The Power of Polaroïd

I always go round to Connie and Russell’s for dinner at their apartment in NY when we’ve finished a shoot. They live in the most extraordinary space, created by the architects Lot-Ek from up cycled truck containers, at the top of a building near the Empire State. It feels very out-of -this-world, and the Suburbanities story came about one evening when we started wondering, « what would happen if an alien family landed in a housing estate in New Jersey ? »

We found a showhome on a new estate in Society Hill, New Jersey. It was perfect.

Once we’ve decided on the story and the location, the clothes, for me come next. They don’t always come first. When i’ve got my head around the characters in a story, i always think what would i be wearing ? Would i know, if I was from Mars, what I ought to wear ? So I decided to use clothes with clashing colours and prints, but with a very neat, almost Fifties cut. I found what I needed from that season’s collections.

Our models were fantastic : we booked Shanna Zadrick who was a supermodel then, and Danny TMan who we’d used in our work for Vuitton. He was a favourite for ours because he looked really normal, but wasn’t… we gave them mad hair and make-up, and borrowed my neighbour’s baby to complete the illusion that they were a suburban family

I really enjoy looking at their bewilderment about how to behave like a conventional family. You can see the questions arise – what is garden ? What is a kitchen for ? Should we dance now ? Maybe… so just put the baby down for a bit and dance.

I look at these pictures now and you could wear any of these clothes today, because we weren’t following any trends. So the story hasn’t aged and still makes me smile when I look at it .