Casting directors have a big responsibility. Not only do they define the literal face of fashion’s zeitgeist, but they’re also integral to the mission of telling a story with just a 10 minute show or, trickier still, a 230 x 300mm cover page. i-D’s very own casting director, Samuel Ellis Scheinman, knows this well, having worked on myriad issues, as well as era-defining collections, such as the late Virgil Abloh’s Louis Vuitton debut. Indeed, Samuel is the man with the Midas touch, responsible for igniting the career of South Sudanese-Australian model Adut Akech and that viral Paloma Elsesser cover we ran back in Spring 2022 (more on that later).
Samuel, however, wasn’t always destined for casting. While still in his high school years, he undertook two internships with Calvin Klein’s former women’s design director, Francisco Costa, before later enrolling at Cornell University on the fashion design course. During this, he joined a year-abroad programme to study menswear at CSM, a formative period punctuated with part-time work for casting director and mentor Piergiorgio Del Moro. “I was still in university, but I would leave and go into a month of shows and then come back to CSM,” remembers Samuel. “By the end, I used to sew next to my computer, casting at the same time.”
It was during this period working alongside Piergiorgio that Samuel met i-D’s then-fashion director, Alastair McKimm, who was styling Anthony Vaccarello’s Versus Versace. Since, Samuel and Alastair have worked across the pages and covers of i-D, not to mention shows and campaigns for Gucci, Saint Laurent and Marc Jacobs.
After his early days with Piergiorgio, Samuel’s career skyrocketed. He later co-founded his own agency, DM Casting, with Piergiorgio, and the rest is fashion history. Of course, none of this happened overnight. Rather, it was was born from Samuel’s own early inspirations, geeking out to the faces i-D platformed –be it Björk, Colette or Stella Tennant. For Samuel, such characters were inspiring because of how well they embodied exactly what a cover should do. “It has to establish a DNA and say something, ideally, extremely specific,” he says. Certainly, each and every one of the 373 (and counting) winking faces so far have nailed the brief. So, to see in another slew of killer covers, the casting whizz sat down to discuss his favourite ten from the archive to date.
Björk and Arca, The 40th Anniversary Issue, no. 361, Winter 2020
“The behind the scenes of this cover was very memorable. Björk and Arca were photographed separately and remotely due to Covid restrictions at the time. We were exploring the ideas of family, and what I found so interesting is that i-D has this lineage – this notion of an extended family – through creative collaborators, through shared culture. Bjork and Arca’s creative and personal friendship embody the way i-D connects us. Also, I think it was beautiful and quite radical, at the time, to present a topless trans person’s body – mid transition – on the cover. It’s that important representation that i-D can champion.”
Laura Foster, The Outrage Issue, no. 171, December 1997
“When I started following casting, in my opinion there were two magazines that championed new faces. Italian Vogue with Steven Meisel was the place to see which new face was anointed the new ‘It Girl’: one day they were on the cover and the next they were in every major advertising campaign and opening top shows. i-D provided a kind of counterpoint to the discovery of new faces: The ‘Alternate’ girl or the uniquely British girl. An i-D ‘discovery’ cover cemented that for me, that you do not need a recognizable face to create a super impactful image. And I’d say this is one of the most beautiful and sophisticated covers we did. Laura looks so fantastic. It’s a real beauty.”
Paloma Elsesser, The Out Of Body issue, no. 367, Spring 2022
“This cover might be the one I’m most proud of. That Miu Miu look was everywhere that season, it was omnipresent! And here you have somebody whose body has not been represented in this way before, put on a cover in an extraordinarily celebratory yet direct way. Carlos did not dress Paloma in a version of the look to make it work for her body. No, it was like, ‘This is Paloma in this look. Full stop.’ It still feels radical.”
“LeRage” by Arthur Jafa, The Darker Issue, no. 365, Winter 2021
“It goes without saying I am a massive Arthur Jafa fan. His artwork is amongst the most important contributions of any visual artist in the past 10 years. It’s a brilliant-looking cover and it’s hardcore. I selected this cover as it represents The Darker Issue which I am super proud of. It is possibly one of the most radical presentations of casting I have been involved in. Few models appeared in the issue but effectively, it was a completely unknown cast: artists, radical thinkers, friends and even some ‘frenemies’. It also introduced the ideas of AI and computer-generated casting into the conversation. Le Rage on the cover challenges ideas of traditional casting. Will casting even exist in the future?”
