A few weekends back I travelled to London to catch up with my pal and main man, Mounir, who is the legend behind Mounir Ghazi Paris. I was invited down to shoot and star in his new campaign imagery and video, plus to party with him and his friends at the launch of his new e-shop at The London Edition. How can you star in and shoot the campaign I hear you ask? Oh, and how did you manage to do all when drunk?! Well, well, well, all will be answered in tonight's new post.
I remember first discovering Mounir's collection on Instagram, I came across his feed which was covered with black and white photographs like my own, and inspired by true rock n' roll. After distinguishing we both had very similar feeds we discovered that it wasn't where our similarities ended. We also shared the same outlooks on our personal style, especially when it came down to leathers.
I physically met the main man the last time he was in the U.K as he extended his visit to travel up to Manchester to shoot with CJ & I over a year ago now, since then we've kept in touch and become firm friends. As soon as I tried Mounir's collection of killer leathers the initial time, I was hooked. Their ridiculous quality, fit and the general feel you get when wearing one of Mounir's creations is unrivalled. I've featured in two shoots for the brand in past, but this shoot we captured in London was definitely the most fun!
When I arrived in the capital I walked straight around to the hotel to be greeted by Mounir himself and headed up to the hotel room. I was expecting your normal classic room but oh no, Mounir knows how to do it. Mounir scanned his jet black key card against one of the lift doors in the lobby which took us straight to the top of The London Edition's ultra cool penthouse suite, where Mounir's friend Edi was hosting his annual summer party! The night had started.
Mounir had his entire collection with him and it was perfectly displayed, hanging in the back of one of the bedrooms. The views from the penthouse were ridiculous, with each side of the large living room having its own terrace. One side looking over the houses of parliament and Big Ben, the other looking north toward the B.T Tower. The plan was to party first and when everyone went to bed, we'd start shooting.
Mounir Ghazi Paris is known for it's amazing detail and craftsmanship when it comes to leather. I've said this time and time again, but the jacket you see above is the best biker I have ever had the pleasure to wear. Mounir's black Biker Jacket is my favourite piece from his collection where its style, detail and thick weighty leather encapsulates everything rock and roll stands for. The collection takes inspiration from the 70's with his muses of the era like Jim Morrison and Keith Richards, plus the motorcycle culture of the decade.
Mounir's decided to name the campaign 'Magic Hour', which came about when partying till the early hours of the morning. We started shoot at 4:30 AM when I was extremely tired and still drunk. The start of the shoot didn't go as well as we first envisioned, the light wasn't on our side until later on. Had we partied too hard, should we have started shooting the photographs way earlier than we did? Was that last beer of mine one too far? These questions (plus a lot more) were going through our heads.
This was until 'Magic Hour'. I'm guessing this was roughly between the hours of 6-9AM that morning, I can't quite place it due to the events of the whole night. But, we got through it and these are the photographs we thought summed up the night and made for some really cool campaign imagery.
Mounir Ghazi Paris
Rock n' roll,
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