It’s a blustery, wet, almost-fall day in London, and Piers Hanmer has the job of creating transportive backdrops for a fragrance campaign that reflect lively scenes in Greece and Morocco. “Santorini and Marrakech have to come to us with our two bloody enormous sets,” he says, his voice echoing around the small set side room. Hanmer has spent over two decades working as a set designer, creating some of the most vibrant, elaborate tableaux for Annie Leibovitz, Craig McDean, Willy Vanderperre, Steven Meisel, and Steven Klein. “I live on photo shoots. My feet are on concrete 12 hours a day.”
Distracted by Fashion is Hanmer’s new book, tracing an era of liberated, lively magazine editorials. In many ways, it captures a lost time: “There’s still lots of editorial, but there’s not so much set design—nor the budgets we once had,” says Hanmer. “There’s less opportunity to push the envelope.” It’s also a compendium of an artist working behind the scenes, who forged an era’s aesthetic, and who maybe doesn’t get the same recognition as his photographer or stylist collaborators.
“Quite selfishly, I wanted to put together something that was just my work, so when I’m old, I can see my contribution to this insane industry that we love,” Hanmer says.
Photo: Courtesy of Mörel Books
