{"id":81763,"date":"2016-02-08T08:24:36","date_gmt":"2016-02-08T13:24:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/?p=81763"},"modified":"2016-02-10T10:51:35","modified_gmt":"2016-02-10T15:51:35","slug":"superman-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/superman-returns\/","title":{"rendered":"Superman Returns"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nTyson Beckford<\/a> for Greg Lauren<\/a> F\/W 16 presentation<\/p>\n

He was impossible to miss\u2014standing on a pedestal, spotlit from above, his arms akimbo as he looked off into the distance, his cape swaying gently off his back. There were two fighters preparing for a boxing match in the ring just a few feet away, but much of the attention at Greg Lauren\u2019s men\u2019s Fall\/Winter 2016 presentation on Wednesday was on Tyson Beckford, the supermodel-turned-superhero at the heart of the designer\u2019s latest collection. \u201cThe first drawing that I had done for this collection was a more conceptual piece, and it was this idea of the hero, because all of my collections on some level explore the idea of heroes and heroic imagery,\u201d says Lauren. \u201cFrom the very first moment, I was thinking of a destroyed hoodie with a cape instead of hood, and when I drew it, I literally drew it with Tyson in mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lauren, who has been friends with Beckford since the latter was launched to stardom thanks to his work for Ralph Lauren (uncle to the younger designer), says that he could not envision anyone else embodying that central role. \u201cTyson is possibly the only truly iconic male model of the last twenty-five years. But more than that, now that he\u2019s a little bit older, he\u2019s got a little bit of history and a little bit of a story to tell.\u201d That distinctiveness is exactly what Lauren looks for in his models, with the help of casting director Zan Ludlum. \u201cThe most important thing that models have to have when they come into my casting sessions is a sense of self,\u201d Lauren explains. \u201cI don\u2019t mean confidence, but I like guys who are bringing their individuality into the room. I think a lot of models today have almost been trained to become invisible so that the clothing ends up speaking louder than the individual, but for me, the clothing comes to life when the model brings a little bit of himself to it and it blends together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lauren recounts that they looked at several other models first, but none of them were quite right. \u201cA couple of guys came in, and they might have been physically right\u2014maybe they had the right size and stature\u2014but something was missing,\u201d he recalls. \u201cThen when I came in on the last day, my casting team had huge smiles on their faces and they said, \u2018You\u2019re not going to believe it, but Tyson\u2019s coming and Tyson wants to do it.\u2019 That was unbelievable. It was the sketch come to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lauren\u2019s designs have always been inspired by what he calls the \u201cclassic male archetypes,\u201d and several of those, from artists and fighters to soldiers and, yes, heroes, were on display at the presentation, which had a vivid set design meant to evoke a \u201cdark secret club down a back alley.\u201d Lauren says that the format also required, intentionally, more input from the models than the traditional runway show, in keeping with his values. \u201cI spoke to each and every model and told them what was going on in the world where they were standing,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was a lot more like directing a film than anything else. They really had to embody a character.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, for Lauren, Beckford\u2019s presence helped to bring the collection full circle in more ways than one. \u201cI\u2019ve known Tyson for a long time, because I was around when he was discovered by someone else in my family,\u201d he says, \u201cso I also felt that there was a history there and something very poetic about him now being part of my presentation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nDesigner Greg Lauren<\/a> | Casting Director Zan Ludlum<\/a> | Producer Nick Ponton<\/a> | All images Betty Sze<\/a> for models.com<\/p>\n

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Greg Lauren on why Tyson Beckford embodies his F\/W 2016 collection<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":446,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9363],"tags":[314,10257,10258,5487,8687],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81763"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/446"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81763"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82021,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81763\/revisions\/82021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}