Contact: theselbystudio@gmail.com

Todd Selby is a photographer, director, artist, author, and illustrator behind The Selby, a project showcasing creative individuals in their personal spaces. Since its inception in 2008, The Selby began as a website where Todd posted photo shoots he did of his friends in their homes. Requests quickly began coming in daily from viewers all over the world who wanted their homes to be featured on the site.  The Selby’s website became so influential that top companies from around the world began asking to collaborate. Todd’s editorial projects have included a monthly home column in The Observer Magazine, a monthly fashion column in Le Monde’s M Magazine, and frequent contributions to  Vogue, Architectural Digest France, Casa Brutus Japan and the New York Times T Magazine. In April 2017, Todd had his first solo museum show at Daelim Museum in Seoul, South Korea where his photographs, illustrations, dioramas, and sculptures filled the entire four-story museum for six months (with over 230,000 visitors over 6 months).

Todd has authored four notable books, all published by Abrams. "The Selby is In Your Place" (2010) offers a glimpse into the homes of creative talents across various fields. "Edible Selby" (2012) delves into the culinary world's behind-the-scenes. "Fashionable Selby" (2014) captures the fashion industry's vivid personalities. His latest, "The Selby Comes Home" (2024), focuses on the inventive home lives of creative families, reflecting his own journey with fatherhood. Each book combines his distinct color soaked photography with whimsical illustrations and insightful narratives, cementing his reputation as a storyteller who celebrates the beauty in the lives of creatives. 

Before working on The Selby, Todd worked as a translator and Tijuana tour guide to the International Brotherhood of Machinists, a researcher into the California strawberry industry, a Costa Rican cartographer, a consultant on political corruption to a Mexican Senator, an art director at a venture capital firm, an exotic flower wholesaler, a Japanese clothing designer, and a vermicomposting entrepreneur. Todd’s pastimes include going to the airport, eating four square meals a day and breaking his computers.

For photo & illustration commissions, film directing assignments, licensing requests (magazines and advertising), press coverage or anything else, please contact theselbystudio@gmail.com and we will loop you in with the right people!

The Selby is represented in North America exclusively by BA Reps for Photography.

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NEW YORK TIMES T MAGAZINE.

On a recent summer afternoon, the photographer Todd Selby was standing in the kitchen of his minimalist apartment in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, stirring shell pasta in a stock pot. He was making Olga's Shell Soup, a bouillon-and-tomato-paste number concocted by his childhood nanny, a Mexican native who was named after a Swedish character in a telenovela. "This is my favorite soup in the world, but I've never met anyone who's really that into it," Selby said. "So I'm kind of curious what the reaction is going to be."

Olga will join illustrious ranks in October, when her recipe is published alongside Selby's portraits of more than 40 of the food world's most creative figures in "Edible Selby" (Abrams), a book based on his Times column of the same name. In the series, Selby gives chefs and food makers the treatment he gives his subjects on TheSelby.com, his popular and addictive Web site where, since 2008, he has brought a documentary sensibility to personal interiors. His eye is drawn to clutter and quirk: the electric-green moldings in Albert Maysles's Harlem brownstone, or Lou Doillon's antique barber's chair in Paris. In "Edible Selby," he captures culinary corners - from Majorca to Chicago — that have a similarly individualistic flair. Picture a flowerpot in Copenhagen containing nasturtiums, snails and edible branches made of malt dough, arranged by René Redzepi, the celebrated chef of Noma.

Selby grew up in Orange County, Calif., land of the cookie-cutter gated community, so it makes a certain amount of sense that he would seek out its opposite. But what to make of his blank white walls? "I used to be much more of a maximalist, but now I'm surrounded by people's stuff all day long, every day, all over the world," Selby said. "I need my home to be clean and empty.

Architectural-Digest ONLINE

Our 21 Favorite Design Books for Spring

These photo-filled designer monographs are full of inspiring personalities, ethereal places, and unexpected passions

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By Maya Ibbitson
May 6, 2024

Spring has arrived, and soon enough we’ll crack open our windows—and these 21 design books, which are fresh off the presses. Whether you’re seeking to create a more organic interior or looking for expert accounts of gardens, there’s plenty of inspiration waiting in these titles. Below, AD PRO has handily organized our must-read list into three thematic sections: the people, places, and passions leading design.

Passions

Whether it be hobbies, your home, or your family that you want to tend to, these texts ask how we can grow our passions to discover a deeper sense of joy.

The Selby Comes Home

The Selby Comes Home by Todd Selby (Abrams Books)
Todd Selby is a creative explorer: Ventures into international interiors, food, or fashion across three other photographic titles prove his ability to document all kinds of artistic pursuits. After having a family, however, Selby is newly interested in how the relationship between child and parent impacts and transforms the creative process, which is what birthed The Selby Comes Home. In the pages of this book, this influence surfaces through quirky questionnaires and illustrations, as well as imagery of families, pets, and beautiful chaos.

„Virginia Bates ist eine typische Fashion-Insiderin: Viele Designer lassen sich von der antiken Kleidung aus der Periode 1880–1940 inspirieren, die sie in ihrem Laden in London zusammengetragen hat.“
Virginia Bates.
Dries Van Noten.

G LIVING 144 & 145
April 2014

„Dries Van Noten ist Meister im Kombinieren von Stoffen und Texturen. Es war großartig, ihn bei der Arbeit zu sehen.“

„Die Modewelt wird bewohnt von farbenfrohen Persönlichkeiten“

Was als Blog begann, auf dem seine hippen Freunde einen Einblick in ihre entspannten, chaotischen Wohnungen gaben, entwickelte sich zum weltweit bekannten Phänomen The Selby is in your place. Für sein drittes Buch Fashionable Selby erkundete der Fotograf Todd Selby die Modewelt. In Glamour gibt es eine Sneak Preview.

Wie entstand die Idee für Fashionable Selby?
„Das Thema meines ersten Buches war ‚Zuhause‘, das zweite ‚Essen‘. Als ich vor drei Jahren anfing, über ein Thema für mein drittes Buch nachzudenken, kam ich auf ‚Mode‘. Mode fasziniert mich. Die Modewelt ist eine faszinierende Welt, bewohnt von spannenden, farbenfrohen Persönlichkeiten, die Herz und Seele in ihre Arbeit legen. Weil ich vor allem die Menschen porträtierte, die mich persönlich interessierten – und ich bin absolut kein Fashion-Insider – glaube ich, dass mein Buch eine ganz eigene, einzigartige Perspektive auf Mode bietet.“

Wo hast du angefangen?
„Das Projekt ist eigentlich ganz organisch gewachsen. Ich habe in meinem direkten Umfeld begonnen, mit Freunden und Bekannten aus der Szene, und indem ich jedem immer wieder meine Geschichte erzählte, kam ich nach und nach mit neuen, interessanten Menschen und Geschichten in Kontakt.“

Sixties-Dressoir €350 (Marktplaats.nl)
Dicke Wolle €9,95 (Hema.nl)
G LIVING 146 & 147
April 2014

Natürlich hatte ich eine Wunschliste mit Namen, die ich unbedingt vor der Kamera haben wollte, aber ich hatte sicher nicht alles im Detail durchgeplant. Es gab Raum für Überraschungen – und die kamen. In diesem Sinne kann man mein Buch auch als Reisetagebuch durch die wunderbare Welt der Mode sehen, voller Menschen, die ich unterwegs auf der ganzen Welt getroffen und mit denen ich über dieses Thema gesprochen habe.“

Wie gehst du vor?
„Ich gehe immer von dem aus, was ich selbst spannend finde und wissen möchte – und von dem ich denke, dass es auch andere interessiert. Auf dieser Basis wähle ich die Menschen aus, die ich fotografieren will, und spreche sie persönlich an. Ich zeige ihnen, was ich mache, und frage, ob sie Lust haben, mitzumachen. Das Shooting selbst dauert meist etwa einen halben Tag. Daneben rede ich viel mit den Menschen, die ich fotografiere. Über das, was sie tun und warum – ein Austausch. Mir ist wichtig, dass ein Gespräch entsteht, dass man es gemeinsam macht. Als ich anfing zu fotografieren, ließ ich mich von der niederländischen Fotografin Rineke Dijkstra inspirieren: Ich setzte die Menschen unter hartes Licht, ganz formell. Aber alle Fotos sahen gleich aus. Als ich mich für eine spontanere, persönlichere Herangehensweise entschied, begannen meine Bilder zu leben.“

Lindsay Degen.
„Lindsay Degens Spezialität ist Stricken. Beide ihrer Eltern sind Biologen, und das sieht man ihrer Strickmode an: Sie verarbeitet alle möglichen organischen Formen – von Zellstrukturen und Organismen unter dem Mikroskop bis hin zu DNA-Strängen. Ihre einzigartige Arbeitsweise und Perspektive machten sie für mich zu einer der Personen, die ich unbedingt für mein Buch fotografieren wollte.“

Bunte Sammlung:
Mit einem eklektischen Mix aus Stilen, Materialien und Farben schafft man das ultimative Alles-geht-Haus.

• Beistelltische €79 pro Stück (Fonq.nl)
  
  

• Vintage-Leiter €69 (Bloodnewlabel.com)
  
  

• Stuhl Ingolf €55 (Ikea.com)
  
  

• Vasen für eine Blume €9,75 (Klevering.nl)
  
  

• Vase €199 (Storewithoutahome.nl)
  
  

• Pouf €32,50 (Merelinwonderland.nl)
  
  

Julie Verhoeven.
„Julie Verhoeven ist eine meiner absoluten Lieblingsmodeillustratorinnen. Ihre Arbeit inspiriert mich: Sie ist Kunst, Fashion und gleichzeitig Anti-Fashion.“

Was ist dir am meisten in Erinnerung geblieben von diesem Projekt?
„Mode bedeutet für mich nicht Marketing, Gimmicks oder Hypes, sondern kreative Menschen, die mit viel Aufmerksamkeit, Liebe, einem Auge für Details und harter Arbeit etwas Schönes erschaffen wollen. Was mich besonders fasziniert hat, war zu sehen, wie jeder, den ich fotografiert habe, aus einer ganz eigenen Perspektive und Vision heraus gearbeitet hat.“

Du bist auch nach Amsterdam gekommen, um Iris van Herpen und Bas Kosters zu fotografieren.
„Ich liebe Amsterdam. Ich bin sicher drei Mal im Jahr dort. Sobald ich am Flughafen Schiphol lande, ist das Erste, was ich tue: zur Fischbude gehen und ein Hering mit Zwiebeln essen. Köstlich! Und in den Staaten nirgendwo zu bekommen. Aber anyway – ja, ich hatte Iris’ Arbeiten in Paris gesehen und fand ihren Umgang mit Materialien faszinierend. Und Bas, mit seinen Cartoons, seiner Musik und seinen Anti-Fashion-Partys, hat auch einen ganz eigenen Blick auf Mode. Ich wollte beide unbedingt in meinem Buch haben.“

Du fotografierst Menschen zu Hause – die Frage, die du bestimmt schon hunderte Male gehört hast: Findest du dich selbst voyeuristisch?
„Natürlich bin ich ein Voyeur. Aber wo der durchschnittliche Voyeur passiv ist und heimlich beobachtet, bin ich aktiv. Ich komme zu dir, stelle dir eine Million Fragen. Ich will alles wissen. Verdammt, ich habe aus dieser Neugier sogar meinen Beruf gemacht.“

• Melamin-Teller mit Abbildungen aus der Sammlung des Rijksmuseum €4,95 pro Stück (Rijksmuseum.nl)
  
  

• Tisch Vancouver €899 (Rivieramaisonwebstore.com)
  
  

• Becher €24 (Amara.co.uk)
  
  

• Papageien-Spiegel €79 (Storewithoutahome.nl)
  
  

• Lampion-Lampe €32,50 (Madebygup.nl)
  
  

• Kinderkochbuch „Kochbuch für kleine und große Köche“ (€15, Bestellung über kleinegrotekoks@gmail.com)
  
  

• Hocker €20 (Hema.nl)
  
  

TODD SELBYS BUCH FASHIONABLE SELBY
KOSTET €30,99 UND IST AB 18. MÄRZ ERHÄLTLICH.

