Model of the Month | Will Lewis Interview Part II

The first part of our inter­view with Will Lewis cov­ered how he got his start mod­el­ing. Now, we move on to Will’s thoughts about the fash­ion indus­try, his per­sonal style and how much of what we see in shoots accu­rately reflects him as a person.

The Fash­ion­isto: What are your thoughts about the indus­try in general?

Will Lewis: I like to keep my mind in the art and craft of it when I work, but you can’t avoid it – THE INDUSTRY itself is inter­est­ing to me because we sell a basic neces­sity, but also a lux­ury. It’s an art form, a craft and a mass-​​production indus­try. Like any art, [it] has an ele­ment of exploita­tion to it; of the styles, inspi­ra­tions, influ­ences, sub­jects, the buy­ers, sell­ers and manufacturers.

TF: Are you per­son­ally inter­ested in fashion?

WL: I really enjoy wear­ing cloth­ing I like. Choos­ing an out­fit in the morn­ing can either [be] a headache (when every­thing cool is in the laun­dry!) or go really well with my morn­ing cuppa’jo, if I find some­thing I like.

There­fore, I always try to have clothes I like, which is why I hit every lit­tle coun­try thrift store I can. A super bonus is the kick-​​downs from friends and clients in the indus­try. So I guess all that means I love fashion…!?

TF: How would you describe your per­sonal style?

WL: It takes that world­wide indus­try to pro­vide me what I need to man­i­cure my very own retro-​​urban-​​tech-​​neck-​​all-​​American-​​world-​​class-​​millionaire-​​Jeremiah-​​Johnson style.

TF: View­ing your port­fo­lio, there is a con­sis­tent free spir­ited Bohemian vibe. Do you iden­tify with this in any way?

WL: That’s me, pretty much.

TF: Dif­fer in any way?

WL: I *have been known* to get my knick­ers in a twist over my prin­ci­ples on a daily occasion.

TF: So, how much of your per­son­al­ity is actu­ally cap­tured dur­ing shoots?

WL: It’s kinda hard to say. It’s like lis­ten­ing to your own voice on a answer­ing machine. Plus I’m a rather goofy guy, and I’d bet the pho­tos that cap­ture the real me end up on the editor’s floor and the photographer’s web­site more often than my model face shots do.