Smiley, The Happy Issue, no. 54, December 1987
“Iconic! For me, this goes hand in hand with Le Rage. Both covers challenge ‘What is casting?’ and how we can evolve the parameters of casting. Models and talent can represent iconography that inanimate animation and symbols can too (if not better). I think about this cover often for its strengths: it’s simple, it’s direct, and it’s in your face. It says what and who we are at i-D, and, at the end of the day, it’s just a great-looking thing.”
Colette, The Serious Fashion Issue, no. 185, April 1999
“Colette is my ultimate i-D model discovery. She is a frequent topic of discussion in my office when we talk about which model we would love to cast for a “comeback.” She’s the metaphoric Loch Ness monster of casting, nobody’s heard from her and we have never been able to get in touch with her. Colette, if you read this, give me a call! It is such a fantastic cover. And what an important moment in fashion when these faces were first being introduced at the end of the 90s: a real shift away from the supermodel era. You start to see a lot of these models that were maybe lesser known, but within industry, they became super desirable.”
Rihanna, Rihannazine, no. 1, 2020
“This is a special one for me. It’s a very important milestone professionally. We created the Rihannazine at the start of Alastair McKimm‘s tenure. I had worked with Rihanna on all her shows for FENTY x PUMA and this came together just after the second show I cast for Savage x Fenty, the first created for Amazon Prime. It is rare but, every now and then, you can feel that you are part of a groundbreaking project that will truly shift culture. That show did just that and introduced a radical new proposal for beauty, sexuality and empowerment. Rihanna was ahead of the curve in terms of representation, and now you see a lot of brands in a similar sector “doing Savage.” And equally, i-D is so often ahead of the curve on representation and has the same power to change culture so Alastair and I both immediately agreed we should find a way to collaborate with Rihanna. The covers of Rihanna are beautiful but what is interesting is the use of the platform as an introduction to and celebration of a new generation of talent. We had this amazing mix of famous, new discoveries and an extraordinary amount of diversity. It felt like the beginning of a new era at i-D.”
Chloe and Robbie, The Inspiration Issue, no. 206, February 2001
“This one’s a special one for a few reasons. It was guest-edited by my partner, Raf Simons, so obviously it’s within the family. But I selected it not because of who was involved but rather for what it represented to me as a young person when I first saw this image. In a way, it was almost like I had found my fashion tribe. I identified a handful of fashion brands and creatives that spoke to me, creatives I looked up to and now have the pleasure of calling close collaborators. Willy [Vanderperrre] and Olivier [Rizzo] have done so many sublime covers over the years. It was nearly impossible to select one. In the end though, I love that this is a tender, romantic image.”
Kaia Gerber, The Utopia in Dystopia Issue, no. 362, Spring 2021
“It has a different feel this cover. It’s a bit off. We have such a defined visual language and we’ve been uncompromising in our commitment to the wink, that even with an extreme crop, it’s i-D. I also find it interesting to take somebody like Kaia, someone so recognisable, and reduce her to an absolute essence. The cover doesn’t have any of this sort of fanfare that you might expect around somebody with such stature or fame. It’s pure, stripped-back fashion at its best.”
Stella Tennant, The Performance Issue, no. 147, December 1995
“Picking a Stella cover was the most difficult for me. She’s been featured on a variety of fantastic covers, each showing a very different side of her beauty and personality. As a non-Brit, Stella has always been an embodiment of British beauty and style and this multifaceted thing that is so specifically British: Intellectual but also quite sexual, very sophisticated, even aristocratic yet youthful, and both very binary yet very fluid. Each of Stella’s covers introduce us to a different personality. To me, she is British fashion, she’s “alternate” yet mainstream and she’s the ultimate chameleon. Personally, she’s the face I most associate with i-D.”