"Virginia Bates is a typical fashion insider: many designers are inspired by the antique clothing from the period 1880–1940 that she has collected in her shop in London."
Virginia Bates.
Dries Van Noten.

G LIVING 144 & 145
April 2014

"Dries Van Noten is a master at combining fabrics and textures. It was amazing to watch him work."

“The fashion world is inhabited by colorful personalities”

What started as a blog where his trendy friends gave a peek into their relaxed, messy homes has grown into the globally recognized phenomenon The Selby is in your place. For his third book, Fashionable Selby, photographer Todd Selby explored the world of fashion. Here's a sneak preview in Glamour.

How did the idea for Fashionable Selby come about?
“The theme of my first book was ‘home,’ the second was ‘food.’ Three years ago, when I started thinking about a theme for my third book, I landed on ‘fashion.’ Fashion intrigues me. The fashion world is a fascinating place, inhabited by exciting, colorful people who pour their heart and soul into their work. Since I focused on people I was personally curious about—and I’m definitely not a fashion insider—I think my book offers a very unique perspective on fashion.”

Where did you start?
“The project really grew organically. I started close to home, with friends and acquaintances from the scene, and by telling my story over and over, I was introduced to new, interesting people and stories through word of mouth.”

Sixties sideboard €350 (Marktplaats.nl)
Chunky wool €9.95 (Hema.nl)
G LIVING 146 & 147
April 2014

“Of course, I had a wishlist of names I really wanted to shoot, but I definitely didn’t plan everything out in detail. There was room for surprises. And they came. In that sense, you could also see my book as a diary of my journey through the wonderful world of fashion, and of all the people I met around the world and spoke with about the topic.”

How do you work?
“I always start from what I find interesting and want to know, and what I think others might find interesting too. Based on that, I select the people I want to photograph and approach them personally. I show them what I do and ask if they’d like to take part. The shoot itself usually lasts about half a day. And I chat a lot with the people I photograph. About what they do and why. It’s an exchange. It’s important to me that a real conversation develops—that we do it together. When I first started photographing, I was inspired by the Dutch photographer Rineke Dijkstra: I would place people under harsh light, very formally. But all the photos looked the same. Once I moved toward a more spontaneous, personal approach, my pictures came alive.”

Lindsay Degen.
“Lindsay Degen’s specialty is knitting. Both of her parents are biologists, and that’s reflected in her knitwear: she incorporates all sorts of organic forms—from patterns that look like cell structures and organisms seen under a microscope, to DNA strands. Her unique technique and perspective made her exactly the kind of person I really wanted to photograph for my book.”

A colorful collection

With an eclectic mix of styles, materials, and colors, you can create the ultimate anything-goes home.

• Side tables €79 each (Fonq.nl)
  
  

• Vintage ladder €69 (Bloodnewlabel.com)
  
  

• Chair “Ingolf” €55 (Ikea.com)
  
  

• Vases for single flowers €9.75 each (Klevering.nl)
  
  

• Vase €199 (Storewithoutahome.nl)
  
  

• Pouf €32.50 (Merelinwonderland.nl)
  
  

Julie Verhoeven.
“Julie Verhoeven is one of my all-time favorite fashion illustrators. Her work inspires me: it’s art, fashion, and at the same time, anti-fashion.”

What stuck with you most from this project?
“For me, fashion isn’t about marketing, gimmicks, or hype, but about creative people who, with a lot of care, love, attention to detail, and really, really hard work, try to create something beautiful. What I found especially fascinating was seeing how each person I photographed worked from their own unique approach and vision.”

You also came to Amsterdam to photograph Iris van Herpen and Bas Kosters.
“I love Amsterdam. I come here at least three times a year. As soon as I land at Schiphol, the first thing I do is head to the fish cart for a herring with onions. Delicious! And you can’t find that anywhere in the States. But anyway—yes, I had seen Iris’s work in Paris and found her use of materials fascinating. And Bas, with his cartoons, music, and anti-fashion parties, has his own take on fashion. I really wanted both of them in my book.”

You photograph people in their homes—the question you’ve probably been asked hundreds of times: do you consider yourself a voyeur?
“Of course I’m a voyeur. But where the average voyeur is passive and sneaky, I’m active. I come to you and ask a million questions. I want to know everything. Hell, I’ve made a career out of that curiosity.”

• Melamine plates with images from the Rijksmuseum collection €4.95 each (Rijksmuseum.nl)
  
  

• Table “Vancouver” €899 (Rivieramaisonwebstore.com)
  
  

• Mug €24 (Amara.co.uk)
  
  

• Parrot-shaped mirror €79 (Storewithoutahome.nl)
  
  

• Lantern lamp €32.50 (Madebygup.nl)
  
  

• Cookbook "Cookbook for Little and Big Cooks" (€15, order via kleinegrotekoks@gmail.com)
  
  

• Stool €20 (Hema.nl)
  
  

TODD SELBY’S BOOK FASHIONABLE SELBY
COSTS €30.99 AND IS AVAILABLE FROM MARCH 18.

GQ MAGAZINE

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10 Essentials: Todd Selby

The photographer of stylish places dishes on his own irreplaceables, from cashmere blazers to velvet slippers

Todd Selby’s first book, The Selby Is in Your Place, was filled with creative types in their luxuriously intimate (and enviable) abodes. In the photographer’s second book, Edible Selby, out this week, he turns his lens onto another of his passions: food. Specifically, the book is about those who grow, forage, and prepare food in innovative ways—from a cheese maker who herds buffalo in New Zealand to a man who pulls brown rockfish from a San Francisco storm drain.

“I’m a food obsessive,” says Selby. “When I travel, it’s all about finding new restaurants and dishes. I’m always thinking, ‘What are we doing for lunch? What are we doing for dinner? I want to try this place for appetizers.’ It’s really my passion.”

And from pink cashmere blazers to cat-print bathing suits, Selby’s essentials echo that restless hunt for the next big thing.

1. Miller’s Oath Pink Cashmere Blazer

“Miller’s Oath makes everything custom, so my girlfriend, Danielle, picked out the colors and the fabric. It’s soft like a bunny and has hidden pockets. I wear it with a T-shirt or a white or blue button-down.”

2. Louis Vuitton Camera Bag

“When I go to shoots, I bring everything in this bag. If it doesn’t fit, it’s not coming with me. It’s cool; I just roll in and people think I’m going on a trip or something. I’ve had this for two years, and it’s been all over the world with me. I customized it with a stripe.”

3. Cognac XO on the Rocks

“I went two years ago for the harvest. I didn’t know much about Cognac or the grapes or anything, but when you go see the whole thing, it’s romantic. I tried everything when I was there, like Paradis. They had 20,000-euro bottles and some that were 150,000. I didn’t like the fancier stuff any better. I liked XO because there are a lot of others that are quite floral, which I’m not into. I really like Scotch, and XO has a similar woodiness. When you put it over ice, it’s smooth, and that’s all I need.”

4. Topshop Bathing Suit

“I designed this suit for Topshop, and it came out last summer. I like cat and dog stuff. I was wearing a cat shirt around my neighborhood the other day and all these people were high-fiving me. I’ve been doing the cat thing for two years now, so I’m looking for a new chapter. I’m thinking hamster or guinea pig—that could be next.”

5. Mast Brothers Chocolate Bar

“I love Mast Brothers chocolate. It’s dark like maple syrup. I designed the packaging for this one: it’s all dogs, but it’s total nonsense and fun—dogs can’t eat chocolate, from what I understand.”

6. Edible Selby

“This book has all the food shoots I’ve been doing all over the world. Some were for T Magazine, but most of them have never been seen in America. On the cover is Eric Werner from Hartwood, and I am really psyched about having that photo as the cover—it’s a real chef’s fantasy. It’s tropical with the palm trees, the fire behind him is great, and he has the most beautiful chef’s table in front of him. I think it’s something people can get really excited about. Also, the book comes with magnets of food that you can put on your fridge.”

7. Longines Watch

“This was a gift my grandfather gave me for my bar mitzvah. I actually just started wearing it again recently because it’s not waterproof, but I’ve gotten to that stage where I can remember to take it off when I shower and put it on in the morning and wind it.”

8. Alexander Wang Jeans

“I have four pairs of these black ones and I wear them every day—people might think they’re the exact same, but I’m actually rotating. I like the leather pockets. Danielle, my girlfriend, is the design director at Alexander Wang—she designed these.”

9. Barker Black Velvet Slippers

“They’re like house slippers, but you can also wear them out. I’m into the dual functionality of sleepwear and formalwear—I’ll wear them around the house and everywhere else.”

10. Russ & Daughters French Trout Roe

“That’s the good stuff right there. I really like Japanese food—I got into salmon eggs on rice in Japan—and this over rice is what I love. It’s not super fishy, but it has a nice richness.”

GRAZIA 2009

Living

Access All Areas

From Peaches Geldof to fashion wunderkind Alexander Wang, blogger Todd Selby has friends in all kinds of places. And he’s persuaded each of them to open up their homes to be photographed. Grazia peeps through the keyhole…
Words: Rachel Loos | Photos: The Selby

Actress Krysten Ritter, Los Angeles

Star of Confessions of a Shopaholic

“She’s an old friend of mine and she moved out west for acting,” says Todd. “The house is really amazing. I love that mid-century vibe and its laid-back style.”

Want to know where everyone’s going for interior design inspiration right now?

It’s The Selby, the website of New Yorker Todd Selby, the photographer who gets the kind of access others only dream about.

Among those who have opened their doors to him are the famously private Michael Stipe and Peaches Geldof. Up-and-coming actresses, hot new designers, big-name fashion editors—the blog’s cool-rating is sky-high. But what’s really brilliant about it is that it also features everyday stylish folk from all over the world.

