Dear readers,

As you may have guessed, each week I’ll be interviewing an insider in the London fashion industry for TheVine.

So far, I’ve caught up with fashion super journalist Sarah Mower and HERO Magazine’s Editor in Chief Fabien Kruszelnicki, the latter of whose launch party I’d fallen over at a few nights before our interview, but luckily he didn’t see me.

For my third post, I’ve interviewed the tall glass of long island ice tea currently working as Fashion Director at LOVE Magazine, Anders Soelvsten Thomsen (I honestly think he’s like, seven foot tall or something).

When I met up with him, he was commanding a room of at least a dozen people; busily answering questions and calls with his thick Danish accent, tapping away furiously at the emails inundating his inbox, occasionally flashing that million dollar smile and… What was I talking about again? Oh yeah, he took half an hour out of his busy schedule for a meandering tête à tête in LOVE’s lovely white conference room with me. [Please note: I pretty much had to make up the questions on the spot, because my notes said things like, “Single?” and “How often do you work out?”]

Zac: What was your first job ever?
Anders: Outside of fashion? I was a newspaper boy and then a piccolo — a bellboy.

I thought you said ‘gigolo’!
Yeah, yeah — I was eleven and a gigolo! I matured quite quickly.

How did you get into styling?
Erm… Accidently, really. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and messed around for years. I just had a good time. Then I went up to Sally Lyndley, and I was working on a show and she was the stylist, and I said, “Do you need an assistant?” Two months later she called me, and she had been made Fashion Editor at POP. She brought me in.

What did you do at POP?
I started out assisting Sally, and when she left I became Katie’s first assistant, and then Katie created The Popettes, which was me, Kimmy and Pheobe, and Tim and Victoria were part of it. We would work with a different photographer for six issues in a row, and we were styling ourselves, and having our pictures taken as various characters. We DJed at a Diesel fashion party in Hong Kong, and we did a fanzine… It was a bit embarrassing but we loved it.

How did you pay your way while assisting?
Well, through Katie I’d be assisting on lots of paid jobs. We’d do four or five jobs a season, and so many campaigns and look books… Once you’re an assistant at that level, it’s a full time and a half job. Everything else is on hold, so you need to get paid enough to get by.

Now that you’re LOVE’s Fashion Director, do you do many freelance jobs?
You don’t really have the time, ‘cause LOVE’s your priority. You have a few clients you work with as a consultancy-based thing, but you work it all around the magazine always.

What other titles do you work with?
Dansk — I like to keep close to my roots. They helped me out when I was an assistant and gave me my first main fashion editorial, and then I’ve done EXIT in the past, HERO, Vogue China, obviously POP, and I’ve done some portraits for US Vogue…

You didn’t do the Victor Nylander story in the last issue of HERO, did you?
Yeah, I did!

Oh, weird — I did the interview that accompanied it!
Oh, did you? He’s so shy… I mean he’s fun when he’s had a drink!

Who did you look up to when you were first starting out?
The thing is, I was so clueless. I didn’t know the difference — she’s gonna kill me — between Katie Grand and Katie England. I didn’t know the difference between Dolce and D&G, or that Armani had different lines… I knew photographers, but they were more people who documented teenagers. I know it’s a cliché now, but I was into Larry Clarke and Nan Goldin. That was when I was fifteen or sixteen, because they were showing parts of life that were so far from the life I was living.

So you were the only gay in the village. 
Yeah, yeah. I mean obviously different people were there, but I don’t really remember ever seeing a beggar or a drug addict or a homeless people. I lived such a secluded life back then, but then you had all these really amazing films that were showing you a different reality, which I was obsessed with for years. John Waters was another one I was obsessed with, just for the sense of humour.

I completely get where you’re coming from. Like, when I was starting out, I remember my Editor saying something about Hedi Slimane, and I was like, “Who?”
[He laughs] It’s going to happen aaall the time. People who’ve been in this business so much longer just expect you to know everyone, and you don’t. So they’ll mention it, and then you’ll quietly research it, then it’s stuck in your brain after that.

I think I got my first magazine job because in meetings I would be like, “Do you think we can do more? Is there a more creative approach?”
[He laughs] Always. We can always have a more creative approach.

So, what does your role at LOVE involve?
Because we’re such a small team at LOVE, you’re involved in every aspect. My title is Fashion Director, but I’m still involved in budget, market editing, the running of the office… But then there’s the creative part, where you’re doing your own shoots; you’re part of the issue meetings and you’re always keeping an eye out for interesting people to feature who fit the theme or concept that we’re building the next issue around. You need as many administrative and managing skills as you do creative.

Do you want to be at US Vogue or whatever?
I wasn’t one of those kids who dreamed of being Fashion Editor at US Vogue or anything. I’m just working my ass off and seeing where this can take me. If it was offered to me… Well, never say never, but it’s not my goal right now.

What’s it like working with Katie Grand?
She’s one of the most inspiring women to work for in fashion. So, it’s incredible, but I think also it’s the hardest job I’ve ever had. She works all the time, so you’re kind of working all the time too.

What’s been the most stressful thing in your career?
Oh god, there’s been so many! And then once it’s dealt with you push it from your mind. Once when we were shooting for POP, and all the clothes were stuck in customs, so it was a matter of trying to get everything out of storage at the airport on a Saturday within two hours! When you’re desperate, you do everything you can — you call people crying and begging and we managed to get it out straight away, in that case. You have to make it happen.

Do you prefer studio or location shoots?
I fricking hate locations! You get amazing images, so it’s brilliant to be on location, but it’s so cozy being in a studio where you have electricity! I’ve been on shoots in Ibiza, and you’re on the beach, and it’s storming, and you can see the clothes wanting to fly off the rails, and nothing can touch the floor and… It’s endless problems when you’re on locations. But that’s how you get the amazing photos.

What’s the funniest thing that’s happened on a shoot?
I can’t think of one…

You know, I really want to tell that story you told me about that Australian model *** *******!
Oh, when she farted in *****’s face and didn’t even notice! [We laugh] The best thing is when you’re traveling with a team you know and you can get really wasted after the shoot and have lots of fun in Ibiza or Romania or wherever… Do you want me to tell you my worst story?

YES.
I was assisting and we were shooting a perfume campaign, and in the evening we went out with Josh Hartnett, and we were getting really, really drunk — it’s his fault — and we got back to the hotel at six and had to get up at seven. So we got to the airport, and I was fine, even though I had eight or nine trunks of clothes, and when we got onto the airplane I fell asleep. I woke up and started to walk to the toilet, and fainted and banged my head on a chair — it was probably lack of oxygen or something. So, I’m lying there and then I’m coming out of my haze and there’s three stewardesses going, “Have you been drinking?” I was stinking of booze, but I was like, “Nooooo….” I crawled to the toilet and tried to lock it, but they kicked the door down and then I had to do the walk of shame back to my seat. Then they served me food before anyone else, because…

You needed food.
I needed food. That’s definitely my worst fashion story.

What’s your tip from the top?
Work your ass off! You can spot a lazy assistant a mile away.

So, I have one more idea for the interview.
Go for it.

I asked two people today what you were like, and they both said you were extremely clever.
Who did you ask — my assistant and our receptionist?

No! But how do you feel about doing a general knowledge test?
[He laughs] OK — but I think people would say that because I’m organized and clever in that kind of way. If I don’t do well, you can’t publish it.

Deal.