I never wanted to go to Pitti. It just wasn’t supposed to be my thing. I was into the world of drapey darkness, and Pitti seemed to me to only offer buttoned up tweed. Men with waxed moustaches and decorative canes. I didn’t want to spend 4 days of my January on this. But I was reminded by my friend Koo, that Nick Wooster would be there.

I’d seen the video of The Sartorialist Lunch for 25, so I booked my flights.

Koo and I stayed in a hotel room which did not allow for one to move around the room without moving the suitcase onto the bed. Our suitcases didn’t fit in the small gaps around the bed when we slept (we shared the bed), so we had to store the bags in the bathroom. If you had to use the bathroom, the other person would need to stand waiting while the bags were placed on the bed. It was one of those things you would not show on Instagram, if Instagram had existed back then.

On Thursday, the 10th of January 2013 I photographed Nick for the first time. I must have felt uncomfortable at Pitti Uomo, as when I look at my photos from the day before (Wednesday the 9th), I barely took any photos at all. The 10th started off slow, but it seems that I got my confidence after taking my photo of Nick in his grey suit, judging by the larger number of images I shot afterwards.

I do not remember this moment. But I do remember thinking to myself that Nick’s walk and his voice were different than what I had anticipated. Nick walks like me, of at least this is how I see it.

Cut to 2023.

I meet Nick at gym near Union Square. He’s having a training session, and I decide to interrupt with my camera. Nick is wearing all black, and not that much of it. He’s very tattooed and nothing about him would lead you to believe that he’s in his 60’s. I don’t hang around long, as to not get in the way of getting super buff, of course.

The following day I meet Nick at his hotel in Manhattan. In January of 2024 I meet Nick outside of his hotel in Piazza di Santa Trinita, in Florence. And in June I meet Nick outside of the Fortezza and we walk to his hotel on Piazza Santa Maria Novella (also in Florence.) I’m beginning to sound like a moderately-priced escort.

I ask Nick to tell me about the good ol’ days of fashion. Long before I was there. Long before Tommy and Phil and Scott and Jason and Vanessa were there. Back when Milan was the city that mattered. The late 80’s and then 90’s when Paris was just a blip on the radar.

Nick attended his first Pitti in January of 1988. I was four and a half years old.

He attended his first fashion weeks in June of 1989. I was six.

“Florence and Milan were first, and the most important to retailers in the late 80’s and early 90’s… (Remember—there was. No Gucci, Prada, Balenciaga, YSL, Dior, Dries (didn’t start showing until 92 or 93) Helmut Lang didn’t show until later in the 90s. Also, in the summer Florence and Milan were in June, and Paris was in early September. The only important brands showing in Paris were Miyake, CDG, Yohji and Jean Paul Gaultier.

“Armani was the king.”

“Pitti was incredibly important to American retailers and Press.”

As we sit outside at a café by his hotel drinking Cokes, both freshly maimed by James and Lawrence at our appearances on Throwing Fits earlier the same day, Nick tells me about aging and how it plays a role in his career. “Losing My Edge” by LCD Soundsystem pops into my head as he tells me about fears which sound like they could be my own words. But Nick has been there since the start…shouldn’t he be immune to these doubts?

“But I was there”

Nick tells me about his first Comme des Garçons show in 1989 in Paris.

“I was there”

Nick tells me about a John Bartlett show at the Armory in NYC. The soundtrack was Knights in White Satin. A model named Brad, whom Nick says has since passed away, rode out on a horse for the finale.

“I had everything before anyone.”

But Nick WAS there. And as I sat there listening to stories which “you really had to be there” to understand, I appreciate the opportunity to hear about how this all was before the day I stepped foot outside my first show.

Thanks, Nick.