While the rest of Fashionista was out and about at Alexander Wang’s show and crazy raucous afterparty, (making me consistently more and more jealous from their tweets) I took a fashion week staycation and trekked over to the School of the Visual Arts Theatre to watch a discussion between Juergen Teller and Cathy Horyn. Here’s what I learned.
1. Has been shooting Marc Jacobs’ advertisments for eleven years, and did not get paid in the beginning.
2. Uses a 35mm camera and refuses to go digital.
3. Does most of his shoots by himself and with his one assistant.
4. Dakota Fanning’s whole family was on set for her Marc Jacobs’ ads, and Dakota sent him a few handwritten letters afterwards saying thanks and recommending books.
5. The legendary Victoria Beckham in a shopping bag ad campaign for MJ only happened because of a personal call Teller put in to Ms. Beckham. Beckham’s lawyers wanted to review all the photos before the ads ran, and Teller refused, so he called Victoria directly instead and the rest is fashion history.

6. Took pictures inside caves near his mother’s house because the rock formations looked like “great dicks.”
7. His wife shoots all the family pictures because he cannot just take a snapshot.
8. Did a wonderful spread in Purple magazine called Ed in Tokyo featuring his then 11-month-old son, Ed, and the snowy backdrop of Tokyo.
9. Has friends and neighbors operate the camera for his self portraits, but is so familiar with his camera that he can tell them exactly at what angle to hold the camera to get the image he desires.
10. Gets creeped out when you offer to fly to London to babysit his children for him, not that I offered or anything…
Thank you Juergen and Cathy for a wonderful evening!