I’m celebrating Fashion Week by sharing some of my favorite images and thoughts from my archive.

This photo of Connie a.k.a. "Connie Girl" Fleming with friend Carlos Taylor is one of my favorites! I took this photo shooting backstage at the Vivienne Westwood show in ‘92. I always loved photographing backstage at the shows! The beautiful models, the super talented hair and makeup creations, the new season designs and of course that frenetic energy! There is always so much to take in and capture, especially at a Vivienne Westwood show. It's not always easy shooting backstage, it can be very tight quarters and can get really hectic. Of course, photographers are always in the way!

I can’t help but think back to my first days in New York. I used to be able to sneak into fashion shows because I had a camera, ha-ha! Once I got into a Ralph Lauren Polo show in his showroom. There couldn't have been more that 50 people in that showroom. It was so intimate and only for a very select group of editors and clients.

I recently reached out to Connie Fleming, the oh so talented fashion illustrator, Steven Meisel model muse, runway coach and BTLM advocate to ask her about her memories of that time.

CF: “Westwood Darling, WESTWOOD!!! It all started with the hunt for the correct penny. Fellow model & roommate at the time Desmond Cadogan was booked for Vivienne that season. She’d reached out to him requesting an object or fabric swatch that match his skin perfectly for a suit she was making him for the collection. Everyone in the house was enlisted in the hunt.

Can’t remember how but the penny was discovered to possess the correct color & undertones. While arranging the postal details he’d mentioned me and how fabulous it would be for us to walk together. Viv loved it and I was booked. Two cheap Air Pakistan Tickets later we were off to Paris. I’d walked for Vivienne the season before in New York, but this was different. It was PARIS and Vivienne had solidified her place in fashion history, no longer the Punk upstart, she was one of the great influential designers of all time.

We arrived and as always in my heart it’s was FUNNY FACE “Bonjour Paris” Fred, Audrey, & Kay.

Through the Saint-Honoré,

In the Rue de la Paix

That's for me:

Bonjour, Paris!

Alas no production number ending atop the Eiffel Tower but straight to our fittings. Desmond’s suit was fucking gorgeous!!! I had a matching suit dress that I’d take off while Dez pull down the hem of my body con mini to reveal a maxi for our défilé de la mode together.

GRAND HOTEL was an incredible collection filled with the innovative signature silhouettes Westwood is famous for. Just looking at the faces of her adoring fans in the audience, Gaultier, Alaia, Galliano, she did not disappoint. The perfect mix of Savile Row tailoring, sumptuous fabrics and prints, and the sensual sensibility of empowered femininity wowed everyone in the joint. It was after all “Westwood Darling, WESTWOOD”.

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