DAVID GANDY BY DOLCE & GABBANA my seem like a strange name for a monograph, a title suggesting that the fashion firm 'created' the most popular model in the world at this moment. But in essence the company IS responsible for the status of this iconic male model. According to the PR David Handy is British by birth, living outside London and a fanatic for cars who entered the modeling arena via contest and whoosh! - the rest is history.
Gandy is the epitome of the macho look - ruggedly handsome without being too pretty to the camera lens. He obviously works the gym routinely and maintains the amount of muscularity and tone without progressing to the bulging biceps and thighs look that are simply incompatible with fashion modeling. He is now the model of choice y all fashion photographers but continues to devote his major interests tot he company that launched his career with the premiere of the fragrance Light Blue.
Mario Testino, Steven Klein, Giampaolo Sgura, and Mariano Vivanco are just four of the photographers whose magic is focused on David Gandy in this hefty and impressive monograph and they have captures Gandy in full fashion styles ready for the walkway, casual shots of the model in street clothes, and many images without clothing (no frontal nudity here) that allow the reader to see the perfection of this man's anatomy. For some models this many images could become wearing, but David Gandy has style and charm and he obviously loves the camera: the results, a panorama of one man's exposure in and out of Dolce & Gabbana couture.
The essay is by Cambridge University educated Peter Howarth who writes with the same degree of flair that David Gandy shows the camera. He knows this field as he has been style director for British GQ and editor-in-chief of British Esquire. His publications include the New York Times' T Magazine, the Guardian, the Financial Times, and Italy's L'Uomo Vogue. In 2002, he started Show Media, a brand-consulting agency based in London.
But words are words and while they are well stated, the obvious star of this impressive book is David Gandy. He can only go up! Grady Harp, September 11