Homes range from super-cool city lofts to girly one-bed flats, and it’s the sheer mix of different styles, budgets, and people that makes this such a must-see site.

Todd started The Selby just one year ago—today it gets 35,000 hits a day, and the figure is growing all the time. Thanks to the buzz it’s generating, he was invited by super-cool Paris store Colette to exhibit there. He is also about to launch the site in Japanese, and there’s a book in the pipeline.

Cool hotel owners Nicolas Malleville and Francesca Bonito, Mexico

“He’s a really amazing guy that I’ve known for years,” says Todd. “And now he’s moved to Mexico to do these beautiful homes and hotels. And Francesca is a great Italian! They’re definitely the beautiful people!”

Designer and founder of Craftwork Caroline Smithson and artist husband Fergadelic, London

“They’re a really cool, sweet couple,” says Todd. “And I love their house, which is in an old building that’s been sub-divided. It has that old manor vibe.”

He started by shooting the house of “a friend of a friend,” and it went from there—today there are about 80 homes on the site—although not the one he shares with his girlfriend Danielle Sherman (friend of designer Alexander Wang, whose home is also on the site).

“I like to leave my own place mysterious,” he laughs.

While some people suggest he come and shoot their space, most of the time he chooses the owners.

“I only pick people I find interesting,” he says. “I’m pretty well-connected now—I feel like I have a lot of friends.”

Go to www.theselby.com to see more interiors.

Stylist Elisa Nalin, Paris

“Another old friend,” says Todd. “Her place is so great. She’s obsessed with shoes! And she picks up all sorts of bohemian things at flea markets.”

Chef Sébastien Gaudard, Paris

“I’m interested in chefs because I like to see how they perform what they do for a living when they are at home,” says Todd. “And he has a really cute dog called Hot Dog.”

Michelle McCormick (Design Director at Abercrombie & Fitch) and Tracy McCormick (Designer), Los Angeles

“They’re friends of a friend, and when I heard where they lived, I really wanted to shoot it—Gaylord Apartments is one of my favorite buildings,” says Todd. “And their apartment is great—they’re hardcore collectors and their stuff is amazing.”

So what’s the secret of his site’s success?

“It taps into human nature,” says Todd. “People are nosey—everyone likes to see into other people’s houses. But also, it’s authentic, not commercial. People are not there because they’re famous. They’re there because they are interesting—and I think people respond to that.”

Todd, 31, created the website as a personal project. He became a professional photographer after putting himself through night school eight years ago (he was working at Details magazine at the time).

“I wanted to do something that really interested me,” he says. “I liked the idea of the internet because it’s free and people from all around the world can take a look anytime and get involved with it.”

Musician Chase Cohl, Manhattan

“She’s a real free spirit,” says Todd. “It’s a piece of California in New York City!”

Designer and artist Natalie Wood, Sydney

“She has a really cute little place on the beach,” says Todd. “She’s got great personal style and I love the interesting things that she’s made and the amazing objects she collects.”

BAZAARMAN

사진/민혜령

‘셀비답다’는 것

라샤펠의 카메라 앞에 서야 당대의 잘나가는 스타임을 증명할 수 있었듯, 셀비의 웹사이트에 올라야 비로소 힙스터의 대열에 낄 수 있다. 이 새로운 룰을 만든 뉴욕의 핫 아티스트 토드 셀비가 이번엔 요리 장인들을 담은 『Edible Selby』를 출간한다. 번번히 우릴 매료시킨 ‘셀비다움’의 정체를 파헤치기 위해 그를 찾았다.

에디터 / 윤혜정

샌프란시스코 미션 스트리트의 차이니즈 푸드 셰프 대니 보우엔(Danny Bowien).

이 남자는 꽤 여러 직업을 전전했다. 사진가로 본격 활동하기 전까지 그는 국제기계인연맹을 위한 티후아나 여행 가이드, 번역가, 캘리포니아 딸기 산업 조사원, 코스타리카 지도 제작소 직원, 멕시코 상원의원의 정치 부패 건에 대한 컨설턴트, 소규모 영화의 아트 디렉터, 해외 꽃 도매상, 일본 옷 디자이너, 유기농 퇴비 사업자 등의 일을 했다.

그러던 그가 지난 2008년 ‘theselby.com’이라는 웹사이트에 친구들의 집에서 찍은 사진을 올리기 시작했다. 그것이 인생 반전의 시작이었다. 사이트를 방문해 자신의 집 사진을 찍어달라는 요청이 빗발쳤고, 하루에 많게는 10만 명 가까운 사람들이 찾는 유명 사이트가 되었다.

그는 사람들의 개성 있는 집과 공간을 찍은 첫 번째 책 『The Selby Is in Your Place』(한국 번역 제목: 『우리 집 구경할래?』)를 통해 태평양을 훌쩍 뛰어넘어 베스트셀러 작가가 되었다.

패션계의 러브콜은 그 이후에 왔다. 그는 루이 비통의 프로젝트 ‘루이 비통 익스프레스’를 위해 파리부터 모스크바, 몽골, 베이징을 거쳐 상하이까지 기차 여행을 다녀왔고, 자동차 브랜드를 위한 필름을 촬영한 후 어제 L.A.에서 돌아와 지금 <하퍼스 바자>의 카메라 앞에 있다. 루이 비통으로부터 선물 받은 가방을 들고 천연덕스럽게 포즈를 취하고 있는 이 남자는 뉴욕에서 성공 신화를 쓴 신개념 아티스트, 바로 토드 셀비다.

『The Selby Is in Your Place』에서 집이라는 공간과 사람에 대한 독창적인 방정식을 경쾌한 터치로 풀어낸 토드 셀비는 이번에는 부엌과 사람에 대해 이야기한다. 10월 1일 발행 예정인 그의 새 책 『Edible Selby』는 요리의 세계에서 활약하는 다이내믹하고 창의적인 사람들의 공간에 대한 이야기다.

그는 가장 이국적이고, 가장 고집스럽고, 가장 소박하며, 가장 위대한 주방으로 우리를 이끈다. 베네치아에서 40마일 떨어진 카르티체 언덕에 있는 ‘주인 없는 여관’에서 신선한 빵과 치즈, 장인이 만든 살라미와 최고의 와인을 맛보게 하고, 스페인 해변의 가파른 절벽 위에 자리한 파에야 레스토랑에서는 일흔 노인과 마흔 살 딸이 샤프란을 달여 만든 술을 선사한다.

홍보 한 줄 없이 세계 최고의 레스토랑에 등극한 코펜하겐 노마(Noma) 주방의 백스테이지에서 무슨 일이 벌어지고 있는지도 생생히 중계한다. 그는 해변에서 먹는 타코 맛의 즐거움에 소리를 지르고, 야생 허브를 찾기 위해 산천을 뒤지며, 올리브 오일의 예술성을 피력한다.

음식과 사람, 음식을 만드는 것과 먹는 것의 매력적인 상관관계를 인류학자처럼 담아낸다.

...

BAZAARMAN (translated from Korean)

Photos by Min Hye-ryeong

“The Selby Touch”

Just as posing in front of David LaChapelle’s camera once certified you as a true star of the moment, having your home featured on The Selby’s website became the ultimate badge of hipster credibility. The New York “hot artist” who set this new standard, Todd Selby, has now released Edible Selby, a book devoted to culinary artisans. We met him to uncover the secret of that irresistible “Selby-ness.”

Editor: Yoon Hye-jeong

Danny Bowien, Chinese-food chef on Mission Street, San Francisco

Before fully committing to photography, Selby drifted through a remarkable variety of jobs: Tijuana travel guide for the International Brotherhood of Machinists, translator, California strawberry-industry researcher, employee at a Costa Rican mapmaking firm, consultant on a Mexican senator’s political-corruption case, art director for small films, international flower wholesaler, Japanese clothing designer, organic-compost entrepreneur, and more.

Then, in 2008, he began posting photos of his friends’ homes on a website he called theselby.com. That was the turning point. Requests to have their homes photographed poured in, and the site quickly drew as many as 100,000 visitors a day.

His first book, The Selby Is in Your Place (Korean title: Wanna Visit My House?), which captured the personality of people and their living spaces with a light, playful touch, became a bestseller far beyond the Pacific.

Fashion’s Call

Fashion soon came knocking. Selby traveled by train from Paris through Moscow, Mongolia, and Beijing to Shanghai for Louis Vuitton’s “Louis Vuitton Express” project, shot a film for an automotive brand, and had just returned from Los Angeles when we met him for this Harper’s Bazaar shoot. Carrying a Louis Vuitton bag he’d been given, he strikes an effortless pose—the New York–based artist who has written a new kind of success story.

From Homes to Kitchens

After exploring the unique equation between people and the places they live in The Selby Is in Your Place, Selby now turns his eye to kitchens and the people who cook in them. His new book Edible Selby (published October 1) celebrates the worlds of dynamic, creative figures in food.

He leads us to kitchens that are exotic yet humble, stubbornly traditional yet extraordinary: to an “ownerless inn” in the Cartizze hills 40 miles outside Venice for fresh bread and cheese, artisan salami, and superb wine; to a paella restaurant perched on steep Spanish seaside cliffs where a seventy-year-old man and his forty-year-old daughter serve saffron-infused liqueur.

He takes us behind the scenes at Copenhagen’s Noma—crowned the world’s best restaurant without a single promotional campaign—capturing its kitchen in vivid detail. He shouts with joy over tacos eaten on the beach, scours the countryside for wild herbs, and extols the artistry of olive oil.

Like a cultural anthropologist, Selby reveals the captivating relationship between food and people, between the making and the eating.

London Observer 

The Selby meets high fashion
Todd Selby travelled across Europe photographing designers, stylists and curators in the space where they get creative. Here’s a taste of what he found

THE STYLE ISSUE

“I wanted to show a different side to the designers and artists by photographing them in their workspaces,” explains interiors and fashion photographer Todd Selby. His love for the style world is highlighted in Fashionable Selby, a project that took him on a world tour seeking out the very private workspaces of some of today’s most innovative figures in the industry.

The book profiles designers, stylists, curators, models and shoemakers, and was, Selby says, an opportunity to “introduce people that even hardcore fashionistas don’t know about; people who work behind the scenes.”

For a photographer who usually visits his subjects in their home, how different was it to be in their workspace? “It took a lot of trust – the designers were all working on collections that aren’t out for months. Seeing their top-secret work was something I was very much aware of through the process. They trusted I wouldn’t reveal Isabel Marant’s next collection, or what the new Dries Van Noten silhouette was.”

Fashionable Selby by Todd Selby is published by Abrams on 18 March, priced at £22.99. To order a copy for £18.39, with free UK p&p, go to theguardian.com/bookshop or call 0330 333 6846.

Andrew Logan – Sculptor, London

“Andrew is the master of colour, both in his art and the accessories he designs which are used by Zandra Rhodes, Emanuel Ungaro and Comme des Garçons. His use of materials is fascinating: he cites asteroids, crystals, meteorites and glitter as his favourites. He’s unique – one of those artists who inhabits their own world. He has his own visual language and colours. His concepts are so out there.”

