Who?

Elgar Johnson, fashion director at British GQ Style.

Where?

The Terra Nova All-Suite Hotel.

When?

Wednesday, January 27, 2016.

We’re doing a shoot in Kingston for British GQ Style… I basically wanted to show our readers a bit of the incredible Jamaican culture (Johnson’s father is Jamaican) which I feel is often copied. It’s always better to do and see the real thing, to educate people on how amazing the city, the country and the people are.

The idea was born… on the tube, one morning on my way to work. I was contemplating the next issue. I’m always thinking big. Instead of doing a shoot in East London I just felt like I should go to Jamaica. Everyone was incredibly positive about it. I am really excited to show a great city to the British public.

Deiwght Peters has a great reputation for finding the best faces in the Caribbean… I trust him, and I’ve known him for many years, from when I used to model. He’s always been so consistent, so he was the first person I wanted to get in contact with, not only for the models but to get a feel of how things are in Kingston, and in the industry. We’re using eight Saint International models; Deiwght sent over an incredible selection. He saw the brief, understood it and sent over the guys he felt were right for this: new, exciting, high-energy, the boys everyone is gonna want to have (wearing their clothes or in front of their lens) within the next few seasons.

We brought in some incredible clothes… from fashion designer Philipp Plein. We want to document the lifestyle and energy of young men, especially in the dancehall scene; something I’ve always been interested in but never really had the opportunity to experience. Today was the first day of shooting.

Finding the perfect location was difficult because… there are so many places that you just want to stop and shoot. It’s unbelievable! Unfortunately we can’t shoot everywhere – there’s just not enough time. Ideally, we’d love to just stay here for months and just shoot. We’re going to Weddy Weddy tonight, where the guys will be incredibly well-dressed. We’ll just drop them into this environment and let them do their thing. It’s about getting their personality across, and seeing their moods and how they do things. It’s all educating!

We’re looking at a 14-page spread… the biggest story of the issue, which is set for release in March. We’re also planning a limited edition cover, one of those covers that everyone will want to have but can’t.

Covers are not predictable… It’s going to be very organic, we’re just gonna shoot, shoot, shoot and then we’re gonna get the cover, and we’re gonna get something spectacular.

I chose Philipp (Plein) because… he is incredibly talented and has a real idea of the people he wants to wear his clothes. I found the colours, and the metallics and the things that he was doing last season so exciting, and I wanted to bring it to an audience that it wasn’t being worn by. I had this vision of these amazing guys in Kingston having a great time wearing his clothes. That’s really where it came from.

The shoot is about Kingston in general… I want it to be the more energetic side of the city… I want to see the beautiful hills, I want to cover the whole scene; like I said, it’s an education for people. Kingston, I think, gets a rough deal by the press, like most big cities do; it’s no different from Paris, London, and all the other big cities, there’s always a certain area that may not be as safe as other areas, but that doesn’t mean it’s not as beautiful, you know, this is an incredibly beautiful city and I want people to see that.

I think this particular project had to be… on a specific type of man for it to work with the clothes and the attitude and what we’re trying to get across. Deiwght is someone who I know understands that brief; he’s just very clever, he’s smart and he knows exactly what I want.

From the runway to fashion director at GQ…When I was modelling, I was lucky enough to bump into an incredible stylist, probably the best living menswear stylist called Simon Foxton. He was someone who, in the ’80s, championed a lot of black models and models of different ethnicities. He introduced me to lots of different people at different magazines, i-D magazine for example, and I was supported by a lot of incredible people — Terry and Tricia Jones, who owned i-D magazine and realised I had ideas but no outlet.

They encouraged the ideas I thought were silly and I’ve been fortunate enough to bring them to life. I think I’ve just put my shoulder to the wheel and ground away. I never thought I’d end up at GQ, so it’s an absolute privilege.

I’ve been at British GQ Style since last year May… I was approached by the editor Luke Day… he asked: if I’d be interested to come in. I said I’d love to, it was a no-brainer, really. It was quite exciting. I felt like James Bond, like the first black James Bond!

You always want to learn, and at a huge, successful magazine like GQ and Condé Nast in general, you’re always going to learn. Also, they wanted me to come there and express myself; they didn’t want me to come there to be what was already there, so the fact that I don’t run around in a suit, and maybe I wear shorts, and I’ve got a football tattoo on my leg, I think it’s probably quite refreshing for the magazine… I hope it is, anyway.

