photo district news fashion show polaroid with douglas hopkins 20x24 camera

Special recognition for the softest soft-sell of the monthgoes to Polaroid for its April 28 Event: "Image byDesign."

Held at Parsons School of Design in conjunction withNew York City's Fashion Marketing Week, Polaroid's"Image" was a fashion show, product demo, photoexhibit, and "celebration of the creative spirit"blended, or maybe thrown, together into one visual pre-sentation. As Polaroid's own press release queried,"What is Polaroid doing in the fashion business?" Wewondered as much ourselves, but to no avail. SaidDirector of Publicity Eelco Wolf, "We are celebratingthe drama of the visual, and the excitement created byinnovative design, in instant photography and in fash-ion"

Accept that as an explanation if you can, but fact wasthat whatever Polaroid's motivation, the Event as awhole was exciting and, more importantly, Different.Attended mainly by the New York fashion press and thewomen's service magazines' ADs and editors, the showspotlighted the clothing designs of three young sartorialwhippersnappers: Anna Sui, Vivienne Tam, andSteven Sprouse. Not being of the fashion press, I amnot obligated to wax enthusiastic. Suffice it to say thatTam and Sui went the way of bag-lady chic, whileSprouse drew inspiration from those glorious localeswhere men are men and women are unwelcome.

Unlike the other designers' fall collections that gracedManhattan's runways that week, Polaroid's presentationincluded Harvard Ph.D. Virginia Rice speaking onwomen's problems with self-image and how instantsnaps can help the ladies out; teacher John Schaefer onthe natural sophistication of childrens' design sense asmanifested through the kiddies' SX-70s; and wacky vis-ual artist Iain Baxter urging us all to "upset the apple-cart," hopefully while Polaroiding the whole process.

All this philosophizing was led off by a dynamic slideshow of Sun Series 600 fashion work by DouglasHopkins (described in Pola-PR as a "nice guy," butdon't hold it against him). Hopkins also shot the 2020 x 24s of Sui, Tam and Sprouse's samples thatadorned the walls. On hand at Image with Polaroidtechnician John Reuter and Senior Publicity SpecialistDiane Bair. Hopkins and the impressive 20 x24 werestationed in the auditorium's back recesses to captureeager attendees' images after the show. Response wasenthusiastic, as 300 members of the press elbowed eachother aside to claim the seamless for a one-of-a-kindportrait from the Big Camera. Hopkins shot for severalhours, until the supply of ASA 64 20 x24 color mate-rial was exhausted, as was Hopkins, no doubt.

Was Image by Design successful in getting Polaroid'starget audience of magazine ADs and fashion press peo-ple to "think Polaroid?" Apparently. Diane Bairdescribed the response as "fantastic" and added thatmany people "said it was one of the most creativeshows they'd ever seen" So, if your next job calls for aPolaroid as the final, now you'll know why.

Additional credits for Image go to Kezia Keeble forcoordinating the production and for helping to select theup-and-coming designers; to Click for supplying 28 ofthe 29 models; and to Lydia Snyder and Louis Alonzo(of Pipino-Buccheri) for makeup and hair, respectively.

Incidentally, I continue to hear rumors about the pos-sibility of a permanent installation of one of the BigCameras in the Big Apple, so if you New Yorkers areinterested, lobby the Pola-folks. The camera costs $600a day to rent and about $40 a pop for materials.