THE OBSERVER | 16.02.14 | MAGAZINE 33

Carla Sozzani – Gallerist and founder of 10 Corso Como, Milan

“Carla has such a sweetness to her. She’s a real curator and surrounds herself with a family of artists and photographers she’s worked with for a long time. She’s shy and discreet, and quite a sensible person. Her workspace is covered in flower sculptures as she can’t have real flowers in vases – she couldn’t bear to kill anything.”

THE OBSERVER | 16.02.14 | MAGAZINE 35

Dries Van Noten – Fashion designer, Antwerp

“His process was so different to that of any other designer I’ve ever met – Dries is very materials-oriented. He is very much a perfectionist in that all his pieces are shipped from the factory where they are made to the studio to be checked before they’re sent out to stockists, which is unusual and a huge expense. He has his own way of doing things.”

MAGAZINE 36 | 16.02.14 | THE OBSERVER

Isabel Marant – Fashion designer, Paris

“Isabel never works with a fit model; she tries everything on herself. So her design process involves her wearing her own pieces and living with them for a bit – if it doesn’t work for her, then it doesn’t make the collection. It’s a real strength because she’s one of those designers who often creates a ‘must-have’ item that blows everything else out of the water and gets copied to death.”

MAGAZINE 38 | 16.02.14 | THE OBSERVER

Marisol Suarez – Hair designer, Paris

“Marisol loves living, human hair which she works into fantastic pieces. Her salon in Paris is a special space where she creates wearable masterpieces of hair art. They’re very sought after for shows and by collectors and are like nothing you have seen before.”

THE OBSERVER | 16.02.14 | MAGAZINE 41

madameFIGARO

À New York, ce gourou traque et partage ses découvertes à coups de blog, de it books… La plaque tournante voit la vie à travers son objectif. Fashionable Selby, sa dernière création, le met sur la piste des nouvelles stars du style.

A BEAU PASSER LE PLUS CLAIR DE SON TEMPS À PHOTOGRAPHIER les intérieurs des autres, lorsqu’il s’agit d’ouvrir les portes de son home sweet home, Todd Selby est intraitable : « No way ! » Inutile donc d’insister. En revanche, le photographe, illustrateur, écrivain, blogueur, est plus coopératif lorsqu’il s’agit de nous faire visiter le Brooklyn qu’il aime et les personnages qui le peuplent.

Car bien qu’il soit né sous le soleil de Californie, bien qu’il passe son temps à visiter les endroits les plus époustouflants de la planète, son point d’ancrage reste Brooklyn. « J’ai habité East Village pendant dix ans. Mais je passais tous mes week-ends à arpenter les rues de Brooklyn. Je trouvais que la vie y était bien plus excitante, différente. J’ai fini par faire mes valises et par emménager à Williamsburg avec ma fiancée, Danielle. »

Alors que l’on tente désespérément d’obtenir plus d’informations sur son appartement, il nous fait entrer dans une voiture et pointe du doigt son nouveau bébé. « Grâce à lui, j’ai découvert plein de personnes passionnantes qui vivent à Brooklyn. » Lui ? Le troisième livre de Todd.

PAR PEGGY FREY
PHOTOS JOHN HUBA – ILLUSTRATION TODD SELBY

REPORTAGE FASHION

TODD SELBY – LE PRINCE DE BROOKLYN
madameFIGARO – p.70

MAILLE À PART…

Dans son atelier de Williamsburg, Lindsay Degen confectionne ses créations originales d’une façon purement artisanale. Avec sa machine à tisser des années 1920, elle repousse les limites du tricot en créant des modèles qui font la part belle aux rayures, aux superpositions de couleurs, aux proportions et aux motifs inattendus.

« L’idée de ce livre était de faire un focus sur des personnalités connues, mais aussi de mettre en lumière des personnes talentueuses mais inconnues du grand public. J’ai toujours aimé faire découvrir des tempéraments et connecter les gens. »

Quelques hugs plus tard, direction Red Hook : « C’est le nouveau quartier ultracool de Brooklyn. » Il y a encore vingt ans, Red Hook était plus connu sous le nom de « Capitale du crack ». Le quartier s’est racheté une conduite. Aujourd’hui, il est peuplé de jeunes couples bobos et autres artistes en herbe.

La voiture s’arrête devant Fort Defiance, un bar à la devanture décrépite. « C’est l’un de mes repaires, explique Selby en entrant. J’aime venir y prendre un verre ou déjeuner le week-end. La terrine de foie de volaille a même fait les gros titres du New York Times Magazine. »

EN MODE PASSION

Alors qu’il commande un thé au miel, il nous parle de son travail : « Ce livre, c’est un peu mon histoire d’amour avec la mode. Quand j’ai mis le point final à Edible Selby, consacré aux chefs, la mode s’est tout de suite imposée. C’est un milieu que je connais bien, les créateurs me font confiance et surtout il y est question de ce qui m’anime dans la vie : la créativité. Toutes les personnes du livre sont de vraies passionnées, honnêtes dans leur démarche créative. »

Todd se considère-t-il comme un garçon à la mode ? « Interesting question ! » Il réfléchit. « Je pense être à la croisée des chemins : j’ai un pied dedans et j’essaie de conserver mon œil d’outsider. Mais je ne suis pas sûr d’être à la mode ! »

À la vue de son look du jour, on peine à le croire : jean slim, parka militaire et sweat-shirt graphique signé Edun. « Disons que j’aime la mode, mais que je déteste faire du shopping. Je suis sans doute le meilleur client de MrPorter.com. On me livre, j’essaie, et je garde ou je renvoie. C’est simple, rapide, efficace. »

Il avoue volontiers un faible pour les tee-shirts à tête de chat de The Cobra Snake et pour les baskets Nike. « Avec ma fiancée, nous passons beaucoup plus de temps à faire les puces que les boutiques de mode. » Le Flea Market de Brooklyn et la boutique d’antiquités Erie Basin, à Red Hook, sont des incontournables.

LE DESIGNER QUE VOUS AIMERIEZ ÊTRE ?
« Gianni Versace, parce que ce mec avait tellement de style ! Respect ! »

madameFIGARO – p.72

LA FÉE COULEUR

Le thé avalé, nous allons jusqu’à la porte d’Audrey Louise Reynolds. « Cette fille est démente, prévient Todd. Elle figure aussi dans le livre. »

Une belle brune nous accueille dans une chemise recouverte de taches. « Sorry, je suis en pleine cuisine », lâche-t-elle. Elle nous guide dans son arrière-cour où trône un chaudron géant.

On comprend alors que sa tambouille est un peu particulière : « Je suis color cooker ! » précise-t-elle.

Depuis dix ans, Audrey Louise travaille à créer des couleurs pour Nike, Pamela Love, Repetto… à partir de matières organiques (alrdyeing.com). « Il y a les fleurs, les fruits et les légumes, mais bien d’autres choses, comme les racines, les insectes, les algues, la terre, les champignons… »

Pour mettre la main sur les bons ingrédients, elle parcourt le monde : « Ces insectes viennent du Maroc, cette terre vient du Maine, ce curcuma d’Inde… À moi de les mixer, chauffer, enterrer, immerger pour en tirer le meilleur. »

CHAUDRON MAGIQUE
Dans sa cuisine-laboratoire, Audrey Louise mène ses expériences sur les couleurs. Elle cherche des nuances inattendues en mixant ou en chauffant des extraits de fleurs, de légumes ou d’insectes. C’est ainsi qu’a été mise au point cette série de crayons bio pour enfants (en haut) avec des pigments naturels.

UN DÎNER CHEZ VOUS

Que portez-vous ? Qui invitez-vous ? Que cuisinez-vous ?

Audrey Louise nous fait une démonstration : elle teint un tee-shirt blanc à l’aide d’un simple lupin acheté le matin même chez un fleuriste de Red Hook. Bluffant ! « J’adore l’idée d’utiliser ce que la nature nous offre. Pourquoi faire compliqué quand on peut faire simple, beau et bon pour tout le monde ? »

Cette fille est une fée tombée du ciel. La couleur du tee-shirt est d’une subtilité inouïe, comme tous les prototypes de son atelier. « Et c’est une infime partie de ce dont elle est capable, souligne un Todd Selby triomphant. Je vous avais bien dit que cette petite balade dans Brooklyn serait bien plus intéressante que mon appartement ! »

Son blog : theselby.com

« Un pyjama, parce que c’est chic. J’invite Lil Wayne et Le Corbusier. Je cuisine des spaghetti à la crème de crabe. Une recette que j’ai apprise à Kamakura, au Japon. »

madameFIGARO – p.74

madameFIGARO (translated to english)

In New York, this style guru hunts down and shares his discoveries through his blog and his “it books”… He sees life through his lens. Fashionable Selby, his latest creation, puts him on the trail of the new stars of style.

SPENDING MOST OF HIS TIME PHOTOGRAPHING other people’s interiors, Todd Selby is unyielding when it comes to opening the doors of his own home sweet home: “No way!” So there’s no point insisting. But the photographer, illustrator, writer and blogger is far more cooperative when it comes to showing us the Brooklyn he loves and the characters who bring it to life.

Although he was born under the California sun and travels constantly to some of the most breathtaking places on the planet, his anchor remains Brooklyn. “I lived in the East Village for ten years. But I spent every weekend wandering the streets of Brooklyn. I found life there much more exciting, different. I eventually packed my bags and moved to Williamsburg with my fiancée, Danielle.”

While we’re still trying in vain to get details about his apartment, he ushers us into a car and points proudly to his new baby. “Thanks to it, I’ve discovered plenty of fascinating people who live in Brooklyn.” It? Todd’s third book.

By Peggy Frey
Photos: John Huba – Illustration: Todd Selby

FASHION FEATURE

TODD SELBY – THE PRINCE OF BROOKLYN
madameFIGARO – p.70

A KNIT APART…

In her Williamsburg studio, Lindsay Degen creates her original pieces entirely by hand. Using a 1920s knitting machine, she pushes the limits of knitwear, playing with stripes, layers of colour, unexpected proportions and surprising patterns.

“The idea of this book was to focus on well-known personalities but also to highlight talented people unknown to the general public. I’ve always loved revealing strong characters and connecting people.”

A few hugs later, we’re off to Red Hook. “This is the new ultra-cool neighborhood of Brooklyn,” Selby says. Twenty years ago Red Hook was better known as the “crack capital.” The neighborhood has cleaned up its act. Today it’s home to young bohemian couples and budding artists.

The car stops in front of Fort Defiance, a bar with a weathered façade. “It’s one of my hangouts,” Selby explains as he goes in. “I like coming here for a drink or to have lunch on the weekend. Their chicken-liver terrine even made the headlines of the New York Times Magazine.”