There’s always room for more diversity, always… I don’t tend to get myself too involved in the race conversation, because I think it could go on and on forever. I have spoken to budding stylists, and photographers or talents, who have asked ‘How do I get there, how do I do this?’ and said ‘I sort of feel like I get pushed back because of my colour or because of my sexuality’ or whatever it might be, but I think when you have the most powerful man in the world, Obama, who is black, I think there’s no excuse there and I think anything is possible, so you have to push that aside and fight your way through. With everything, especially in the fashion industry, you always have to fight your way through because everyone wants to do it. How I fought my way through? I smiled! I don’t take it that seriously. There’s more to life. There are wars going on; it’s fashion, and it should be fun and enjoyable; you just have to work hard.

I’m obsessed with sugar cane… I’ve been eating loads of it in the back of the truck.

I don’t have a favourite designer… I don’t really follow trends either; I’ve never worked like that; I just create my own things. I just see nice things that I want to shoot, or I think would look good on people. I go to the shows every season and I dissect from the shows, so they might have a full look coming out and I’d say ‘Oh, that T-shirt’s quite good’, and I’ll remember that. I always tend to dress people how I think they’d look if I were to be friends with them when I was younger, almost like ‘Oh, they could be a part of my gang, and they would look like this’ and that’s how it works for me.

GQ’s main objective is to appeal to men… but we know that women read it, and we love the fact that women read it. That’s really important. I think women have a really great sense of menswear; I think they really understand it. I’ve grown up with two sisters, and they told me what to wear all the time, and they get it. It’s the reason why we have a lot of women working at GQ. It’s great to have that opinion, it’s a bit of sexism, kind of.

I think fashion is so brilliant… because the industry is so unpredictable, and I love the fact that I don’t ever know really what I’m going to be doing or where I’m going to be going, no-one’s controlling it, which is really nice.

Every man should have in his wardrobe…

• A pair of Nike Air Max trainers

• A good pair of jeans

• A Stone Island jacket

• A Ralph Lauren shirt

I reference everything from my past. I don’t think I could do anything that I wasn’t around because I don’t think it’s honest.

… Seeing the garage, dancehall and grime scenes, not necessarily in those countries, but being around it and seeing all these different genres of fashion and music, that’s where it benefits me. I’m of an age where I’ve watched it, I’ve seen the styles so I know what I’m talking about, I know how I want people to look. I think if I was coming over here to do a ’70s shoot or a ’60s shoot, I wouldn’t know what to do, and it would look really quite fake, but I’m of that generation that has seen these different musical types, and a lot of my work is probably based around music.

I’m throwing an imaginary dinner party at the table would be… Lev Tanju,founder of Palace Skateboards; Coco Chanel; Riccardo Tisci; Philipp Plein and Phoebe Philo.

I’d be drinking… Whiskey, Glenmorangie.

• Everyone knows me. I’m quite basic… I love football…

• I have a phobia of bananas. I always have since I was a little boy… I’m not going to go into it because it’s embarrassing (nothing happened to me with a banana, by the way). If I saw a banana I wouldn’t run, but I would definitely ask to have it removed…

• I got this tattoo first. It reads: ‘Mom’, and then my dad found out and was really angry that I didn’t get ‘Dad’. That’s why I got the other (one) then ‘EJ’ on my neck to even it out. And there are other tattoos… five roses, there’s a pretty lady on my arm, and then Liverpool, and there’s an England tattoo there, as well. I’m like a walking doodle!

I wasn’t very good at school. I wasn’t naughty or anything… I was always arrogant about the fact that I didn’t think I needed it. I always felt like I was going to go to London, whatever happened, and I just always felt like ‘I don’t know why you’re wasting your time’ so I was gonna go to London and do something. I didn’t even go to college. I left school and went to work for my dad’s haulage company. I worked in a shoe shop and I just got by. I was fortunate enough to get scouted as a model, did that for a bit and then that was that. I mean, I think people should stay in school and they should learn, but… I didn’t, I just felt like it was just a waste of time.

I smoke, which is a really bad habit… and I should stop, but I think there are lot worse things that you could be doing, and I don’t do those.