Have you ever asked yourself what lies behind all those glamorous images that cover the fashion magazines page after page transporting the reader to a specific time and situation, a captured moment where elegance, sophistication, creativity, a sense of art and a mélange of styles and colours distinguish one image from the next?
To better understand this fascinating world from behind the scenes, I talked to Enrique León Antonio Cherubini, the Creative Director at Muse Industry in Barcelona, whose experience between Milan, Munich and Los Angeles and taking part in the most important fashion event in Spain are making of him a rising star in the creative industry.
Interview of Enrique Leon Creative Director at Muse Industry
What is the role of a Creative Director at a photo shoot?
Being a Creative Director is more a modus vivendi than a profession, you have to have it in your blood. A good Creative Designer is like a Conductor, who is capable of orchestrating many artists at once, such as photographers, make-up artists, stylist and models. You have to be involved on everything and supervise any given task down to the smallest detail. Managing such a diverse team is not an easy task. It is fundamental to be able to foresee the end result of a work before you have even started. Being a far-sighted person is the secret.
A Creative Director is the person who comes up with the perfect idea, embodies it and executes it. Behind each fashion shoot there are hours and hours of work, so that within one single day, you do the work and materialise your initial idea. Shoot is the perfect word to describe this, you only get one opportunity and you have to execute it perfectly.
Walk us through the steps of the fashion shoot for the theme “Gala & Glitter” that was featured in our December newsletter
For the Glitter shooting, the idea was to capture in a photo a ‘femme fatale’, dressed only with glitter and elegance, to detach femininity and aristocracy with only few images.
I was looking for a model with a very pale skin, bright dark hair, and most importantly, with full lips and a feline look…not an easy task! But after an exhaustive casting, I finally found my muse.
To coronate this work, I thought that the perfect location would be a labyrinth located in the heart of Barcelona, a place that transports you back in time, with geometric lines and bold colours. My perfect scenery was in place, it was only missing a matching style, elegant and sexy, featuring a real duchess hairstyle and to add the finishing touch with red lips singed Dior. The ensemble was decisive for the final result: snapshots that release glamour and elegance from all four sides.
How is the team of a Creative Director composed?
A good team is composed of a magnificent photographer sensible enough to capture that special moment, a talented graphic designer, a stylist, a fabulous make-up artist that will convert my models and muses perfectly according to my vision and well, all possible assistants so that the workload is bearable!
What are the steps to follow for someone who would like to become a Creative Director?
It is paramount to be passionate about the fashion industry. Everything revolves around Fashion and you need to be prepared to look at it from 360 degrees. You need to be very ambitious in this business, I personally want to arrive to the top and to obtain this I’ve been very perseverant and constantly driven by passion. The best advice I can give to our readers is definitely to be passionate about what they want to achieve.
What does “Gala & Glitter” mean for Enrique?
It is a theme that recalls elegance and class. Class for me means to be able to wear a smoking jacket as I would be wearing a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, thus being casually elegant! For this festive season, I can only advise the FG community to feel like a star, put on your finery and shine in this very special time of the year. Well, this is what I will certainly be doing!