This is also from the fashion assignment I had been somehow given by Ingrid Sischy for Interview magazine in what turned out to be her last issue. In the Grand Palais, Chanel had their show, with a GIANT Chanel coat sculpture, made to look like marble, that moved around on a huge lucy, with models appearing (and lastly, their legendary designer Karl Lagerfeld) from a fold in the coat. When I took this picture, it was one that I realized when I snapped this shot that I had made a moment, some-how. Although she was walking to nowhere, literally on a treadmill-like journey around this giant statue, she had such a look of wondrous determination that it reminded me of hope, of perseverance, with an aura of self-possessiveness that was inspiring. I really related to the models as an artist, living on my credit card in this world of extreme spending, where hopefully I could make images that lasted longer than the fashions they were portraying. I also simply loved the colors of the pink against the gray and felt them to be striking! In doing my research about the designers and fashion in general, I came to really respect this world in a manner I never thought I would. When Coco Chanel made pant suits for women, she revolutionized the way women wore clothes and changed a power dynamic for women in history, among many different inventions. Even the elderly artist Madame Pouzieus, who creates their famous braid trims, is a genius that can’t be imitated—it was near impossible and a real conundrum to try to get right the sculpted trim on the huge jacket!

When I got to meet Karl Lagerfeld at the end the “performance,” I said to him, “I am just an artist who shows in galleries and museums, but you are a Master!” to which he replied, “You do what you do, I do what I do, and it’s all good,” which is right. We need great designers just like we need great artists, and what they do for the world might have even greater immediate impact, and can be as long-lasting, as some of the best of fine art (although at the end of the day, I’m glad to be a fine artist!). Like the Modernists, who embraced the circus as being an allegorical arena that could show us the realities of our world from an exalted plane, I feel that the fashion world is our circus, showing us the pains and aspirations, the hopes and the dreams and the fantasies, however effervescent or long-lasting, of our contemporary times. And it is fun, glamorous, and dangerously appealing to be a part of—and to paint!