Monsieur Robot – Westfield & The Pursuit Of Perfection

Today marks the start of an exciting new project in collaboration with Westfield dedicated to the Pursuit of Perfection. The good folks at Westfield have enlisted the help of Daniel Sannwald to create a luscious video piece which aims to convey the notion of striving for perfection in menswear. That might seem like a fairly abstract concept but is that not what it’s really all about? Isn’t our process of buying clothes and getting dressed every morning informed by a subconscious desire to get it right, to totally nail it, to be… perfect? The video invokes the classic black and white glamour of old Hollywood and uses dance to display clothes in fluid motion. It’s glorious. You can check it out below along with an interview with Daniel Sannwald himself, explaining both the thought process behind the video as well as the pursuit of perfection. Stay tuned for the next couple weeks as I dissect menswear and wax lyrical about the pursuit of perfection.
What do you think the advantage is to shopping in Westfield versus shopping on a high street? 
I am not really a big shopper so I cant give you a good answer for that. I love malls like Westfield though! It’s fun for me to watch people, get snacks and go to the cinema! 
Do you think perfection can ever really be achieved? 
No, but we can try to get as close as possible to it. For me it’s more important to make sure that my work is able to connect with people on an emotional level. 
Is perfection limited to traditional aesthetics or do you think modern fashion trends can also achieve perfection? 
Perfection can be found in many things and outside of traditional aesthetics. There are no rules! I love the digital age and really find it very strong if we use modern tools to create emotions. 
Is film the perfect medium to convey the beauty of fashion? Do clothes look better on a big screen than they do in real life? 
The big screen and real life have both equal beauties but on the screen we can create illusions, dreams, stories and emotions. I believe cloth can have more impact and emotion if you have got a good director and people can emotionally relate to the video and how the product is presented. 
Talk me through the concept behind the film ‐ what was your inspiration? 
I am a big fan of dance so I thought that the theme of perfection could be translated also through perfect control of the body;  dance just seemed the right way to go. Similar with the intercuts of the flower close ups. Nature is the highest form of perfection. I wanted to create a mix between dance and nature something classical and minimal and purely beautiful. 
How easy was it to translate an abstract concept such as ‘perfection’ into a visual medium? 
The theme was perfection but also the whole production and project was perfection in work flow. It was all very smooth and all came together very easy and nicely. Same with the concept it came to me very fast and all made quickly sense without lot of time thinking and reflecting. 
How important is motion and dance to our perception of fashion, in comparison to the static image or an article of clothing hanging on a rail for example? 
Due to the rise of the digital age motion is getting more and more important. It makes sense as cloth is designed to move and to be able to not show one perspective or point of view on a garment is really great. I personally find we can tell more stories with images in motion than with a still image. 
Do you consider this piece of work to be different from advertising? Film is used extensively in the fashion industry but do you feel its moving more towards artistic pieces and away from advertising? 
Clients and brands are always more open to experiment and be more creative in the motion part of their advertising. I think this is really exciting and makes it a lot more fun for us creators to work on! 
This piece of work is quite abstract and uses many film techniques and symbolism ‐ would you like to explain your artistic process a little bit? 
We shot on an exciting new camera called the Red Dragon Monochrome, I was told that I was the first person in the UK to try this out. The footage is hardly graded or touched as my goal was to get all the beauty in camera. The only big symbolism are the flowers and I used them for beauty and emotions. 
Have you achieved perfection with this film? 

I feel very happy with the outcome of this project. However the main drive of an artist should always be to become better and come closer to what we so call perfection… 😉 

This is a collaboration post with Westfield
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