Front Row Back Stage

by Mario Testino

Bullfinch Press, 132 pp., $60

Considered one of the finest fashion photographers working, Testino gives us the insider’s peek into the fashion world that all non-fashionistas like to see. He captures the world he inhabits, where the high stakes are beauty and glamour and billions of advertising dollars. Even though it’s not pretty all the time, real life happens onstage as well as backstage. And it’s that backstage business that has such allure. Present are virtually every major designer, model, hairdresser, and makeup artist, and the confidential, behind-the-scenes vignettes are exactly what we want to see, of models being hurriedly attended by teams of dressers, the hordes of photographers crowding the catwalk, and the fashion editors. Though Testino’s style makes it hard to distinguish which photos are staged and which are candid, they are equally stunning, and for a brief moment, Testino, with his all-area access to this rarefied milieu, seems like the luckiest man alive.

This article appears in December 24 • 1999.

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