“I never went to those fashion meetings - all those women with hats and thick glasses."
~ William Klein
(1926-2022)
"For the famous picture on the piazza di Spagna Bill was high up on the stairs with his telephoto lens, the girls were to walk back and forth on the pedestrain crossing, doing double takes at each other because they were wearing similar dresses. I was on the sidewalk to relay messages, if necessary. There were no walkie-talkies back then. At first, no problem - back and forth, double take, click, again and again. But this was Rome and soon men began to congregate. Who are these girls in their fancy cocktail dresses? What are they up to? Bill was 200 yards away, out of sight. Traffic was starting to jam, the men closing in, the girls getting nervous. I was cringing, absolutely dying, sure that we were starting a riot, that we'd get arrested, but Bill kept shooting away and laughing into his camera, until it really got out of hand and we had to stop and get out of there."
~ Susan Train
This is one of Klein’s greatest fashion images. Pure invention and magic and when you hear how it came to be it’s a miracle he, not to mention the models, managed to escape the chaos in one piece.
