Vanity Project

by DAVE THOMAS

ISBN: 9781913491000

Published: 2021

In 1988, Dave Thomas was an unemployed plumber in Gloucester with a seemingly impossible dream: to enter the world of fashion. He moved to London, worked weekends as a caf dishwasher and evenings as a toilet attendant in a West End nightclub, and in every spare moment he hammered on the doors of fashion editors until one of them finally opened a tiny crack. Thomas seized the chance to be an unpaid dogsbody at Riva magazine, where he worked with legends of style Judy Blame and Isabella Blow and dressed artists like Lisa Stansfield, Boy George, and Kylie Minogue. Soon after, he was hired by Esquire UK and became the youngest fashion editor in the world. He ultimately moved on to edit fashion at Vogue Hommes, Vanity Fair, and Interview, and his work has since been published in a raft of international magazines. In the intervening decades, the business of styling ascended from the pavement to the penthouse. What began as kids playing dress up with ribbons and safety pins evolved into...