Industry, Now
DOMINIC SIDHU
DOMINIC SIDHU
Portrait by Ben Hassett for Models.com
#IndustryNow The cycles of social media impel us to embrace then move on from trends and discourses faster than ever before. The life span of a single work––an editorial, a campaign, a show, a stint––is shorter for it. Fashion’s only unconditional term is the future: operating a year ahead, after all. So, in an industry where change and relevancy are the full stops at the end of every sentence, Models.com wanted to highlight individuals who add permanence to the community–some at their start and some at their top. Photographer Ben Hassett gets up close and personal for Models.com with the creative forces often behind the scenes. They are the Industry, Now.
Each time Dominic Teja Sidhu comes onto a project––whether it’s for Moncler, Bulgari or Paramount Pictures–––he’s tasked with puzzling out a new, sometimes abstract, idea. As an experienced creative director, curator and art advisor with a kaleidoscopic focus that includes luxury fashion, luxury beauty, contemporary art and cross-platform cultural projects, Dominic’s intuition acts as the corner pieces of whatever jigsaw might tessellate before him. He has been contracted for his discipline in finding creative order, often playing as match maker, across fields by respective top players. In fashion, he worked with Carine Roitfeld to develop and launch CR Fashion Book while also curating its pages with the sort he knows best: artists, filmmakers, authors and cultural icons. He was formerly the editorial director of Visionaire and contributing editor to V Magazine and V Man, plus contributed to other publications from Vogue to T: The New York Style Magazine and more. In art and film, his track record is best exampled by the names that dot his resume: Nan Goldin, Anish Kapoor, Isa Genzken, Richard Prince, Jeff Koons, Darren Aronofsky, Lee Daniels, Gus Van Sant, Harmony Korine and a great many others.
What was the turning point in your career?
There have been so many. Working with Darren Aronofsky over the years, particularly on Black Swan and NOAH. Developing and launching CR Fashion Book with Carine Roitfeld. A few years ago I met a colleague Michelle Grey through a mutual friend and started working together, during an industry shift towards branded content and cultural programming. We started playing in that space, collaging characters, creating cross-platform collaborations and juxtapositions with artists and innovators – people like Karen Kilimnik and Jane Goodall, Meryl Streep, Philippe Parreno, Brigitte Lacombe, Rick Owens or neuroscientists Richard Axel and Cori Bargmann, chaos-theory pioneer Mitchell Feigenbaum, to VR innovator Jaron Lanier. Most recently I’ve been inspired by new digital and experiential frontiers, exploring digital avatar creation, and also working with Hanson Robotics, the minds behind Bina, and Sophia the Robot, to explore the line between emotional intelligence and AI in a fashion and cultural context.
How does design naturally and seamlessly evolve with the times? How much do you need to reinvent with an original design?
I’m always looking at design as a surrogate for friendship, the way art — in its selfishness and individuation often resists. Good design and I guess bad design offer inherent union, and for me it’s about enhancing that, but also locating points of tension, diving into a work’s inherent structural logic and finding the point where that unity can unravel, where the familiar parts of its form can break and let in the world.
Is beauty better than it once was?
Beauty is more kaleidoscopic than ever before. There are so many more channels for exchange and experience. The expansion and the sharing of beauty seem among the most potent hallmarks of our time. We are now all pushed to see ourselves as inherently beautiful…strong beauties…even at our sharpest edges and vulnerabilities, and to share it. It’s exciting to be working in these industries at a time where more participants claim their power and voice in shaping that narrative.
