JAMIE MORGAN

National Portrait Gallery’s The Face — a reminder of what fashion magazines once were

 “It gave freedom of expression to new waves of innovative stylists and photographers,” he says. “They successively changed approaches to image-making in fashion, starting with the arrival of Ray Petri with Jamie Morgan in 1984, then Nick Knight shooting with Simon Foxton. Photographer Stéphane Sednaoui’s work with stylist Elisabeth Djian was a precursor of digital manipulation, then we had Corinne Day’s vérité.”

But it was the imagery that stylist Ray Petri and photographer Jamie Morgan created that is most influential. Their look was branded the Buffalo movement, with a clique involving stylist Mitzi Lorenz and singer Neneh Cherry. It walked menswear along a tightrope of queerness and machismo. “I worked with Ray because he was the most stylish man I knew,” says Morgan. “We were making it up as we went along, but there were strong cultural signifiers — from British royalty to African kings and queens and Scottish kilts. We were acknowledging that men were dandies but making it a bit punk, using Dr Martens and leather skirts.”

The image Morgan references — from the November 1984 “Men’s Where?” story, featuring model Nick Kamen — sums up Buffalo. It is the pomp of 17th-century European monarchs rendered in oils, mixed with gay disco and Jamaican rude boys.

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