Everyone’s talking about Rachel Tashjian’s Washington Post deep dive into the cult-like allure of Zara.
From its 1975 Spanish origins to its current position as global gateway to high end aesthetics, it’s certainly the brand of the moment for those who aspire to The Row, Bottega, Loewe et al on a non-luxury budget.
Tashjian spoke to a number of A-list fashion creatives who have worked with or are working with Zara. Think Fabien Baron, Narciso Rodriguez, photographer Craig McDean, hairstylist Guido and even Linda Evangelista, who modelled for Zara’s collaboration with Steven Meisellast autumn. “There’s no shame in [wearing Zara] — there’s pride in it. It’s not, ‘Oh I have Zara today, let me bang it out.’ There’s effort that goes into it,” says Evangelista.
Her quote reminded me of the mid-2000s ‘Primarni” years, when wearing Primark was a ‘savvy shopper’ badge of honour amongst fashion editors. Tashjian doesn’t mention this but instead refers to the high-low mix of pairing Phoebe-era Celine with Zara. While it was applauded at the time, by the eco-conscious mid-2010s, that thinking was out of favour.
Interestingly, I’ve never been a Zara girl and don’t think I mentioned Zara in my 2016 book The New Garconne* (which was all about those sartorial styling dualities: luxury x utilitarian; masculine x feminine; casual x formal). While I featured high street brands in my recommendations, they were the less trend-driven ones, because Zara was still considered to be unethical fast fashion and directly copying catwalk designers was not something one championed.
These days however (and despite its churn of product) Zara has successfully rebranded itself for the eco-minded fashion industry-savvy consumer. Thanks to founder Amancio Ortega’s daughter Marta Ortega Perez, who now runs the show, Zara is seen as stylish, aspirational and even somewhat ‘sustainable’, with a variety of sub-collections catering to the whims of every type of niche fashionista.
With creatives such as Steven Meisel, Joe McKenna and Karl Templer heavily involved, the details are as on point as your favourite luxury brand. “The evolution has been from good taste neutralism, almost like going to an amazing department store and you find all kinds of sub-collections,” says stylist Templer, who creative directed the latest SRPLS collection (above). I mean, even hairstyling royalty Guido has launched his own Zara haircare line. As he declares, “Zara is a designer brand now”.
WORDS: Disneyrollergirl / Navaz Batliwalla IMAGE: Zara SRPLS collection/Craig McDean NOTE: Most images are digitally enhanced. Some posts use affiliate links and PR samples. Please read my privacy and cookies policy here
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If you enjoyed the interview with Shane Taylor last week, here’s a bonus post. I touched on this subject when Shane and I met, but we later realised there was more to say. Shane has been open about experiencing anxiety, so I asked him to email me his thoughts on how street photography had helped him to manage his social anxiety.
As an introvert who frequently experiences social awkwardness, I found this very honest account somewhat relatable. Maybe you will too…
DRG: Tell me about how you used street photography to help with your social anxiety?
Shane Taylor: Everyone should try street photography for anxiety. It’s exercise. It gets you out in the sunlight. Like any craft, it’ll focus your mind in an effort to get better at it. It’s also a simple way of engaging with society and developing a sense of empathy.
Personally, I’ve struggled with social anxiety for most of my life. For me, it manifests as an overwhelming, irrational worry about what people are thinking about me. It’s taken me years to realise that the best way to cope with it is to force myself to be as social as possible. To say yes when every instinct is to say no.
When it was bad, it was very bad, by the way. In my twenties, I was a 350lb shut-in. I was a terrible flake who avoided and lied to friends until I had none. I couldn’t do the most basic things like shop for myself or draw money from an ATM if people were queuing. For almost ten years I never went to the cinema (my favourite place in the world), a club, a wedding, or any kind of social gathering.
When I was 28, I figured this was either going to kill me or I could at least try to gain control over it. (I credit a lot of the reason for my change in mind to watching movies and reading books about cowardice. Two movies specifically – Billy Liar and Zorba the Greek. Which I think speaks to the importance of art in sharing the human experience, and making people feel less alone with their struggles.) In quick succession, I lost 100lbs through diet and exercise. I met a girl. I went to college for a degree course in graphic design, and I moved into a house share in Dublin City.
I found photography in college through books by Robert Frank, Joel Meyerowitz and William Eggleston. I tried street photography, thinking it would at least get me out of the house-share during the day. It forced me to be in public and to do simple things like get public transport and interact with people every day even if it was just to order coffee. It helped quiet my anxiety to a point where it became a lot easier to cope with.
Nowadays, when I’m taking photos, I’ll occasionally have a moment on a sunny day in London, where I’m in a swell of people and I feel fully relaxed. No anxiety. Like I’m flowing in a river of humanity and I’m not fighting it. I’m going along with it and there’s no worry at all.
