“Trend again then was such unbelievable theatre,” says Gavin Bond, whose new e book and exhibition paperwork a bygone period of glamour and enjoyable backstage
Gavin Bond enrolled in a style design course at Central Saint Martins in 1988. Little did he know then, however he was about to immerse himself in one of the crucial thrilling moments in British style historical past: the age of the supermodel was in full swing, glamour was about to present option to grunge within the pages of magazines like Dazed, i-D and The Face, and a radical new faculty of designers have been about to alter the trade without end. London was on the coronary heart of all of it, and CSM was an incubator for a lot of of its most ingenious changemakers – throughout Bond’s research alone, his contemporaries included John Galliano, Alexander McQueen, Hussein Chalayan, Giles Deacon, and Katie Grand. “It was that sort of melting pot of time,” he tells AnOther.
Opening this week at Hamiltons Gallery, Bond’s first ever solo exhibition Being There paperwork this pivotal second in style, taking us backstage at among the 90s’ most historic reveals, by means of pictures he started taking 30 years in the past whereas he was nonetheless a scholar. “With my diploma course, clearly the most popular ticket was going to reveals throughout style week,” Bond remembers. “By likelihood in the direction of the tip of my commencement, I ended up going to a Vivienne Westwood present the place I used to be working with one other scholar. She wrote a chunk and I went backstage with a digital camera and ran round and took some footage. And I suppose they have been good; they ended up being printed in The Occasions by journalist Iain R Webb, who was the style director on the time. Then they sparked Vivienne’s curiosity.”
Six months later, Westwood invited Bond to doc her seminal sexually-charged Cafe Society present, the place a topless Kate Moss famously got here down the runway carrying solely a micro skirt and a pirate hat whereas consuming a Magnum ice cream. Westwood turned these pictures right into a promotional poster afterwards, and from then on Bond gained entry to among the largest reveals in London, Paris and Milan. “Trend again then was such unbelievable theatre,” he says. “There’s a lot Galliano within the e book, and each one in all his reveals was one thing utterly completely different. The women become these characters and it was virtually like they have been coming into right into a play or a movie manufacturing. And there wasn’t social media then; individuals would go and watch the reveals and also you’d come away with solely a reminiscence and a fantasy. It was such a particular time to be a part of style.”
Bond’s many footage from these years – nearly all of which he unearthed within the quiet of lockdown in 2020, whereas sequestered in a cabin within the woods in upstate New York – are unusually romantic for backstage pictures. Shot solely in black and white on a sluggish, medium format movie digital camera, they seize supermodels Carla, Cindy, Christy, Claudia, Kate, Linda and Naomi on the apex of their collective fame. Although, quite than documenting them as towering icons, Bond’s portraits strike a uncommon stability between cinematic depth and a candid ease, capturing little moments of magnificence and stillness amid the hectic flurry of exercise backstage. “It’s unusual trying again,” Bond says. “I went into it with such innocence and such naivety. In a means it was the start for me, and with us all being the identical age I didn’t go into it with that type of, ‘God, it’s Kate Moss’ feeling. I feel that’s what makes the photographs particular as a result of you possibly can see that it’s comfy.”
Alongside the exhibition, Bond can be releasing a e book with Concept which delves into these years in a barely completely different means; among the pictures seem in color and tackle a extra irreverent temper – fashions enjoying round, consuming champagne, and smoking fags backstage. The foreword to the e book is written by legendary artwork supplier Philippe Garner, who first bought a number of of Bond’s pictures when the photographer was simply 23. “It’s sort of come full circle,” he says. “It’s sort of ironic that my first main present and my first main e book is just about the primary time I picked up a digital camera, which is de facto thrilling.”
Bond, who now primarily shoots main celebrities and Hollywood movie stars – from Iggy Pop to Angelina Jolie – in huge, shiny productions for magazines like GQ, says these instinctual early footage are a few of his greatest works. “In all probability why that’s, is simply that they’re easy and true,” he says. “You take a look at these moments and that’s the actual factor. Even now, there’s most likely nothing I take pleasure in greater than that sort of pictures which has no bells and whistles, the place it’s simply me and a digital camera.”
Gavin Bond: Being There is on view at Hamiltons Gallery in London till 29 October 2022. The e book, Gavin Bond: Being There, is that can be purchased right here.
