Bella Hadid by Harley Weir, LOVE Magazine 2020
Stylist and editor-in-chief of The Perfect Magazine Katie Grand has conquered the art of reinvention so it’s natural that her first book, Tears and Tearsheets would be a testament to evolution. The chronological account of all of Grand’s fashion eras was torn out of the pages of the influential British magazines she helped launch or worked with, including Dazed & Confused, The Face, Pop, Love, and The Perfect Magazine. With a prevalent thread of relentless, cheeky fun, the 288-page book features quotes from her many creative partners like Jefferson Hack, Rankin, Steven Klein, Alasdair McLellan, Kate Moss, and Naomi Campbell with every page a tearsheet from a magazine, then re-photographed and repackaged. As a former collaborator of designers like Miuccia Prada, Stella McCartney, and Marc Jacobs, the book emphasizes Grand’s storied career and her ever-present need to move forward. Before she hopped on a plane, Grand checked in with Models.com to discuss the labor of love curating the images going in the book, some of her most memorable subjects, and the art of not looking back.
When did you first realize that styling was a job and were you always interested in fashion?
I always loved magazines from a super young age, I always wanted to be a magazine editor, but it wasn’t until I was about 18 that I understood what a stylist was. I was on work placement at Katherine Hammett and met Melanie Ward and Laurence Passera, who was Ray Petri’s assistant at the time and thought they were so cool and thought, ‘I want to be them.’
You credit Sade’s The Face cover as a pivotal moment of your love affair with fashion. What cover that you’ve styled, have you heard the most from fans?
Probably Beth Ditto for the launch issue of Love. It’s so familiar that we didn’t put it in the book – it didn’t seem necessary for people to know it so well. Ironically Beth is wearing no clothes, but she’s holding a young designer’s dress whose name escapes me, but it was good to do that cover with a non-advertiser and do it with Conde Nast – I think that was important.
What significance did the title, Tears and Tearsheets, hold for you and what inspired the making of this book?
Working in the arts is hard and tough, it’s very often a Labour of Love.
Are tearsheets obsolete? What are we calling them now? Prints?
I think they’re now called ‘photo dump’…
Gisele Bündchen by Liz Collins, Dazed & Confused 1999
You’ve relentlessly pushed the boundaries in your work, often led by the casting. What do you look out for when casting and what have been some of your most memorable subjects to shoot?
I’ve had the honour and privilege to work with so many great people – Miuccia, Marc, Nicole Kidman to Adhel Bol, Ajok Daing, Lila Moss, Kate Moss, Raquel Zimmermann – so many talented people who want to create an image in front of the camera. The list is huge and it’s incredibly special.
How long was your process of selection for final images and what common thread was essential to convey throughout your eras?
The whole book was done in weeks – Phoebe Arnold sourced the originals and David Owen edited it and Dominik put it together. It was actually faster than most magazines I’ve ever worked on. Once we had the edit together, it worked better chronologically – it was important for me to show Rankin and early Dazed really did challenge the concept of the fashion shoot and there are themes I return to – crying, gaffer tape, reimagined celebrity – on and on.
Adhel Bol by Rafael Pavarotti, W Magazine 2021
What do you want audiences to feel when they see these images?
It’s a quick book – I wanted for it to feel like a magazine’s greatest hits, kind of disposable or not precious so you can tear it up and put images on a wall, not a hard-backed tome.
With the exception of the credits, the acknowledgments, and the quotes from other fashion stakeholders, there are no words in this book. What made you decide to let the images speak for themselves?
I don’t actually know! David was keen for it not to have words and I sort of just went along with it and didn’t really question it.
Being an editorial leader behind so many publications, how would you say the process of creating a magazine has changed over the years?
Editors have to think of so many more things than we used to (DIGITAL!), but I still worry about the same things – is it good enough? Does the printer work? Is the printing going to be gorgeous enough?
Kristen McMenamy by Zhong Lin, Perfect Magazine 2022
When looking at your trajectory as an artist, what is something you would have wanted to tell your younger self?
That’s so tough, I prefer not to look back though, really. I think fashion does that, everything changes every three or six months – it doesn’t really evolve, more lurches.
Do you think social media has changed the way that we consume fashion?
Definitely – it’s so fast, so disposable.
Do you think it’s changed the way that you work?
It depends on the moment – standing behind a photographer taking a beautiful image that you’ve never seen before still makes me excited, gives me goosebumps, and it’s the moment of the photo that means everything not where it ends up.
What would you like your legacy to be known as?
Moved forward, believed in new talent, did some nice pictures, edited some memorable magazines, and worked on some great collections.