It’s a fucking great feeling and I’d love for everyone with anxiety to experience that.
Thank you Shane!
Read the full Shane Taylor interview here. See Shane’s co-curated street photography exhibition here.
WORDS: Disneyrollergirl / Navaz Batliwalla IMAGES: Shane Taylor NOTE: Most images are digitally enhanced. Some posts use affiliate links and PR samples. Please read my privacy and cookies policy here
CLICK HERE to get Disneyrollergirl blog posts straight to your inbox once a week CLICK HERE to buy my book, The New Garconne: How to be a Modern Gentlewoman CLICK HERE to buy my beauty book, Face Values: The New Beauty Rituals and Skincare
Continuing the Cartier love, another major reveal at this month’s Watches & Wonders was the magnificent Reflection de Cartier bangle watch (above). In sleek yellow gold with its sculptural cuff form, it’s giving 1970s Andrew Grima forOmega (below) and I’m not complaining. Launch date and price are TBC, but let’s just say it’s likely a look-but-don’t-touch affair for most of us.
Something else to look forward to, Danish jewellery brand Kinraden is teaming up with fellow Danes, Skall Studio on these recycled sterling silver and 18K gold pieces. Previewed at Skall Studio’s Copenhagen Fashion Week show, my standout pieces are the brooches and hair pins (below), which drop in early September.
Lastly, IIlaria Icardi is on a mission to make magnifying glass pendants socially acceptable a thing. Her 18K gold magnifying lens on an 18K gold chain (below) is on my radar – just the thing for discreet menu magnification. Alternatively, try 1stDibs for 1980s Chanel*, or your local thrift market for the budget option. Fellow Gen Xers, thank me later.
WORDS: Disneyrollergirl / Navaz Batliwalla IMAGES: Cartier; Andrew Grima/Omega; Thomas Degner for Kinraden x 2; Kinraden; Ilaria Icardi NOTE: Most images are digitally enhanced. Some posts use affiliate links* and PR samples. Please read my privacy and cookies policy here
CLICK HERE to get Disneyrollergirl blog posts straight to your inbox once a week CLICK HERE to buy my book, The New Garconne: How to be a Modern Gentlewoman CLICK HERE to buy my beauty book, Face Values: The New Beauty Rituals and Skincare
A few years ago, I started following Shane Taylor (aka @heroesforsale) on Instagram. His street photography focusing mostly on a pocket of Mayfair caught my attention; his captured gestures and poetic moments a nod to mid-century greats like Saul Leiter and Garry Winogrand. Originally from Tipperary, he arrived in London in 2019, immersing himself in the people-watching potential of its diverse inhabitants. Building an Instagram following, he branched out into Framelines, a YouTube channel, printed magazine and Patreon community with his co-pilot Josh Edgoose. And now he has co-curated the Street Life exhibition at David Hill Gallery in West London, showcasing the work of 18 photographers, including Larry Fink, Harold Feinstein and Greg Girard, as well as his own photography. I sat down with him – in my fave corner of Mayfair of course – to discuss street photography etiquette, community-building and the poetry of London life.
WHERE ARE YOU FROM?
I’m from Tipperary, which is right in the middle of Ireland. It’s like the Texas of Ireland; it’s very flat land, very rural. I’m from a small town of 400 people.
HOW DID YOU GET INTO STREET PHOTOGRAPHY?
I was studying design as a mature student in Dublin. As part of the course, we had a module in photography. For the first six months, our tutor never showed up because he was having some kind of pay dispute with the college, so I spent most of that time in the library. It was a really great library with loads of photobooks by people like William Eggleston, Garry Winogrand and Elliot Erwitt. And then I realised there was this thing called ‘street photography’, where you didn’t need models, you didn’t need production, you didn’t need a big team behind you. It was just a way of expressing yourself through photography, on a very low budget. All you needed was a camera and a pair of shoes.
WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING TO CAPTURE IN AN IMAGE?
That is an interesting question because I don’t think anyone that really does photography knows what they’re looking for. Maybe a sense of human connection. Or it can be like, I’m sure you have moments from a favourite movie, or a favourite song that make you feel a certain way; that describe what it is about those movies or songs that makes you feel a connection to the person that has that perspective. So, if I can make a photograph where someone else sees that photo and imagines themselves in my shoes and can feel some empathy towards the person I’m photographing, I think that’s what I’m looking for. But it’s something I think about every day. All the time.
HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR STREET PHOTOGRAPHY?
