralph Lauren, like, as you said, the paddock that they kind of had created, which had all the imagery and the video that had been created specifically for the campaign, was able to meet, I cannot, unfortunately, always struggle to pronounce his last name, John Varzev. Oh, yes. I had zero idea. Yeah. Zero idea.
01:07:46
Speaker
A hero, an absolute hero of my fellow Canadian, which I did not realize. Oh, really? No, yeah. And had the pleasure of meeting him and his wife, Patty, who were attending, obviously, the festival. And it was just an absolutely amazing experience. Just, I absolutely loved it. Yeah, but it's an insane process. Like, it's about as,
01:08:14
Speaker
intense as you could think it would be for a brand that size. But it made less intense because everybody that you're working with, the team that's there, the team that I was working with from Ralph and stuff,
01:08:29
Speaker
Everybody's on it. Everybody knows what they're doing. Everybody's into what they're doing as well. Like everybody wholly buys into everything that's trying to be created there and the experience and that the world
Ralph Lauren's Global Brand Impact
01:08:40
Speaker
of Ralph. So, you know, you're just trying to do your little part to facilitate, you know, what's what's needed. Yeah. But yeah, absolutely incredible experience. There are a few brands that really, in my opinion, like
01:08:56
Speaker
do what Ralph does well. And honestly, I can't think of another brand that like, has basically an entire lifestyle built into their, you know, brand DNA. Yeah. Yeah, it's, I also it's, it's a funny, it's a funny question. It's because I've, I asked this question to a lot of my friends in the industry is that I'm like,
01:09:20
Speaker
Do you think it would be at all possible for any brand this day and age to create something, even given time, to create the same world that Ralph's created?
01:09:38
Speaker
Everything is so diversified now that it's like, I just don't think it's possible. Like every, like the sheer spectrum of what they do, like men's wear, women's wear, casual, formal, lifestyle, home, you know what I mean? It's like, it's absolutely insane. And I just don't think it's like, I don't think anybody could do it these days. I don't think so either. I mean, I feel like
01:10:07
Speaker
some Japanese companies or conglomerates, you know, beams, United Arrows, etc. They get close, but it's not on the same level. And it's done a different way. I think that's the astounding thing is that it's like, yeah, I mean, and I love beams, but I'm like,
01:10:25
Speaker
you know, you know, it's Ralph's synonymous everywhere, everywhere. You know, like that little polo player, man, like it's, you know, it's globally recognized. Right. You can go to the middle of nowhere. And if someone saw you wearing a little pony on your chest, they would be like, oh, you like polo. Exactly. Exactly.
01:10:49
Speaker
Yeah, I was just going to say like a lot of the stuff that I see that is like sort of further out from clothing that they make, it kind of makes sense. Like towels, you would figure. Kind of checks out, you know, like I don't know if people have like dinnerware, polo dinnerware, but like that would not surprise me terribly. It just doesn't. I think that they have been able to
01:11:19
Speaker
make it all encompassing in a way that other brands haven't. And I don't really know why the other ones haven't, but to your point, I think that it's not possible at this point. Yeah, no, no, I get it. Also, I've just read, just because I would be remiss if I didn't remember, but I remembered the photographer's, it was Richard Phibbs is the guy who shot the originals campaign and it's phenomenal. It's so good.
01:11:49
Speaker
Yeah, we'll link to that. Yeah.
01:11:53
Speaker
Well, Jamie, man, this has been a super fun conversation. And I'm going to be thinking about menswear Indiana Jones for the rest of the day and giggling
Conclusion: Follow Jamie Ferguson on Instagram
01:12:03
Speaker
in my head. We all will be, man. Yeah. Yeah. That's an image that needs dreams tonight, man. I really hope so. Yeah. Thank you for coming on. We always like to give our guests a chance to shout out themselves, whatever they want to. So please feel free.
01:12:22
Speaker
No, I mean, I will not shout out anything. I appreciate anybody who, you know, falls on Instagram, whatever. Anybody who's familiar with my work, I really appreciate anybody who's, you know, given me a positive word in the past. Yeah, appreciate everything. And thank you so much, you guys, for having me on. It's been a fun, a real fun discussion. Like, I love, again, I love kind of like,
01:12:46
Speaker
documents we're talking photography and with like-minded individuals man it's all good totally well at least get at least shout out your instagram handle sure so i'm at jkf underscore man on instagram great great highly recommended um yeah so one more time uh thank you jamie very good um thank you guys
01:13:11
Speaker
Thank you everyone for listening. If you like what you hear, please subscribe and rate on your platform of choice. If you want to reach out, we are apocalypseduds at gmail.com at apocalypseduds on Instagram. I am Matt Smith at Rubble's Rogues. And I'm Connor Fowler at Connor Fowler. And we will see you next week.