IN A PASSIONATE MODE

As he orders a honey tea, he talks about his work: “This book is a bit of my love story with fashion. When I finished Edible Selby, devoted to chefs, fashion naturally came next. It’s a world I know well, designers trust me, and above all it’s about what drives me in life: creativity. Everyone in the book is truly passionate and honest in their creative approach.”

Does Todd consider himself a fashion guy? “Interesting question!” He pauses. “I think I’m at a crossroads: I have one foot in it, and I try to keep an outsider’s eye. But I’m not sure I’m fashionable!”

Looking at his outfit of the day, it’s hard to believe: slim jeans, a military parka and a graphic sweatshirt by Edun. “Let’s just say I like fashion, but I hate shopping. I’m probably MrPorter.com’s best customer. They deliver, I try things on, and I keep or return them. It’s simple, fast, efficient.”

He freely admits a soft spot for The Cobra Snake’s cat-print T-shirts and for Nike sneakers. “My fiancée and I spend much more time at flea markets than in fashion boutiques.” Brooklyn’s Flea Market and the antique shop Erie Basin in Red Hook are must-visits.

THE DESIGNER YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE?
“Gianni Versace, because that guy had so much style! Respect!”

madameFIGARO – p.72

THE COLOR FAIRY

Tea finished, we head to the door of Audrey Louise Reynolds. “This girl is amazing,” Todd warns. “She’s in the book too.”

A beautiful brunette greets us in a shirt covered with stains. “Sorry, I’m in the middle of cooking,” she says. She leads us to her backyard, where a giant cauldron stands.

We quickly understand that her “cooking” is a bit special: “I’m a color cooker!” she explains.

For ten years Audrey Louise has been creating colours for Nike, Pamela Love, Repetto… using organic materials (alrdyeing.com). “There are flowers, fruits and vegetables, but also many other things—roots, insects, seaweed, soil, mushrooms…”

To find the right ingredients, she travels the world: “These insects come from Morocco, this soil comes from Maine, this turmeric from India… It’s up to me to mix, heat, bury or immerse them to get the best colour.”

MAGIC CAULDRON
In her kitchen-laboratory, Audrey Louise conducts her colour experiments. She seeks unexpected shades by mixing or heating extracts of flowers, vegetables or insects. This is how she developed a series of children’s crayons (top) made with natural pigments.

A DINNER AT YOUR PLACE

What do you wear? Whom do you invite? What do you cook?

Audrey Louise gives us a demonstration: she dyes a white T-shirt using a single lupine bought that morning from a Red Hook florist. Impressive! “I love the idea of using what nature gives us. Why make it complicated when you can make it simple, beautiful and good for everyone?”

This girl is a fairy fallen from the sky. The colour of the T-shirt is breathtakingly subtle, like all the prototypes in her studio. “And that’s just a tiny part of what she can do,” Todd Selby says triumphantly. “I told you this little stroll through Brooklyn would be far more interesting than my apartment!”

Her blog: theselby.com

“A pyjama, because it’s chic. I invite Lil Wayne and Le Corbusier. I cook spaghetti with crab cream—a recipe I learned in Kamakura, Japan.”

madameFIGARO – p.74

New York Times Home Section

November 20, 2008

My Home, My Self: Photography as Art Project

Todd Selby, a photographer based in New York, is becoming a kind of Horst of the hip set: an environmental portraitist of Williamsburg and Silver Lake society. Since the summer, Mr. Selby, 31, has been shooting his mostly young, mostly good-looking subjects — movie directors, fashion models and designers, painters, writers, indie magazine editors — in their homes in New York and Los Angeles (and, more recently, London and Mexico). The results are posted on a website, theselby.com, and will be exhibited next spring at Colette, the Paris boutique.

Mr. Selby started the project, he said, because of his curiosity about the ways personal space reflects personality. “I’ll see an interesting character and think, what does their apartment look like?” he said. The answers vary, of course, but most of the places in these pictures, like their inhabitants, are attractive in a seemingly offhand way (even when, like their inhabitants, they have been carefully put together).

Often, Mr. Selby hears about a compelling home through friends, and after a cursory visit he sets up a shoot — a process, he says, that is loose and collaborative. “It’s their opportunity to tell the world what they’re all about,” Mr. Selby said. “‘This is my favorite book’; ‘this is a picture of me and my mom.’ I think it’s really exciting to them.”

Several people photographed for the project know one another, and most confess they check the site regularly to see whose interiors have been added (there are now around 60 on the site, which has been growing by about three a week).

Mr. Selby’s own apartment, in Manhattan, has not made an appearance. A self-described maximalist, he said he has scaled back on flea market visits since beginning the project and being exposed to so much stuff. “I see people who have these amazing collections and I love it,” he said, “but I love coming home to a blank slate.”

He is content to live vicariously through the homes of his subjects, he said. Here, a few offer their own takes on their personal spaces and the things that fill them.

Ceramic Ponies and Blown Glass in the Kitchen: When Collections Overflow

As an interior designer who works primarily with young, affluent bohemian clients, Ryan Korban says he has developed his own “downtown” decorating style. “It’s a mixture of 1970s Italian, which is similar to midcentury but sexier and more polished,” he said, “and traditional 18th century.” He is big on brass lamps, full-length mirrors, chunky antique furniture and eccentric curios, as evidenced by his own 550-square-foot studio apartment in SoHo.

Mr. Korban, 24, created a small, set-off living area with a pair of Federal-style chairs — for which he had powder-blue tufted cushions made — and a sleek update of a Porter floor lamp. Elsewhere, he spruced up “a horrible rental kitchen” by replacing the plastic cabinet hardware with brushed-nickel handles, painting the walls chalkboard gray, and adding unlikely decorative items: a ceramic pony on a wooden lacquer pedestal, a porcelain blue-and-white Chinese urn atop the fridge, and blown-glass pastry stands from Sur la Table. “I collect these things and I run out of space to put them,” Mr. Korban said. “So I decided to put things in spaces where you wouldn’t expect. I left them there for a few days and it worked.”

Bringing Fashion to the Bathroom Walls

Last spring, when the bathroom of his apartment was being redone, Brian Lichtenberg suggested a design to his landlord. “I thought it would be cool to do it like Givenchy,” he said, referring to the fashion label’s blocky geometric logo, which is now rendered in black tile in his shower.

Mr. Lichtenberg, 29, is a self-taught fashion designer with an eponymous label of his own, and he has also incorporated elements of his design work throughout the three-bedroom apartment he rents on the top floor of a 1920s house in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles. The walls of a second bathroom, for example, are painted in a red, yellow and blue drip style — a design he developed for a hooded sweatshirt (the colors drip from the hood).

He describes his aesthetic, in both fashion and décor, as “stark and minimal, but graphic and colorful,” though his at-home showroom is plain white: “White clears your head,” he said. He liked being part of Mr. Selby’s project, he added, mainly because “it was a good excuse to make the apartment tidy and nice.”

“20,000 Leagues Under the Sea,” and Below That, the Basement

Adam Wallacavage, a 39-year-old artist known for his elaborate and bizarre chandeliers, thinks of his brownstone home in Philadelphia as “an ongoing art piece.” What he describes as an “eccentric, Victorian style” décor actually verges on the otherworldly.

For instance, he created a ground-floor dining room reminiscent of an undersea realm, with a ship’s porthole looking into a sunroom, aquamarine walls and a chandelier he made from cast plaster with octopus tentacles for arms. Smaller tentacled fixtures nearby repeat the motif.

Mr. Wallacavage, whose recent show at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in New York was dominated by nautical themes, wanted a space with a “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” look, he said, and this house seemed an ideal place for it. “When I called the Realtor about this space eight years ago, he told me the basement looks like a ship, and I knew that’s the house I wanted,” he said. “There was a piano, a bar, portholes and ship paintings.”

These days, the basement is his workspace, its floors given over to bags of plaster, its rafters teeming with ornate picture frames. “I just collect things, like picture frames,” he said. “When I don’t know what to do with them, I’ll stick them in my basement.”

Mr. Wallacavage recently rented the house out as a backdrop for a magazine photo shoot; Todd Selby was the photographer, which is how he discovered the space. “It was nice to see the house through someone else’s eyes,” Mr. Wallacavage said.

Poetry Student Who Can’t Stop Collecting

“In terms of my decorating style, I love stuff,” Chase Cohl said. “I love really unique and special stuff.”

Ms. Cohl, a 21-year-old poetry student at the New School, has a simple theory about accumulation and décor: “If you pick up things that your personality is drawn to everywhere you go, you’re bound to have an interesting space.”

The living room of the two-bedroom apartment she owns in SoHo is home to a motley array of items, including a zebra-print rug, a banjo (she’s in a folk band), a petrified-wood end table and a vintage floor lamp with beaded fringe, bought at a local antiques shop.

She found most of her furnishings at antiques shops and flea markets (the Rose Bowl market in Pasadena is a favorite), except for the bed, which her mother picked out at ABC Carpet & Home. “She said, ‘It might be really cool to have a plain bed because all of your other stuff is crazy,’ ” Ms. Cohl recalled — though she still hung a pair of painted papier-mâché lips (another antiques store find) above the headboard.

Several people have praised her style since the photographs of her apartment appeared on Todd Selby’s website, Ms. Cohl said, and while she is flattered, she isn’t taking it too seriously. “It’s not like I pride myself on the fact that I can put a chair next to a lamp and make it look O.K.”

Unfettered Actress’s Well-Furnished Lair

Krysten Ritter, a model-turned-actress who co-stars in the coming movie Confessions of a Shopaholic, doesn’t see herself as the domestic type. “I’m a girl on the go,” she said. “I own six pieces of clothing and one piece of furniture.”

Luckily, Ms. Ritter, 26, has made up for this lack by renting an apartment in a striking house built in 1980 by the architect Dion Neutra (son of Richard), and sharing it with an interior-designer roommate, Lauren Bratman.

Ms. Bratman, 29, decorated in a style she described as “bohemian vintage,” filling the house, in the Silver Lake area of Los Angeles, with pieces like brass and leather kitchen barstools from the 1970s (picked up for $80 at a vintage store in Westwood), a ’60s-era one-piece teal sofa ($500 at an estate sale), an Art Deco coffee table that she refinished ($100 at an estate sale), and a digital reproduction of a William Eggleston photograph that dominates a living room wall.

Ms. Ritter’s contribution is “Guitarlos,” an acoustic guitar painted with a woman’s face; it was found by an ex-boyfriend on the streets of Brooklyn, where Ms. Ritter lived prior to moving to Los Angeles last year, and now hangs near the kitchen.

“This is by far the coolest place I’ve ever lived,” Ms. Ritter said of the wood-shingled home, which has a pool, a Jacuzzi, a fireplace and three big bedroom closets for her clothes. “Every day I’m, like, really? Is this really our house?”

In a Tattoo Parlor, an Antique Settee and Rifle-Target Wallpaper

In a few cases, Todd Selby photographed his subjects’ work spaces rather than their homes, because these were the places into which they had “put all their creative output.”