I think there’s a relationship between poetry and the aspects of photography that I like. It’s almost like photographing the interior life of a person that’s out in public, amongst millions of people in one of the biggest cities in the world. Especially being able to capture that somewhere like the Underground, where you can focus on maybe two people interacting, or the way a person is reading a book or doing a crossword. Just whatever interior moments they’re having and being able to photograph it in a way where it’s relatable. I don’t think that much when I’m taking a picture. I just feel compelled to take the picture, then I think about it later. Sometimes I get lucky and look back on it and some mad coincidence has happened, like a piece of text that relates to the image itself.
DO YOU EVER STAGE YOUR SHOTS?
Because it’s an instinctual thing, I’ve never been compelled to ask, “is it OK to take a photograph?” Because it kind of ruins the energy that’s there; the thing that initially attracted me to photograph them. And it’s usually one or two snaps. And I’m walking all the time, I don’t usually hang around a lot. Most of the time I’m just walking, walking, walking. That’s what I love most about it. It’s all candid.
DO YOU TELL PEOPLE ABOUT YOUR INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT?
Hmm, no. I don’t usually tell them because I think that’s an extra layer that people might be annoyed by. But I’ve never had a situation in the UK, where someone’s seen the photograph and didn’t either love it or didn’t comment that much on it. I’d only take pictures where the person is like… I’m not taking away your dignity. I’m not trying to make people look like idiots. I’m trying to take pictures that have a humanistic beauty to them.
IS THERE AN ASSUMPTION THAT LEGALLY, STREET PHOTOGRAPHERS NEED TO GET PERMISSION?
If you’re standing in a public place, then you can take a picture. But then there are ethical concerns. So just because you can take a picture of something, doesn’t mean you should. You might take the picture, but then it’s another decision to post that online where thousands of people can see it. It’s really up to your own discretion. I think you should think long and hard about whether or not you you post photographs of people, especially vulnerable people.
TALK TO ME ABOUT FRAMELINES MAGAZINE.
My business partner, Josh Edgoose, and I found ourselves getting quite cynical about where street photography was going. How it was sort of homogenised – everyone’s taking the same pictures of the same window in Chinatown. It was all the same and kind of boring. Then we realised that this was our fault and we could do something about it. We realised that people aren’t looking at photographs outside of their phones. We figured if we could do a magazine where we feature 5/6/7/8 photographers in a wide range of different styles of street photography, that it would give something to the community that they could use as inspiration and do something for us. It’s refreshing to have a conversation as a photographer talking to another photographer. Because usually it’s maybe an art critic or photo editor or a podcaster talking to a photographer. But if it’s a photographer, then it’s more relatable to other photographers that are looking at the interview.
PHOTOBOOKS ARE IMPORTANT TO YOU. TELL ME ABOUT YOURS?
In 2019, I made a book called Fine Airs & Fine Graces, a reference to the Oliver Twist musical, which I used to watch when I was a kid. When I was nine or ten; watching people dance around, that’s what I thought London was. I made this book just to try and get whatever feeling that came across in my photographs into one book, to have some kind of cohesive thing to look at and maybe analyse myself and to put out in the world. I’ve had enormous connections with photobooks that I’ve bought, including one by Louis Faurer. That photobook had such an impact on me that I got halfway through it and I had to stop looking at it. It was too much emotional resonance. I really felt like this person is seeing through my eyes, or like I’m seeing through their eyes.
I modelled my book on the Louis Faurer book, so it’s the same size, quite small. Because it’s a huge trend in photobooks now, to make it as big as possible, with as few images as possible and a huge foreword handholding you through the imagery, telling you you’ve done a good job of buying this book because these images are important. So, I wanted to make a very simple, small photobook with a lot of pictures in it that gave someone the impression that this is like a journey through London. That’s how it’s sequenced actually; the very first photograph is coming out of Green Park Station and then it leads you from Jermyn Street, Piccadilly, Charing Cross. It’s almost overwhelming. There’s no space in it. There’s no text in it, just pictures. I wanted it to be overwhelming because that’s what it’s like walking through London.
WHY ARE WE SO FASCINATED BY STREET PHOTOGRAPHY?
It’s a very human thing. How many people go to a café just to people watch? It’s the same thing. I’m people-watching with a camera. I try to bring home that moment of seeing something interesting happen. So, I think it’s just an aspect of human nature.
HOW DID THE “STREET LIFE” EXHIBITION COME ABOUT?
It came about because I’d been aware of the photographer Harold Feinstein. And then I saw there was this exhibition in London of his work at David Hill Gallery. I got very excited about that, so I went and met David at the gallery and we had a really good chat about that period of street photography, and about Harold’s work. We kept in touch and David then approached me with the idea of doing an exhibition together, which I thought was a great extension of what we’re trying to do with the magazine. It allows people the opportunity to see these photos in their best form, not just in a printed magazine, which, even though we put a lot of work into making sure the images look good, can’t match a print on a gallery wall that’s perfectly lit. Being able to work with the photographers that we work with throughout the magazine, taking some of the most interesting images and then having David curate it all in a brilliant way where it all connects, is almost an impossible job. I don’t know how he did it.
