The Fresh Eye #3: Fashion Television
Backstage with Nan Devitt & John Cressley, Nov. 21 2020
Earlier this week, the Alliance Française de Chicago hosted an online panel discussion with two of Fashion Television’s Paris field crew, producer Nan Devitt and cameraman John Cressley. Author Aimée Laberge interviewed them about their experiences working on the groundbreaking 1980s CityTV program with some supplemental questions from the 20 or so attendees.
Over the course of an hour they discussed their observations of how the fashion industry has changed in the past four decades, shared anecdotes about models, designers and celebrities, and reflected on how FTV innovated both the consumption of fashion and techniques in television production.
“Fast [turnaround] edits and off-tripod shots were very new ideas at the time,” Nan said. “There wasn’t much reality TV.”
“At the first Yves St. Laurent show I shot, we used 7 film cameras all on tripods,” said John. “There was total silence. It was very ceremonial. [FTV was] such a relief, to be free with the camera on my shoulder and getting involved with the people.”
It was interesting to hear how stiff and buttoned-up the atmosphere could be at the shows in the early 1980s.
“In 1982, in the couture world, the front row was made up of aristocrats and two or three of the top journalists and buyers,” John said. “You’d see a dress called “Number Four,” all the women would write down “number four” in their notebooks.
“The revolution of Nan and FTV was to become part of the fashion world, to have access to everyone who was involved in that world at that time,” John continued. “What is most prized is access.”
The gradual “celebrification” of both the runway and the audience was a recurring topic, what John called the “democratization of the front row.”
“Instead of the aristocrats and industry insiders you’d start to see Chaka Khan, Phil Collins, Hugh Grant,” John said.
“I loved to get reactions from famous faces,” added Nan. She recalls seeing Paul & Linda McCartney watch Stella McCartney’s first show for Chloe in 1998 and a missed opportunity to interview Paul.
“They were like two parents at a ballet recital or a baseball game. They kept reacting to the show and were so charming. After the show [security] whisked them into a tent-within-a-tent and I remember John saying ‘Let it go, Nan, he’s a Beatle, he’s been a Beatle for a very long time.’”
Another tectonic shift in the fashion industry that can be linked to emerging media like FTV was the supermodel phenomenon.
“We gave [models] a voice, a name, and made them more identifiable,” John said. “Models weren't named on magazine covers or credited in the spreads.”
“When we interviewed them, we didn't ask them about the show because that would be indiscreet,” said Nan. “We’d do features about them personally or get quotes from them for thematic features. We did lots of model interviews on style evolution as grunge happened and as the clothes and models became grittier, models like Amber [Valletta] & Shalom [Harlow].”
“Portraits of models outside of runways increased their interest in [FTV] & our interest in them,” adds John. “They became human, not just pretty faces.”
This created a tension between the designers and top models John characterized as a backlash.
“The couturier felt left in shadow of models,” he said. “At the time there were four or five big models that were very expensive, people thought you couldn't do a show if you didn't have Christy Turlington, Helena Christiansen, Naomi Campbell or Cindy Crawford.
“Versace drove that with their unlimited budgets.”
Nan & John also shared fond recollections of designers Karl Lagerfeld and Yves St. Laurent.
“[Lagerfeld] I had a lot of respect for because he was designing so many lines,” said John. “He was designing 16 collections a year; four collections each across four lines, Fendi, Chloe, Chanel and Lagerfeld.”
“I think we interviewed him 94 times,” added Nan. “That's a lot of chats with Karl.”
‘One of the things with access was having spent the time & developed a mutual respect [with designers],” John said. “When we'd go backstage at YSL in the ‘80s and ‘90s we didn't have to ask permission. His driver would walk us backstage before any other crew.”
“I remember we visited a Matisse show in 1988 and found Yves standing in front of a Matisse tableau, having his moment,” Nan said. “We had a special relationship. He didn't like to talk on camera but the trusted us.”
John talked about being moved by St. Laurent’s runway shows.
“He made my viewfinder fog up because my eyes were watering, particularly with Michel who made his music. I found I was able to really get into it and move my camera in time with the music.”
Nan recalls she and John interviewing St. Laurent in his later years.
“Sometimes he would be crying in interviews and people would say ‘How did you get that? He never talks in interviews!’”
“[He] was not in good shape,’ added John. “When Nan approached him, he'd grab onto the microphone and hang onto it like a life belt. He looked so relieved to see a friend. The interview would be very few words but it would be extremely intense. I don't know how he found the energy to do [the shows, they were] absolutely beautiful.”
“It’s very sad, for me, to be watching these clips and seeing all the people who aren’t there anymore.”
I put together a YouTube playlist of some of my favourite Fashion Television clips, mostly from the ‘80s and ‘90s “golden era.” There are promos and bumpers, interviews with celebrities and designers, and a cool backstage “model cam” segment from a show by Janet the Planet, who some may know from her appearance on RuPaul’s Drag Race earlier this year.
The Fresh Eye Twitch stream
Every weekday at 1pm Eastern I go live on Twitch to talk about some facet of fashion. This week I looked at recent collections from Alexander McQueen & N. Hoolywood, learned about photographer Norman Parkinson, and mused about virtual fashion shows & how designers are experimenting with presentations during COVID (start at 9 mins, there were audio issues for the first bit of the stream).
Past streams are available on my Twitch page.
Thanks for reading, and if you’re interested in working with me on an image consultation, get in touch!
Jordan Lane, CMC
Fresh Eye Image Consulting
thefresheye.net