MICHAEL REYNOLDS

On the team since 1996 with roles including: US Editor, 2012–2021 US Director, 2021–present

I had just embarked on a freelance career, after a seven-year stint at American Vogue, when from out of the blue I received a call from Tyler Brûlé. He asked if I’d be game to create a set for the cover of a magazine prototype. Being young, dumb, eager to please and clueless as to what it would entail – I said yes!!! Do I recall there being a budget? If there was, it was next to nil. I remember renting a cheap wreck of a van. Uninsured, I feverishly made the rounds pulling favours and plucking pieces from ‘this’ designer friend or ‘that’ design shop, chucking spoils I could beg, steal or borrow into the back of said van. I even yanked a thick, hairy shag (flokati, that is) from my living room floor.

I’ll never forget arriving on the morning of the shoot at the location on Lower Fifth Avenue, the penthouse apartment of former male model Walter Schupfer, only to learn that the elevator was broken and everything needed to be schlepped up 14 flights of stairs. The cover shoot was a huge success, the image later used again for the launch issue. So nice, they used it twice! Had I been older and wiser, I would have probably passed on the opportunity and in doing so robbed myself of a 25-year creative journey that I cherish as one of my greatest lifetime achievements.