Nick Waplington

I informed the people who worked there not to talk to me. It is kind of the way I work. I get the pictures because I don’t get involved. I am the anti-Terry Richardson. I am not in the thick of the action, I am in the background. What I am doing is looking for moments. It would be a normal working environment over a six-month period. I started with Lee in the drawing stage, then in the studio in London where the basic garments were being put together. The team would bring in large rolls of cloth, and Lee would take scissors and pins and cut and build the clothes on the models. The women would pin as he cut and folded. A layer would be created very quickly and that would go off to be hemmed or put together. I had been told that some fashion designers work by committee and are behind a desk ordering people around. Obviously, with him it is the act of creation that he was doing himself and that is what he wanted to show. I just kind of photographed things as they went along. When we were editing the pictures, Lee created the sequence.

How did he work? Did you sense that the pressure was overwhelming to him?

He did feel an incredible amount of pressure. He was definitely an emotional man, and if you are creative I feel like you need that pressure as an outlet. With him it was a double-edged sword. The rigor of the work is a good thing but then it is a difficult thing.

source