Postcards from the Edge of the Catwalk
The more appropriate title for this book would be “A Love Letter” from the Edge of the Catwalk.
Mr. Webb unabashedly displays his love for his métier with such great joy, warmth, and enthusiasm, that it would be difficult for anyone who is into fashion not to smile. Those of us who have been on that twice-yearly circuit are transported back into time across New York, London, Paris, and Milan—not necessarily in that order.
Mr. Webb, who has been involved with and in love with fashion for over 30 years, has assembled a snap shot, or post card if you will, collection of photographs that not only focuses on the designers but also on the entire cast of what it takes to produce a successful fashion show.
We are given the opportunity to see, almost first hand, what it’s like backstage, who is in the audience—and not just the famous—and the obsession that all these people have in common: the love of fashion.
“Postcards! I love the way you, lain, assemble them through your photographs, your experience, your souvenirs. . . . The sentimentality of fashion is also in the fact made by personal memories, personal moments.” —Anna Piaggi
The title of this book was born out of the development process of all the photos that Mr. Webb had taken. Snappy Snaps developed them into postcard size prints. Just so you don’t think this is some high-tech process, think: your local Photomat—the one that develops prints in an hour in those days when we still used cameras with film rather than a memory card. After fetching the prints, he would strew them on a table and arrange them in a suitable order for whatever article he was preparing for. Somehow, the process reminded him of all the “moments” he experienced during these shoots, small moments captured in a second, much like postcard memories of the vacation he had just been on.
Indeed, the collection that is displayed in the book elicits a warmth and affection that few can express either in words alone or photos alone. Any seasoned fashion person will be able to relate to any number of the “postcards” and will clearly recall some of their own personal moments during what we call “season.”
Hopefully, the legacy of joy demonstrated by Mr. Webb will make it into the Christmas stockings of many aspiring fashionistas as well as the most seasoned of them. Postcards from the Edge of the Catwalk demonstrates that it is a great gift to love your work.