Scott Campbell’s Saved Tattoo parlor in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, is the opposite of the cramped, dimly lighted aesthetic of most ink emporiums. Housed in the 2,000-square-foot ground floor of a warehouse, it has the bright, airy feel of an art-filled loft apartment.

Mr. Campbell, 31, lives in a studio apartment a few blocks away that he says has a similar feel on a smaller scale. He used to run a combination tattoo studio and antiques shop nearby, and his love of old things is obvious here.

He works on clients in an area furnished with an antique dresser and settee, and he installed subway tile and an old-fashioned sink in the bathroom. For that room’s wallpaper, he used rifle targets bought in his native Louisiana; bullet cartridges embedded in a Lucite toilet seat extend the theme.

Mr. Campbell said the studio is meant to be welcoming and comfortable — home-like, in fact — “because obviously getting a tattoo is stressful.”

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GREAT ROOMS

APRIL 16, 2024 — CURBED

Family Guy
A decade after his last book, Todd Selby has a new one. It’s all about creatives who, like he, now have kids.
By Wendy Goodman, Curbed and New York Magazine’s design editor

Great Rooms
A visual diary by Design Editor Wendy Goodman.

Bérénice Eveno and Serban Ionescu with Zélie and Azure in Brooklyn.
Photo: The Selby

Todd Selby became a phenomenon when he launched his website, The Selby, in 2008. He photographed interiors in a way that we hadn’t seen before: they were messy and un-zhuzhed—documents of how we really live. And they had a sense of humor.

In 2010, he published his first book, The Selby in Your Place, followed by Edible Selby (2012) and Fashionable Selby (2014). And then—nothing for a decade, until now, with the arrival of The Selby Comes Home, out this month from Abrams Books.

In its introduction, he recalls how he found his voice as a photographer in 2007 while taking a portrait of Tom Wolfe in his apartment:

“On the desk in his study, he had a lamp with a hat on top of it. I was fascinated by that lamp. It said something about him that words could not describe. My portrait of Tom Wolfe was okay. But my photograph of Tom Wolfe’s lamp was spectacular—at least to me. I realized that people’s spaces and possessions have stories to tell, and all of my books can be traced back to this moment.”

So what has he been up to over the last decade? He started a production company making TV commercials and ad photo shoots. But like the 41 families from around the world he features in the book, he’s also been busy creating—and raising—his own family.

“I have two kids; an 8-year-old and a 6-year-old,” he says when we spoke over Zoom. (He lives in Los Angeles.) “So basically once I had kids, I put the books on the shelf, as you will, you know? Then it was time to get back out there and at that point my whole life had been transformed, as you can see, from the little ones”—here he points to a bulletin board of his kids’ art on the wall behind him—“the children, so I thought that is really what I should do, something about families and homes, because I hadn’t really seen that.”

When he had first started doing photography, “it was always my nightmare to shoot kids,” he says, laughing. They just added to the chaos of a shoot.

“It was like, Oh God, oh … I had to become better at my craft, and I think that challenge and being ready for that—the total unexpected—just going and not knowing.”

But his photography was always more spontaneous-feeling than typical interior shoots, I remind him.

“It’s true,” he says. “I was always unhinged, totally running around, no sign of a tripod!”

This book was the product of four years of research and two years of shooting. It exudes joy. An excerpt:

Bérénice Eveno and Serban Ionescu with Zélie and Azure in Brooklyn
Photos: The Selby

“Bérénice and I built this apartment together, and it was parallel to us assembling our relationship,” says Ionescu.

“This place is like a metaphor for our relationship,” says designer Serban Ionescu. “Originally it was going to be my bachelor pad, and during that time I fell in love with Bear. By her second day here in the apartment, she was helping me put polyurethane on the bare pine floor. We had two children here, two home births. It’s changed as we changed.”

Their Brooklyn apartment lives on the border of Red Hook, Cobble Hill, and the Columbia Street Waterfront District.

“It’s a small apartment, but there are always activities. We build things with blocks, clay, and paint. We love to draw. We love to play games and dance. I hope the kids will be inspired—all we can do is create a world where it feels like there’s always something unique and exciting for them and for us.”

“We moved in fairly quickly, like we rushed in and discovered ourselves after. And the house started shaping us as we were shaping it. It is rare to find a space that you can sculpt as you are changing and evolving.”

“We had children here, two home births. I gave up on my past in design, architecture, and more functional ideas up until I started making chairs, walls, and tables for the apartment. It arose again; I felt complete,” he says.

Hi Serban, Bérénice, Zélie, Azure!
— A playful Selby Q&A prompt —

• Serban, could you design a hat for baby Azure?
• Bérénice, could you draw a colorful cloud?
• Zélie, could you design a chair for Daddy?
• Serban, could you design a chair for the Statue of Liberty?

Serban, how is fatherhood fun?

“Like riding your bike down a hilly street—faster and faster the more fun it is. But any pothole, wet sewer cap, or car backing out of a driveway can tumble you down…”

Bérénice, how is being a mother fun?

“Getting to be a kid again … but this time being there. Most of all, all the cuddles & all the LOVE!”

Illustration: The Selby

The Selby Comes Home

The Selby Comes Home: An Interior Design Book for Creative Families, by Todd Selby
$61 — Photo: The Selby
$61 at Bookshop

Shots magazine.

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NEWS

Todd Selby delivers new book: The Selby Comes Home

Photographer and Director Todd Selby debuts new design book The Selby Comes Home, out now.

By Daniel Huntley — 23 April 2024

Photographer and director Todd Selby has just published his fourth book, entitled The Selby Comes Home, now available.

For the past two decades, Todd Selby has traveled around the world photographing people in their spaces. He has captured the lives of various quirky individuals in three books: The Selby Is in Your Place, Edible Selby, and Fashionable Selby.

Along the way, he got married and became a father. As his personal life shifted to focus on family, he became more interested in how creatives find ways to incorporate children into their spaces. Now, after ten years, Selby is finally back with a new book.

The Selby Comes Home: An Interior Design Book for Creative Families explores a new dimension of inspiration by looking at unique families and their vibrantly colourful homes.

Travel with Selby to see how people’s spaces and possessions have stories to tell—from a house in Nashville with fuchsia walls and a coffin for a coffee table, to a Māori household in Auckland that’s full of neon crochet sculptures, to a cozy treehouse in Los Angeles with a large deck for family dinners and sunsets every night, complete with homing pigeons as pets.

Complete with Selby’s signature questionnaires, whimsical illustrations, and inventive design, The Selby Comes Home inspires anyone who lives with family, pets, roommates, or just their own chaotic selves to find beauty and joy in their spaces.

VOGUE

FASHION · BEAUTY · CULTURE · LIVING · WEDDINGS · RUNWAY · SHOPPING · VIDEO · PHOTOVOGUE · MET GALA · HOMES

Artist Vadis Turner's Nashville Home Is a Surrealist Fever Dream

BY NICOLE KLIEST — April 12, 2024

It’s been a decade since Todd Selby published his last book. The photographer’s self-described “artful snooping” placed him firmly in the vanguard of the early-aughts blogging scene, documenting compelling personalities in their colorful spaces for his online journal. But what began as a personal project rapidly escalated into a lucrative career, with his debut book—The Selby Is in Your Place—releasing in 2010. (The first printing of 12,000 copies sold out within the first month.)

Since then, he’s introduced two additional books, one on fashion and the other on food, and now his fourth arrives on April 16: The Selby Comes Home.

“It’s like a coming home for myself in a sense,” he says to Vogue, noting that he now shares two children—Ella and Simone—with his wife, Danielle Sherman, whom he married in 2015.

The focus of this new book comes from two or so years of traveling around the world photographing subjects in their homes, but with a very riotous addition to the frame: children.

“Having kids reorients your entire viewpoint. When kids enter the picture, it’s an interesting thing from an interior perspective and I wanted to explore how children impact the creative’s home,” he says.

Before this project, it wasn’t necessarily within his purview as a photographer.

“In the beginning, I would avoid them at all costs because kids equal chaos; it was so challenging to work with them because they’re so unpredictable.”

But now that he’s a parent and continues to evolve as an artist, his lens is refocusing.

“I decided I was going to embrace the weirdness of the moment and the chaos and the creativity, and kids definitely bring that in heaps.”

The Selby Comes Home transports readers into the wild and wonderful homes of 41 families around the globe, from Brooklyn to Bora Bora, and includes playful interactive details like mazes, crossword puzzles, and color-by-number pages to be enjoyed by readers both young and young at heart.

One such shoot took place in Nashville, at the eccentric residence of artist Vadis Turner, her husband Clay Ezell, and their sons Gray and Vreeland—whom Selby met through a mutual friend and “New York legend,” Libby Callaway (who has since moved back to Nashville).

“The way Vadis relates to her interiors is almost like she’s adopting these art objects into her home,” he says. “I think she has the same kind of attraction to objects and furniture and stories as I do, so yeah, it was love at first meet with her and her family and their space.”

Turner had been living in Brooklyn for 15 years before deciding with her husband to move back to Nashville (where they are both originally from).

“As Brooklyn started to percolate from around 2000 to 2014, it seemed very Southern to me and Clay—with the beards and the bourbon and the reclaimed wood and all that,” she says.

Simultaneously, Nashville was shapeshifting as a city, too.

“There was a new Nashville that was starting to develop with a lot of expats from Los Angeles and New York City, and we wanted to come back to reconnect with our families and also to be part of this new artistic culture that was blooming in Nashville.”

So, she got in the habit of Googling “building for sale in downtown Nashville” in the wee hours of the morning, and eventually came across a Second Empire–style home built in the late 1800s, which they ultimately bought and renovated.

The interiors are a visual feast: an explosion of color, texture, shape, and objects that resemble something plucked from a surrealist fever dream.

“All of the art is stuff I’ve traded with artist friends,” Turner says, adding that her approach to flea markets and antique malls is rooted in emotion. “I can’t go in with an agenda like ‘I need a zebra leg lamp,’ but I see what I respond to and observe if I’m still thinking about it 15 minutes later.”

There’s no litmus test for whether or not she’ll respond to an object, per se, but there are also no limits.

“If I see something that’s too ugly for anyone else to love at the antique mall, it’s probably going home with me because if I don’t take it, who will? What kind of future will this ugly thing have?”

She talks a lot about the fine line between ugly and fabulous, relating it to her studio work.

“I like things that have multiple identities that you don’t necessarily know what to do with; that don’t just file away as ‘that’s the right couch’ or ‘that’s a cool coffee table,’ but things you’re like, wow, who in the world would put this with this?”

She offers the example of her living room, which is decorated with chintzy couches beside a faux-stone coffee table from the ’80s.

“Maybe this relationship wasn’t intended to exist, but I feel like you see things—and yourself—more clearly in relation to things that they are different from. If everything’s the same and everything is talking together in a predictable way, there’s not much to glean. You see through contrast.”

Turner makes it a point that there are no rooms their kids don’t inhabit and play around in.

