Natalie Tauger wants to highlight new faces each day with new platform Look One World.
Natalie Tauger has reached the point of being selfish. The New York-born and based stylist has had enough of following other agendas within fashion, so she has decided to craft her own pathway. Launching Look One World, the editorial platform highlighting a new face every day, was created in order to express how Tauger sees fashion through her visionary lens, aiming to target a whole new generation of fashion-obsessed people who want to see eye-catching content that stands out amidst a sea of imagery shared every second. “When people see my work, I wanted those images to make them stop and think ‘Oh, what is this? Who has worked on this?’ We live in such digital world that we need to be able to consume imagery that is created specifically to be explored digitally.”
Look One World cannot be summarised in one sentence, and Tauger does not want it to be. "I'm describing it as a media empire. People often try and categorise it, calling it a project or a magazine, but it is neither of those. With Look One World, the sky's the limit. I'm incredibly ambitious, and equally uncompromising.” Having worked for many years with Interview Magazine, her experience and creativity has found solace in something that she can call her own, and that continues to grow further out into the world. “I feel very much like this is a really selfish project, because I'm saying whatever I want to say, and I don't really have anyone to answer about it. It is my brain chopped out of my head and put in a blender of creativity, because these are my ideas come to life - a fantasy that is being envisioned.”
Showcasing her Perfect Process, Natalie Tauger cracked open her creative mind to share a glimpse of her everyday, her pathway as a stylist, and how discovering new talent means more than anything to her.
Angel: Natalie, Look One World is its own entity, that encompasses many different mediums. What was your starting point when you first started developing the idea?
Natalie Tauger: The genesis of the idea really came from a conversation with my friend, Karl Templer, who I worked with for many years, and I felt I had a lot of things to say creatively. Like many people from my generation that are obsessed with social media, I was on my phone 24/7, so I really thought of turning being chronically online into a good thing, and use the medium to express what I wanted to say. It really was an exciting opportunity, I felt like a lot of people are interacting with fashion content and discovering fashion content online, so I thought what is the best way to deliver that to them, with an immediacy, something that feels specifically crafted for that medium.
When I would work on fashion shows, we would have so many conversations about the experience in the room. But the percentage of people who are in the room versus the percentage of people who are interacting with the pictures is so minuscule. For me, I was always think about ‘Okay, but how is this gonna photograph? How is this gonna look online and on the runway?’ Because that's how 99% of people who look at this are going to see it. So similarly, I kept thinking about how I can create images that feel suited to social interaction, because that’s where people will mostly interact with it.
Angel: Thinking about your very first experience shooting Look One World, how did it go? Did you have the idea, ready to go from the get go, or did it change as you went along with it?
Natalie Tauger: The idea originally was going to be a lot more focused on the look process as a stylist, coming from the point of view from all work that I've done previously. My entire career has revolved around being a stylist, so oftentimes we would do the looks on a whiteboard just in our office. It would feel absolutely real and spontaneous, being very different than the final outcome, but it would be uniquely exciting in its own way. I kept coming back to the feeling of living in an age where people are obsessed with outfits, and they're just obsessed with looks. Everyone today is a stylist because everyone is living very online lives, so my goal was to communicate that in a really elevated, exciting way that also showcases all the different pathways and fashion that really excite me and interest me. It’s really important to showcase all of the different avenues of development that fashion can offer, and how coming into this industry you can develop in hundreds of ways.
Angel: You are now thinking about different avenues, not only styling, but content management, creative direction, casting and all other details. How has it been for you to put on a on a completely different hat to everything else that you have done previously?
Natalie Tauger: It's been just so exciting. It has really tapped into this part of me that I didn't know existed. I really love to take those pictures, and I feel like every time I've done it, I have felt like I've upped the ante and added new elements. I had to consider new elements with each next round of shooting like set design, location and constantly grown and evolve the aesthetic. To be honest, the most challenging part for me has been social media management, because that is really time consuming just in terms of all details surrounded to it - formatting the posts, making sure everybody's tagged, making sure everybody has the deliverables. That side of things is still very new, but I have enjoyed learning all about it. I feel really blessed to be able to have the space and opportunity to develop my own ideas.
Angel: Thinking back to the very beginning of your career, how was your experience with the fashion industry been like starting out and working as a stylist?
Natalie Tauger: I started as an intern, because I always loved clothes, I didn't even really know what a stylist was! At Interview Magazine, I was able to work with Karl Templer, and learn so much from him. It was a really exciting time to be able to be on set for all of these really cool, brilliant projects. Karl was a fantastic teacher and was always very explanatory about why he made certain decisions and his process. People don’t understand that there's a lot of hard work, it's not as glamorous as everyone makes it out to be, but it is so incredibly rewarding, and meeting people who you admire and respect and creating brilliant work with them is amazing.
Angel: How do you see the future of Look One World developing and expanding? How would you like to see it grow?
Natalie Tauger: I'm really excited about all the opportunity and potential. There are some really great things still coming that I'm so excited to share, but also I feel very much like this is a really selfish project, because I'm saying whatever I want to say, and I don't really have anyone to answer about it. It is my brain chopped out of my head and put in a blender of creativity, because these are my ideas come to life. And it's a fantasy that is being envisioned, and it's an honour to work with so many amazing people that have made this possible, as well as continue to scout and find so much talent that is out there.