For the record: not true. Ms. Dean, 44, a former model and a fashion and art-world fixture, certainly inspires her fair share of party photos, with her glamorous avant-garde outfits. But she hates shopping, she said, and is more interested in chatting about her many creative endeavors.
In March, she was in Brazil, staging an ambitious performance-art event called MOVE! In April, she toured the Nymphenburg Porcelain Manufactory in Munich, as a creative adviser to the company. Then it was back to her SoHo office, where she and her team publish three fashion-and-art magazines, including V and Visionaire, a conceptual publication she helped create more than 20 years ago.
“I’m probably most known for Visionaire,” said Ms. Dean, who glides around her sun-drenched office in her trademark skinned-back hairdo and slash of dark lipstick, “if anyone does know me.”
Like Ms. Dean, Visionaire defies easy explanation. It’s a magazine only in the sense that it features original photography and art. Each issue is organized around a concept, and it may or may not be printed on paper. Issue No. 42, for example, was called “Scent,” and featured 21 vials of fragrance. One smelled like buttery bread; another, like garbage.
The newest issue, No. 63, “Forever,” is being released this weekend during the Frieze New York contemporary art fair, and takes the form of an “indestructible” metal box containing 10 thin metal plates. Each plate is etched or embossed with an image and, as with every issue, the contributors’ list is impressive. There is an original work by Yoko Ono; a Karl Lagerfeld photograph of his muse, Baptiste Giabiconi; and a Mario Testino photograph of Kate Moss.
It’s a credit to Ms. Dean that these luminaries, who aren’t paid, eagerly participate. “You can always trust her judgment — she is so well-rounded,” said Francisco Costa, the designer at Calvin Klein, which sponsored a 2009 issue called “Solar,” printed with ink that changes colors when exposed to sunlight. “Cecilia also makes people feel very confident about their work.”
Whether in the front row or at parties, Ms. Dean cuts an imposing figure. Those who don’t know her can find her to be intimidating, but to her friends, she’s witty and unjaded — a passionate editor who is generous and intellectually rigorous.
That might have something to do with her upbringing. Born in Central California, Ms. Dean spent her early childhood in Davis, Calif., where her mother, who is Chinese, received a Ph.D. in medieval English and Old French at the University of California, Davis. (Her father, who is American, is a retired Asian studies professor; the two are divorced.)
When Ms. Dean was 12, her mother took a job as an English professor at Nassau Community College, and the two moved to Long Island. In high school, Ms. Dean ventured into New York City “every chance I got,” she said, to hang out with friends in the East Village and go clubbing. During one trip, a photographer scouted her out and introduced her to modeling.
She was still in high school at Sacred Heart Academy in Garden City, where she was the captain of the speech and debate team, when she appeared in Seventeen and other magazines. As a young model, she befriended fashion industry powerhouses, then up-and-comers like Mr. Testino, the photographer Ellen von Unwerth and her Visionaire co-founders, Stephan Gan and James Kaliardos.
After high school, she moved to Paris, where her modeling career flourished. “I was having a good time, making money, and partying all night and working all day,” she said. But after about a year, she returned to New York and enrolled at Barnard College. “Being the responsible person I am,” she added.
She started Visionaire in 1991, the year she graduated. The idea evolved out of photographs that she and her friends would take after hours at modeling shoots. “We’d all finish the job we’d gotten paid to do, and then we’d still have the studio and the lights, and we’d be, ‘Oh, let’s do some nudes,’ or ‘Let’s experiment with this new lens I have.’ ” Visionaire was conceived as a way to showcase these photos, which in the pre-Internet days would have probably gone unpublished.
With 63 issues under her belt, Ms. Dean has branched out to other ventures. She lives in Red Hook, Brooklyn, with her longtime boyfriend, the restaurant owner David Selig; the two have a fruit and vegetable garden and a dozen chickens. One of her current ambitions: “I need to come up with some recipes that require lots of eggs.”
In 2010, after being approached by Klaus Biesenbach, the director of MoMA PS1, she created MOVE! with David Colman, a frequent contributor to The New York Times, as a two-day festival that paired fashion designers with visual artists, including Cynthia Rowley and Olaf Breuning, and Diane von Furstenberg and Kalup Linzy. In an installation created by Marc Jacobs and Rob Pruitt, museumgoers were instructed to walk along an empty corridor and strike a pose; in the next room, the videotaped walk was superimposed over an actual fashion show.
The most recent iteration of MOVE! took place over 10 days in São Paulo, Brazil, and featured additional collaborations, including a synchronized swimming performance created by Mr. Costa and Vik Muniz. Ms. Dean is planning to bring MOVE! to Miami later this year, and is working to adapt the piece by Mr. Jacobs and Mr. Pruitt to Times Square.
She is also dreaming up Visionaire No. 64. “I get my best ideas riding around on my bike,” she said. “So now that it’s warm out, I’d better go pump up my tires.”
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/09/fashion/a-profile-of-cecilia-dean.html?partner=rss&emc=rss