“Visually it’s pretty wild, but our home is filled with things that remind us of places we’ve been or people we’ve crossed paths with, and I love that to them it’s not weird, it’s just their normal.”

Some of the artist-trade pieces that highlight this narrative are two light fixtures suspended above the dining table, made out of paper plates.

“They were designed by a friend of mine, Christopher Trujillo, who I met because we had a studio in the same building in New York in the early 2000s.”

They hadn’t connected in nearly a decade, but when Turner was on the hunt for lighting for the dining room, she had an idea.

“He came down and we spent the weekend together and he made these two paper plate chandeliers in reference to my two sons.”

On top of the artist-trade pieces and kooky assemblage of items discovered at flea markets and antique malls, there are also two commissions in their home: wall art by Kelly Diehl and Elizabeth Williams, and a floor painting by Brett Douglas Hunter.

“I had this hallway that needed something and I was looking for cool vintage runners and realized I was barking up the wrong tree,” she says. “I was looking for the object that’s supposed to go there, and I’m not into ‘supposed to’ so much. As an artist with my practice, I’m strong-arming materials to do what they’re not supposed to do, and I think that speaks a lot to how I designed this home.”

And with that, she relinquished the idea that a hallway needs a runner altogether.

“I asked Brett to make a floor painting and now we get to walk all over this fabulous painting every day.”

Though no color palette or prescriptive theme reigns over the home, one cohesive element is present throughout: plants.

“The plant collecting became the plant problem during the pandemic,” Turner laughs.

In addition to the sea of lush vegetation draped and perched throughout all of the rooms, the family also has a rooftop deck, which is the designated potting area.

“The first couple of special plants I bought were on the days my sons said their own names for the first time. The idea is to try and keep these plants alive so I can send my sons off to college with them.”

She especially loves plants with black leaves and carnivorous plants, like Nepenthes.

“I’m very proud to say that my Nepenthes actually won most unusual plant in the Tennessee State Fair.”

She was awarded a blue ribbon.

VOGUE
FASHION BEAUTY CULTURE LIVING RUNWAY VIDEO PROJECTS

Todd Selby Opens His First Solo Museum Show
April 27, 2017 4:56 PM
by Christina Pérez

The Selby House – Daelim Museum
#즐거운_나의_집
2017.4.27 – 10.29

Todd Selby is no minimalist. A quick look at his body of work makes that clear: since launching his blog, The Selby, less than a decade ago, the photographer-illustrator-director has released a trio of books, created dozens of commercials and short films, and collaborated with major fashion houses and brands. He’s also gotten married, staged an installation at Colette, and launched a slew of quirky products.

All this is in addition to his main gig: capturing the homes, kitchens, closets, and personalities of some of the world’s most fascinating big-name and under-the-radar creatives with his signature photographs—a feast for the eyes that draws up to 100,000 visitors to his blog daily.

“Minimalism to me is quite boring,” Selby readily admits. “When I started shooting people and their spaces in the early 2000s, that super-clean look was the dominant aesthetic. What I did was so embracing of maximalism and real life and messiness, it was a slap in the face to that whole thing.”

Fittingly, Selby’s first solo show—opening today at the Daelim Museum in Seoul—is no subtle affair. Titled “The Selby House,” the exhibition is an immersive, Selby-ized wonderland whose hundreds of photographs, illustrations, and sculptures fill all four floors of the museum as well as its exterior.

“We’ve been working on the show for a year and a half,” Selby explains of the popping, kaleidoscopic results, which include a re-creation of the artist’s bedroom, studio, and living room, plus an interactive “Head in Hole Wall” area meant for selfies. “I wanted the exhibit to have a good representation of my old work and new original work—at least half of it is new things that haven’t been shown before. Super ambitious, but we got it done.”

The whirlwind of color, whimsy, and sound is ambitious but also—simply—fun. Nowhere is that joy more apparent than in the Jungle Room, a fantastical sensory dreamscape taking up the museum’s entire fourth floor.

“When I was a kid, my dad wanted to photograph a tribe of (alleged) cannibals in Papua New Guinea,” Selby explains of the room’s inception. “That journey of going up the Sepik River on my dad’s crazy quest led to the two-dimensional sculptural jungle journey of the Jungle Room. The space is inspired by Henri Rousseau’s paintings and based on a feeling of flat illustrations, layered upon layers. It has an original soundtrack by my friend Philip Smiley, huge wooden trees, handmade vines with monkeys and chameleons hanging, and a way-too-large slug—I think it’s about 30 feet long. There are about 200 original works in this room, from six inches to 20 feet tall.”

The wonder of it all isn’t lost on Selby, who admits that getting to this point in his career hasn’t come without its hurdles. “My biggest challenge has been staying true to myself and my creative interests while constantly trying to change and evolve,” he says before adding, cheekily: “My favorite project has to be the Daelim Museum show Selby House—four stories of pure Selby-ness!”

The show runs through October 29, but if you can’t make it to Seoul (where Selby recommends you try the local fare at Jeju Sikdang), here’s a peek inside the exhibition and an exclusive look at its making, shot by Selby himself.

VOGUE
FASHION BEAUTY CULTURE LIVING RUNWAY VIDEO

CULTURE > TV & MOVIES

With His First Film, Redmond Hand, Private Dick, The Selby Is in the Movies
August 17, 2017 – 4:30 AM
by John Ortved

Photographer and illustrator Todd Selby has made a career documenting the spaces of his creative friends. Now he’s stepping behind the camera in a whole different way: his first film, a short about a notorious private eye on the hunt for a legendary cactus, debuts today on Vogue.com.

“I’ve done a lot of documentary short films and documentaries-related TV commercials,” Selby says. “But I wanted to figure out a way to bring what I do as a creative documentarian into a fully scripted realm.”

He’d been mulling over the idea when he found himself in Echo Park’s Cactus Store, where he overheard a discussion about a cactus that survives solely on the moist fog in a desert where it has not rained in 400 years. “That story is the great analogy and centerpiece of the film,” he says.

The film is perhaps the first Technicolor, partially animated, psychedelic gumshoe noir. It tells the story of Redmond Hand, Los Angeles’s “most notorious detective,” on her quest to find a beautiful woman’s missing cactus. Spoiler: She “gets caught up in some crazy shit and then dies.”

It’s a funny, wild, unexpected take on the classic detective story—with tons of hot pink, drag queens, and a baby (Selby’s own!) who shoots lasers from her eyes.

agenda libros vogue
UNA IRREVERENTE MIRADA A TODO COLOR

en sentido horario, desde arriba: una peluca exótica de marisol suarez; portada del libro fashionable selby; imágenes de algunos bocetos de Elie Top; aurora james.

un íntimo retrato de la CREATIVIDAD
El mundo caleidoscópico llamado moda se revela en el reciente libro de Todd Selby.

Escrita en un enigmático lenguaje se teje la esencia de la moda. Algunas veces calificada de efímera, el verdadero sentido de esta industria y el entorno con el que se matiza se concreta a través de las imágenes. Para Todd Selby, creador de la web de culto The Selby nacido en California, su cámara y una estética peculiar de fotografía le permitieron explorar un caleidoscópico mundo de creatividad.

“Siempre estuve interesado en la fotografía y en viajar. Cuando me mudé a Nueva York trabajé en revistas y empecé a tomar fotografías a mis amigos en sus hogares; así comencé como fotógrafo. En 2008, decidí realizar un proyecto personal basado en mis obras y de ahí nace The Selby, con la idea de retratar gente creativa alrededor del mundo”, confiesa a Vogue en exclusiva.

78 www.voguelatam.com

Nadie me ha acusado de ser minimalista; en mi trabajo busco el color, objetos, más cosas. Eso me es atractivo.

Aunque no tardó en llegar el reconocimiento de la industria, que en poco tiempo lo elevó a la cúspide, haciendo de sus colaboraciones toda una experiencia visual basada en coloridos detalles. Para su tercer libro, Fashionable Selby, Todd decidió homenajear a la moda a través de aquellos personajes que mejor la definen e ilustran.

“Este libro no habla sobre estilo o gente estilosa; habla sobre moda y lo que significa para cada persona retratada. Compila desde ilustradores, joyeros y zapateros hasta diseñadores, estilistas o editores. El objetivo es presentar a este mundo desde una nueva perspectiva y mostrarlo a través de estos personajes”, nos comenta el autor.

Cortesía y fotografías de THE SELBY.

El trabajo de tres años de creación de este libro fue exhaustivo, especialmente seleccionar a los protagonistas que mejor reflejaran la esencia de este. “Busqué personas únicas, con una fuerte pasión en lo que se dedican, que pudieran contar una historia a los lectores”, y añade: “Puedo decir que estoy interesado en personajes poderosos, personas que viven bajo sus propias reglas”.

Imágenes que esconden mil historias: arriba, Lindsay Degen con una máquina de los años 20; más arriba, detalle del taller de Iris van Herpen; abajo, vista del atelier de la diseñadora británica Fred Butler.

“Una afirmación contundente que se concreta en la portada de este manifiesto fashionista. Fue difícil elegirla, quería una imagen que representara el colorido y la mentalidad del libro. Buscaba algo inusual que intrigara a las personas cuando lo vieran. Nadie me ha acusado de ser minimalista. En mi trabajo busco el color, más cosas, más objetos, eso es atractivo para mí. Por ejemplo, no es coincidencia mi elección de portada”, concluye.

Que se le considere uno de los fotógrafos más influyentes de los últimos años no es tampoco casual. Detrás de colaboraciones con firmas de lujo, como Louis Vuitton, Fendi o Loewe, el universo de Todd Selby se expande a los territorios del arte, incluyendo dentro de este rubro la propuesta latinoamericana.

“Soy un gran admirador del trabajo del pintor mexicano Miguel Calderón, aunque no lo he podido fotografiar: ¡me gustaría hacerlo!”, responde quien hasta hace algunos años contemplaba la moda como un mero espectador, el mismo que hoy inmortaliza a través de su lente un íntimo mundo de incesantes caprichos estéticos, descifrando así un lenguaje que crea a la perfección.
—Enrique Torres Meixueiro

www.voguelatam.com 79

Here’s the English translation of the text:

agenda books vogue
AN IRREVERENT LOOK IN FULL COLOR

Clockwise from top: an exotic wig by Marisol Suarez; cover of the book Fashionable Selby; images of some sketches by Elie Top; Aurora James.

An intimate portrait of CREATIVITY
The kaleidoscopic world called fashion is revealed in the recent book by Todd Selby.

Written in an enigmatic language, the essence of fashion is woven together. Sometimes described as ephemeral, the true meaning of this industry and the context that gives it nuance comes to life through images. For Todd Selby, creator of the cult website The Selby and a California native, his camera and a distinctive photographic aesthetic allowed him to explore a kaleidoscopic world of creativity.

“I have always been interested in photography and in traveling. When I moved to New York, I worked in magazines and began taking photographs of my friends in their homes; that’s how I started as a photographer. In 2008, I decided to undertake a personal project based on my work and from there The Selby was born, with the idea of portraying creative people around the world,” he tells Vogue exclusively.

