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!