June 15, 2011 |
FROM THE VAULT (SUMMER 2008)
Dennis Freedman: Creative Director, Barneys
A much as I’d prefer to talk about that handsome grin, his distinguished salt’n’pepper hair, that old Hollywood movie-star glamour and a body that we hear is pretty damn fantastic for a fiftysomethinger, we’re going to take the high road here – for once – and talk about Dennis Freedman’s accomplishments in the workplace. (Just picture a Harrison Ford of the fashion world as you read this and you’ll be up to speed.)
Freedman, creative director of W magazine,was an integral part of the magazine’s redesign 15 years ago, quickly bumping it up to the top of the artistic and influential fashion magazine pile. Just a sampling of the photogs he likes to work with: Craig McDean, Bruce Weber, David Sims, Mario Sorrenti, Juergen Teller and Richard Prince. And he’s not just re-vamping stuff and pushing the envelope at W; he’s also working on press materials for Dolce & Gabbana, Calvin Klein Jeans, Helmut Lang, Celine and Marc Jacobs.
Although I have an immediate aversion to suave gentlemen in senior positions at hot magazines (that stems from my low self-esteem and jealousy, or so says my shrink), Freedman won me over last year at a lecture series at the New York Public Library. The name of the series was Money, Money, Money, Money and the subject was about the price of creativity and innovation.
Sure, there were some other people on the panel who tried to validate the the big paychecks of photographers, and others who tried to explain how and why fashion powerhouses broker and commission the fine-arts world, but i was hypnotised by Freedman’s objective, frank discourses. He didn’t seem too caught up in the money or too moved by the debate over what was art and what was fashion.He seemed more concerned with what was a good image. Even if what he thought was a good image was a picture of Matthew Barney vomiting on himself.
It was just after the art issue had come out – the one where Richard Prince had forged the signatures of Hollywood tarts and put them on the mag’s cover – and he said that what he’d liked most about that issue was the reaction.Sure there would be lots of letters and he accepted that more that one person might cancel their subscription because of it, but it didn’t matter to him. He was more concerned with the idea that W keeps its grip of high fashion, good art and moving pictures. And since he’s been there, it has.
by Derek Blasberg