No one has ever accused me of being a minimalist; in my work I look for color, objects, more things. That is what attracts me.

Recognition from the industry came quickly, elevating him to the top and making his collaborations full-fledged visual experiences based on colorful details. For his third book, Fashionable Selby, Todd decided to pay tribute to fashion through the people who best define and illustrate it.

“This book is not about style or stylish people; it is about fashion and what it means to each person portrayed. It compiles everyone from illustrators, jewelers and shoemakers to designers, stylists and editors. The goal is to present this world from a new perspective and show it through these characters,” the author explains.

The three years of work that went into creating this book were exhaustive, especially selecting the protagonists who would best reflect its essence. “I looked for unique people, with a strong passion for what they do, who could tell a story to readers,” he adds. “I can say that I am interested in powerful characters, people who live by their own rules.”

Images that hide a thousand stories: above, Lindsay Degen with a machine from the 1920s; higher up, detail of Iris van Herpen’s workshop; below, view of the atelier of the British designer Fred Butler.

“A bold statement that comes together on the cover of this fashion manifesto. It was difficult to choose it; I wanted an image that would represent the color and the mentality of the book. I was looking for something unusual that would intrigue people when they saw it. No one has ever accused me of being a minimalist. In my work I look for color, more things, more objects—that is attractive to me. For example, it is no coincidence that I chose this cover,” he concludes.

That he is considered one of the most influential photographers of recent years is no accident either. Behind collaborations with luxury brands such as Louis Vuitton, Fendi, or Loewe, the universe of Todd Selby expands into the realm of art, including within it the Latin American scene.

“I am a great admirer of the work of the Mexican painter Miguel Calderón, although I have not yet been able to photograph him: I would love to!” responds the man who, until a few years ago, viewed fashion merely as a spectator—the same man who today immortalizes through his lens an intimate world of ceaseless aesthetic whims, thus deciphering a language he has mastered to perfection.
—Enrique Torres Meixueiro

www.voguelatam.com

VOGUE PARIS
FASHION NEWS

Todd Selby on board the Louis Vuitton Express
The Selby Goes From Paris to Shanghai by Train

The luxury brand invited the American photographer and filmmaker to board the Louis Vuitton Express, for a trip from Paris to Shanghai.

In March, Louis Vuitton brought ready-to-wear Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2012-2013 to a beautiful close with a spectacular show at the Carrousel du Louvre, which saw models descend one by one from the Louis Vuitton Express, a real locomotive emitting plumes of smoke.

Now, the train is up and running once again, and Louis Vuitton has invited photographer Todd Selby aboard to cross Europe and Asia from Paris to Shanghai. The American photographer and filmmaker will keep track of his journey in a travel log, noting down experiences as well as the encounters he has along the way, posted every day from July 6 on www.louisvuittonexpress.com. The Louis Vuitton Express and Todd Selby will reach their final destination in Shanghai on July 19.

See also on Vogue.fr in English:

• Louis Vuitton launch fine jewelry boutique at Place Vendôme
  
  

• L'Âme du Voyage – Une Escale à Paris collection as seen by Creative Director Lorenz Bäumer
  
  

By Eugénie Trochu, translated by Quinn Connors

VOGUE – MARCH 2010

INDEX — Logged On
Editor: Meredith Melling Burke

Every generation in fashion has its force to be reckoned with, but this group is the first of its kind: it blogs about style and is making a global industry sit up and take notice.

I-GENERATION: THEY'RE INTERNET- AND INFORMATION-SAVVY

Back row, from left: Michelle Phan, Todd Selby, Tommy Ton, Yvan Rodic
Front row, from left: Bryanboy, Hanneli Mustaparta, Garance Doré, Catherine Kallon, Mary Tomer.
Photographed by Matthew Brookes. Fashion Editor: Kathryn Neale.

Ever since Tommy Ton started his blog Jak & Jil in 2005, he has lived for those moments when the runway intersects with real life. He began photographing parties in his native Toronto, “getting excited,” he says, “if I saw YSL shoes.” These days Ton travels the world, shooting the sideshow of the fashion circus—the editors, the models, the cool girls. The quintessential Jak & Jil shot: sky-high Balmain fetish booties sinking into the Jardin des Tuileries in Paris. “It’s more interesting,” Ton says, “to see heels like that walking on sand or on cobblestones than on a designer’s runway. What I want to do is document personal style because that’s what people are really interested in.”

No one—least of all the global fashion industry—predicted how many people would want to see stylistic gestures uploaded minutes after they were shot, or that those making them would become celebrities. But that has changed: blogging now commands real power and privilege. To chart the phenomenon, Vogue profiled nine individuals who matter now.

Jak & Jil is here because Ton helped raise street photography to the point that his blog is as essential during the collections as the shows. Garance Doré and Hanneli Mustaparta work in that genre too, but also feature themselves in their blogs, putting trends and designers right in their own closets. Catherine Kallon evaluates the red carpet wherever it has been unrolled. Yvan Rodic records who’s wearing what in locales rarely visited by designers. The outspoken Bryanboy (a.k.a. Bryan Grey-Yambao) went from Manila fashion addict to Marc Jacobs muse—with a Marc campaign styled to look like him and a bag named after him.

Michelle Phan revolutionized the beauty business by uploading makeup tutorials to YouTube (her “Poker Face” Lady Gaga how-to hit eleven million views). Mary Tomer devoted an entire blog to tracking Michelle Obama’s style. And Todd Selby delves into the personal spaces of everyone from Lagerfeld to Lou Doillon—as well as plenty of anonymous but no less compelling characters—revealing magical qualities in the minutiae of their everyday lives.

While their approaches differ, they all share one thing: fresh, subjective commentary about fashion, beauty, and lifestyle that the mainstream media doesn’t provide. “Sometimes fashion can seem too perfect; you can’t relate to it,” says Bryanboy. “Bloggers make it more attainable, approachable.”

Ten or twenty years ago, the only way to engage with fashion was to buy a hip indie magazine—and you remained anonymous and voiceless. “Before, you’d be stuck somewhere,” says Mustaparta. “Now you can be in your own room, getting your voice out there.”

INSIDE OUT
Selby gets up close and personal with those he shoots for TheSelby.com.

What makes the industry pay attention now? Partly the economy: as the recession decimated stores and brands, bloggers kept fashion relevant. “I believe in the dream of fashion,” says Doré. “I’m friendly and positive and passionate about it. I don’t attempt to democratize it but to show what I love.” The industry, realizing the global loyalty bloggers command, is happy to reciprocate. “If I want to shoot a Balmain dress,” Doré says, “it’s not a problem, even though the house doesn’t loan its clothes to every magazine.”

Bloggers can do what everyone now wants: connect. Lancôme signed Phan based on the numbers her homemade videos generated; she now creates tutorials for the brand’s website. Books are being published (Selby, Rodic, Tomer), T-shirt lines launched (Doré for the Gap, Selby for Uniqlo), and ad campaigns shot (Lacoste by Rodic, Cole Haan by Selby, Lane Crawford by Ton).

Yet bloggers guard their independence. “My blog still feels like a hobby,” says Kallon. “If that changed, I might feel different. I like the outsider status.”

Even as blogging becomes a profession, its terms remain fluid. “I don’t know what professional means anymore,” Selby says. “I give myself assignments and shoot them and show them for free. It’s a totally new way of thinking about things.”

Blogging has evolved into a blend of work and personal life. “I’m treated like an expert on fashion,” Tomer says, “even though I don’t work at a magazine or go to shows.” Doré is stopped on the street in SoHo; Ton is recognized at Whole Foods; Bryanboy receives fan emails from strangers who spot him at Starbucks.

TECH TOOLS & STYLE NOTES
Canon EOS 5D Mark II digital SLR, Apple MacBook Pro, Apple iPhone 3GS, HP Mini Vivienne Tam Edition netbook, BlackBerry Curve 8530.
Must-have pieces: Balmain booties, Jimmy Choo stilettos, Versace bag, 3.1 Phillip Lim dress, and more.

Blogging’s impact is unmistakable: it has made fashion more accessible while turning these nine into influential figures—and public personalities—blurring the line between who they are and what they do.

World of Interiors 

Books

Fashionable Selby (by Todd Selby; Abrams, rrp £22.99)

As any loyal reader of The World of Interiors knows, one of the joys of the magazine is to imagine how your life might be if you woke up in that bed, or ate your toast at that kitchen table.

For the third instalment of what has become a successful formula—round up 40-odd trendsetters and photograph them among their stuff—photographer Todd Selby has knocked on the door of the fashion industry.

On this premise, I gingerly opened the book expecting to see “fashionable” people posing with their collection of vintage Alaïa jackets. Instead, what we have here is a lively glimpse into the corners of an industry where eccentric outliers—among them an illustration professor, a knitter, shoemakers, shop owners, and one woman who makes frankly revolting-looking headpieces with human hair—are working with creative abandon.

It is when Selby focuses on people’s working environments that the book is at its best. As disparate as the group is, both professionally and geographically (Britain, France and Japan are the most represented), his subjects have certain things in common. All of them are incredibly untidy, with piles of books and objects covering every inch of space. Only an L.A. product-design studio and a Parisian spectacles atelier have surfaces clear enough to put down even a cup of tea. None of the interiors is grand. Many are ramshackle, utilitarian spaces which provide a backdrop for the occupants’ work. All share that indefinable air of cool.

There are also, mysteriously, a lot of plants. Do these people know something we mere mortals don’t about a link between photosynthesis and the right side of the brain?

Selby’s approach is to take one or two snaps of their desks and shelves, and to supplement this with shots of mood boards and details of eye-catching objects. The resulting pages are a riot of pattern, saturated with colour, with the feel of an artfully curated scrapbook. When you finally come across two sisters making simple leather bags in a plain white studio, it’s a welcome breath of fresh air.

Selby’s masterstroke is to reveal the process as well as the product, which renders the prosaic surprisingly fascinating. It also helps that most of his subjects work by hand, like the shoemaker snapped filing down a last with one of more than fifty tools laid out on his workbench.

Selby’s argument, I suppose, is that there are still truly creative people in an industry now worth $400 billion per year, working outside the mass-market, homogenised, global fashion juggernaut. I found myself being drawn back to the book’s eye-popping delights. For an outsider, it is intriguing to see the skill that goes into the embroidery on a Chanel bag, the design process behind making giant gold dinosaur eggs for Louis Vuitton’s windows, or fifty sequin-encrusted jackets—one for each American state—made by the man who dressed Elvis in a gold lamé suit.

Selby doesn’t completely escape the more pretentious elements of the fashion industry, however. One woman describes herself as a “progressive regressive fiber entrepreneur.” After all, this is still fashion, darling.

—Augusta Pownall

To order Fashionable Selby for £20.69 (plus £4.50 UK p&p), ring the World of Interiors Bookshop on 0871 911 1747.