Marc Riboud – Gare St. Lazare, Paris, 1982 / Street Life exhibition
Greg Girard – Greyhound Passenger, Texas, 1978 / Street Life exhibition
Lisa Barlow – Is it Too Early to Be Looking Back, Waterbury, Connecticut, 1980 / Street Life exhibition
DO YOU HAVE A “STREET LIFE” EXHIBITION HIGHLIGHT?
There’s one photograph that means a lot to me. It’s called Love on the Bus by John Simmons (below). I first saw it on Instagram and it blew me away. I love the perspective on it. I love that if you look closely, it’s quite out of focus! It’s a young couple on the bus, in Chicago. It’s such a beautiful photograph that’s out of focus so you can almost sense the nervousness of the photographer as he’s trying to focus on this moment. And it’s so human; everything about it really describes everything I love about street photography. I saw that on Instagram and I just thought, hey, I’ll email this guy. The John Simmons feature has been one of the most satisfying experiences I’ve had in editing the magazine and in corresponding with a photographer. I think it’s one of the best interviews we’ve had where he’s just a fountain of incredible advice. So that photo, getting that feature and then seeing a print of it a couple of years later in a gallery, that he made himself and he signed, that’s an amazing experience.
John Simmons, Love on the Bus, Chicago, 1967 / Street Life exhibition
ONE OF YOUR IMAGES IN THE SHOW IS TAKEN IN JERMYN STREET. WHAT’S THE FASCINATION WITH THIS STREET?
Jermyn Street in Piccadilly is probably the street that I walk down first whenever I get to Green Park. I go down Piccadilly and veer into Jermyn Street because it’s a completely different world to where I grew up. That’s the thing that fascinates me about London. As fancy as Dublin gets on it fanciest day, you’re not gonna see the same thing you do on Jermyn Street. You might see it in Paris, but it’s a different vibe completely. So, it’s hard to describe and that’s my fascination with it. It could be reduced to ‘oh, he likes photographing people in hats!’ But it’s not. It’s a lifestyle. It’s not an affectation. They’re not just dressing up for the day, that’s how they live. And that’s how they live in 2024. It’s as authentic as a photograph of a teenager standing outside a block of flats – it’s just as significant.
TELL ME ABOUT YOUR IMAGE, “45 JERMYN STREET”?
It’s interesting because there’s a couple of layers to it. So, it’s Jermyn Street, but it’s Jermyn Street on a workday. It’s a photograph of a woman having a cigarette and maybe she’s just come out of a tough meeting. There’s a man passing by with his shirt tightly buttoned. It’s a very fancy street. But that view of it makes it look like this is a street where people live, work and have done for hundreds of years. It’s got a sort of Dutch angle to it, which I’d like to say was intentional. But it was really just me rushing to get the photograph. But I like that it was my point of view as I walked past. It could give the impression that you were there, you were in my shoes and you just glanced over and saw that happening. It could almost be a staged photograph, the way the composition works, but that angle, that tilt gives you that impression. If I had staged it, I would have made sure that it was perpendicular.
Shane Taylor, 45 Jermyn Street, London, 2019
AND WHAT WORK DOES JOSH HAVE IN THE SHOW?
Josh’s is a photograph of a Fiat 500 in an area of Brentford. During lockdown he had the same experience as me where he was going slowly mad and had to go out for walks. He found himself just taking lots of landscapes and lots of still lifes and that ended up being a series of work for him. I think he published a book with some of that work in it next to his street photography work. It’s a nice juxtaposition between London when it’s very active and then the suburban area in Brentford.
Josh Edgoose, Fiat 500, Brentford, London, spring 2021
WHEN YOU GO HOME TO RURAL IRELAND, WHAT DO YOU PHOTOGRAPH – TREES AND FLOWERS?
Nothing! It’s so weird. I feel like I have this pressure that I should photograph flowers. Like, that’s where I’m from and I should have my own perspective on it. But I think my perspective is on humanity. And it’s not specific to the UK, it’s not specific to any border or nationality. It’s just a human experience. It could be anywhere.
WORDS: Disneyrollergirl / Navaz Batliwalla IMAGES: Shane Taylor x 7; Marc Riboud; Greg Girard; Lisa Barlow; John Simmons; Shane Taylor; Josh Edgoose NOTE: Most images are digitally enhanced. Some posts use affiliate links and PR samples. Please read my privacy and cookies policy here
CLICK HERE to get Disneyrollergirl blog posts straight to your inbox once a week CLICK HERE to buy my book, The New Garconne: How to be a Modern Gentlewoman CLICK HEREto buy my beauty book, Face Values: The New Beauty Rituals and Skincare
