Suffice to say Mark van der Loo is a permanent fixture on my mood boards and has admittedly shaped much of my ideation when it comes to the look and feel of our clothes. I think they call this a muse while Calvin Klein obviously called it for what it was, an obsession.

It is understandable, there is something archetypical about Mark and it isn’t all looks (the whole family is annoyingly good looking of course). It is clear Mark is a good man, a good man who happens to look great and speak five languages. Mark is one of those calm, polite and hard-working people who seems settled, resolved and loving and a real pleasure to work and hang with. I think I would call him my friend? Mark…?

Mark was probably the first male supermodel and a consummate professional, he purportedly walked 50 shows a week at points in the 90’s (do the maths). He broke ground with CK’s Obsession campaign in '94, was the face of Boss’s couture and ready to wear lines in '95 and also did very memorable work for Valentino and others. He was also the first male face to cover Marie Claire in '96, but most transformative for me was the magical work Mark did with Peter Lindbergh. It was just so transcendent and pure. There is the kiss with then girlfriend (and later wife for a period) Esther Cañadas for the DKNY campaign in the rain, super duper hot and just so of-the-moment, so confident.

Ultimately however it is the ’94 Giorgio Armani campaign shot in Syria that lives in my conscious. The convergence of Mark’s masculinity and the languid femininity of Armani’s designs against the spartan dryness of the Syrian desert and Roman ruins was nothing short of breathtaking. It will never fade away, it cannot. I don’t need to go on but you can ‘google it up’ as my son would say and I would encourage you to do so, it is worth re-living those images because it was a time where the theatre and mood in the photography itself was truly exacting, artful and tremendously powerful as a result.

Catania was the second time we have shot Mark (with James Harvey-Kelly of course) and at some stage we may well shoot his 3 inch taller son of the same name, which raises a point - you need to take care booking the Mark van der Loos of the modelling world... Catania was one of those places you feel is deep in its etching. You will notice we also trotted up to Taormina, wrestled past all the fans thinking they are in White Lotus and took some great pictures for our men’s spring summer collection.

Thanks Marks, Thanks JHK and the crew.

True Love,
PJ