Vincent Gallo interviewed by Katharina

Interview with Vincent Gallo during New York Fashion Week

Journalist: Katharina Kowalewski
Camera & Editing: Bruno Barthas
© 2008 by KO.FASHION. All rights reserved.

K: So, what are you looking at? V: I am looking at a picture of myself, of course

K: Can you tell us what you saw today and what you are doing here during New York Fashion Week? V: I saw the Anna Sui show. It was good

K: I met her in Paris V: She is a good person. She is a very interesting person.

K: How was the show? Did you like it? V: The show was good. She had some interesting references there. It felt like there was a references to Klimt and some Renaissance references, too. Also, a reference to Native American beadwork. So somehow she is able to express those references still within her profile and silhouette. and it was really interesting to see that.

K: And how important is fashion and fashion week to you? Because you go to a lot of fashion shows? V: You know the sun is seven light seconds away, the closest star is several thousands of light years away…so the story of the universe is very big. When you use a word like important, you know let’s give it some relativity. Nothing that we are doing on the planet is important- nothing…we are earthlings mustering around on this speckle of the cosmos. But, in regards to the mental world and the way that we know it, earth, planet earth, in this time in my life, going to a fashion show is certainly more compelling and more exciting than seeing most movies or seeing most bands, because the level of sophistication and the people, the sophistication of the people involved in fashion, in my experience, the way that I understand it is on a much higher scale. If I am working with Steven Meisel or Richard Avedon doing an advertising campaign when Avedon was alive, I felt like I was in a more creative environment than when I’ve been working with film-makers, for example, I would rather work in a fan with Terry Richardson than a Emir Kusturica who is not a very interesting person at all, he is a primitive pig and people on film sets are not so interesting.

K: So you get inspired by fashion or ... V. I don’t get inspired in a way that people, I am not like a Wes Anderson or film makers who get inspired by the work of other people, but I do get excited and that excitement does make me continue to do my own work or still feel like things are exciting and I haven’t seen everything and etc etc. That’s what I mean.

K: so what are your upcoming projects? V: I’ve just finished directing another movie, and so I have to go back to Los Angeles and edit the movie now.

K: What kind of movie, can you just tell us a bit? V: It’s one of my films and you know film have their own life, so when I am done editing it I will know exactly what kind of movie it is, right now I only have intuition.

K: But you play in it? V: I am in it, yes

K: And what are your plans for the week, which shows are you going to attend? Does it also remind you of your past as a model? V. Well I was never really a model, I did some work in fashion and advertising but to call me a model might be a stretch, you know, there was a time in fashion where they could use an ugly person and throw them in with a bunch of pretty girls and that was interesting, and so I was good for that, but that‘s about it.

K: You are very modest sometimes V: Ah I am telling you the truth K. Thank you very much, nice to meet you V. Thank you very much!