’89 domande a Paul Rowland – Creative Director
What did you study at university? I went at School of Art in Arkansas.
How did you start your job? I moved to New York in 1985, at the beginning I worked as a waiter in a restaurant, then I started to enter in the world of fashion, I had some work as a model and then I started in 1990 to work for a fashion agent.
What’s your best talent? I don’t know, maybe I don’t have any. I believe my talent is in artistic aspects like art and writing and good creativity.
Your favorite style icon? It depends on my mood. I am very eclectic but at least my favorite style is rock. My reference icons are definitely Mick jagger and Lou reed and Edie Sedgway.
What do you think about influencers? I understand that it is a trend and a reality of the present but in all honesty I have no idea of this world and I am not in it. The risk of this kind of job is to lose the taste for beautiful things and in conclusion, there is a great risk of becoming a big loser.
Do you know Chiara Ferragni? I have no idea who she is, I’m sorry, I hope not to looks like an idiot for that.
Do you think about yourself as in influencer? I think it is something that certainly does not belong to me, my person and my taste.
Who was the first famous model you worked with? Kate (Moss n.d.r.).
Can you tell us how it all began? She was represented by an agency in London and then we started managing her in New York. At that time Kate was engaged to my friend Mario Sorrenti with whom I was very close from the beginning a beautiful friendship was born with Kate that we still have today.
Could tell us how she was at that time? Super normal, she liked to have fun, treated everyone the same.
Did you use to party together at night? Of course we had a lot of parties together.
What can you tell us about Naomi instead? The thing that always struck me about Naomi was her motivation to do things, her great determination a true force of nature.
What’s your best friend fashion designer? Riccardo Tisci.
What is the night you spent the most money to have fun? Hahaha honestly I never counted them, I can’t give you a sum also because I wasn’t me the one who pay the bill.
The place you like the most in Italy? Unfortunately in Italy I only came to Milan for my work. I know the Plastic Club there. I believe in the end that the place I would most like to know is Sicily.
What do you do for fun? Fun is honestly not something that represents me at the end I am a serious person. Fun is not my goal.
Where have you been on vacation when you were young? When I was little we didn’t travel anywhere. The only trip when i was little i think was Galveston in Texas.
Where are you going on vacation now? Since we live in Morocco we often go to Spain, for example near Marbella, not Marbella because I hate it.
What’s the topic you are most expert in? Mmm, I don’t know maybe this is a question to ask to other people, do you understand what I mean? I mean I don’t feel to be a professor in anything.
What’s your job now? I don’t have a real job. My job actually is raising my children this is my biggest job at the moment. Perhaps the most important for me.
Have you ever fallen in love with some model you represented?Never ever. In the end models are just a business for me, and then for me I saw them as daughters, or sons. I’m not the classic creepy person who sees the models and wants to go to bed with them.
Where do you live? Marocco, Marrakech
Where are you from? Arkansas, maybe you read about it on some Hunter Thompson books.
Other cities where you’ve been living and how long? I lived in New York and Rio de Janeiro before.
Which Languages do you speak? English, Portuguese and then a bit of French, and a bit of Arabic.
Who are the people that inspired you the most? My children.
If you could live in one historical era, which one would you choose? Ancient Greece, maybe Egypt.
If you could spend a day with a historical figure who would you choose? Caesar.
If your life was a movie, which one would it be? The Exorcist, metaphorically.
And if it was a song? Joni Mitchell, River.
Which are your favorite places in your city? I love the local place, spend time with locals, reading a newspaper in a coffee bar smoking a cigarette drinking tea, these are the things who I love in my city.
Favorite movies? I love the whole Godfather, especially the first and second. Reason why I am also attracted to visit Sicily, I was falling in love for it when Al Pacino goes to Sicily for the marriage in the second part. I love it. I love also Pasolini and Fellini.
Favorite songs? My god is a difficult question, always difficult to answer because I have many, maybe Lullaby of the Cure.
Favorite bands? The Cure.
Favorite books? The Catcher in the Rye, To Kill a Mockingbird.
Favorite authors? J.D. Salinger,Tennessee Williams.
The craziest experience you’ve ever had?I was in taxi in the suburbs of Rio, in Brazil, and I saw a person commit suicide by jumping off a building.
Can you define yourself with an adjective? Complex maybe.
What’s your favorite historical character? Andy Warhol.
Favorite TV series? The serpent.
If you were an animal which one would you like to be? Howl.
Have you ever been offered money for sex? Unfortunately no.
Have a guy ever refused you? The thing is this: I’m attracted to straight men not gay. I’m very good at this at wooing non-gay men. Kind of an art.
Have you ever had sex with more than one person? Yes.
Have you ever cheated on your fiancée? Yes.
Have you ever cheated on a friend? Probably yes.
What’s your favorite city in the world? London.
Do you believe in some religions? None, but I believe in reincarnation.
Your typical day? Very normal, take my children to school then go for a coffee with friends then go back home to pick them up eat, read a good book listen good music and have dinner all together and go to bed of course when i was in New York it was very different hahahaa. I used to work all day, going to clubs almost every night, i didn’t sleep to much. Very, very intense period.
What’s the first thing you would do if you win the lottery? That would be really cool.I guess first thing I’d give some money away and second i would go for a nice trip i believe in Vietnam.
What’s the thing you like most? My luxury now is the quiet life.
Your favorite dish? I love pasta Carbonara.
Do you have some phobias? Not really.
What car do you own? Shitty car called Dacia.
Favorite fashion brand? I really like Balenciaga as a brand but I think my favorite one is Commes des Garcons .
The most precious material thing you own?I have some valuable photographs and a poem by Patti Smith so for me it’s the things related to art the most precious. Also a denim jacket that Keith Haring painted just for me in my apartment for my birthday a long time ago in Ny.
What do you usually drink at the bar? Whiskey on the rocks.
Best party you’ve been to? In the 90s there was a home party on Halloween in New York. I was with Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss and there were some very well known people of that moment for example Johnny Depp, Donatella Versace, John Kennedy Junior. It was in the era without smartphones and paparazzi and things like that so consequently there was the freedom to be free and themselves, also drugs of course. Was beautiful for that freedom, everyone could be whoever they wanted. Amazing.
What drugs have you done? So many: cocaine, weed, ecstasy, lsd, heroin.
If so which one is your favorite? For sure cocaine.
The most used one in the fashion system? I can’t generalize, each person is different. Anyway lot of them
Why did you choose to move to Marocco? I came to morocco for the first time because i was invited to Naomi’s birthday party and i fell in love with this place and after New York i decided to move here to have a different quality of life.
Can you tell us something about you that nobody knows or very few people know? I think I’m a person with much more traditional values than people think I am.
What are the clothes you can’t stand to see on a man and on a woman? Ten years ago I would have answered many things but today I think different if a person has style he can wear whatever he wants and be rock and cool.
What’s your favorite artist? Francis Bacon for sure.
If you can choose a famous man for a night, who would it be? I would say any sexy man on the street but one famous above all Gianni Agnelli and Robert De Niro.
And for a relationship? I don’t care about relationship. They are not things for me.
What’s the item of clothing you spent the most money on? It’s been long time I don’t spend money in expensive clothes or anything like that but for my birthday Riccardo Tisci sent me some Burberry clothes: trench coats, sweatshirts, very nice.
Would you like to make an appeal? I would tell people to live in a quieter way and try to be better towards each other.
Do you have any political orientation? Not really.
Can you give us a definition of art? Being an artist is a sort of expression of who you are and what you express, how you communicate your world to the entire world.
When you moved to New York from Arkansas you started to work as a waiter at Nishi restaurant, which was a very posh Japanese place on the Upper West Side, could you tell us some interesting story about that place? In the 80s in New York Japanese culture was taking hold in both food and design, a nice story about that restaurant is the following that it was run by a Japanese gay couple who only hired young guys in their place.
The maddest designer you know? They are all nuts, but maybe John Galliano and Alexander McQueen in particular.
Is there a model of today that has caught your attention particularly? Not really, I’m a bit out of business.
Have you ever been with a woman? Yeah.
Can you tell us how you did outing? If that moment happened of course? In my family I said it very late, maybe when I was 30, my father for example was already dead. He didn’t need me to do it in everyday life it was more than normal. There was no need to do coming out.
Have you ever been discriminated for your sexual orientation? No.
Vice versa did that brought advantages that otherwise you wouldn’t have been? Not really.
What advice would you give to a boy afraid to live normally his sexuality cause of the fear of other people judgments? My advice is to be authentic. You have to live your life for what you really are and be yourself.
If you could choose a person you know to read this interview, who would it be? Damien Hirst.