If you were to think of some of the most exciting names in fashion right now, you might think of photographer Campbell Addy or Rihanna’s ‘new favourite designer,’ Jawara Alleyne. Perhaps it is the rising stars of the Movement Direction space Yagamaoto or Simon Donnellon. What you might not know is that all of these names all have something in common: they feature on the books of the fashion agency New School.
Founded in 2021 by producer, art director and agent Sam Ross, New School is the new-gen talent agency representing some of the industry’s biggest names. ‘I think ultimately I like us to be known as a place that is progressive, safe and owns the moves,’ Ross says over the phone. ‘We are a rising force.’ Now celebrating its third birthday, New School is taking us back to class and rewriting the fashion curriculum.
So, what exactly is a fashion agency, and what do they do? Effectively, an agency will work with talent, booking them on jobs and taking a cut of the total project fee. The concept isn’t new, but New School’s approach very much is. If in doubt, see New School’s birthday merch caps, which read: ‘My agent can’t be wrong.’
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A typical day for its employees could include any or, usually, all of the following: a slew of creative calls, concept sessions with clients, nailing logistical challenges like international travel, hopping on the Eurostar for a meeting, supporting talent on the job, and then winding the day up with an industry party.
If you haven’t heard of New School yet, you have certainly seen its impact, whether it was Patience Harding, who created the set design for Harry Styles’ Harry’s House, or Yagamoto, who was behind the movement for Sault’s sold-out stage show or Kendall Jenner’s Tommy Hilfiger campaign.
Across set designers, creative directors, photographers and more, New School’s work reads like a Rolodex of the world’s biggest names, their artists working with the likes of Louis Hamilton to Venus Williams, Cardi B to Roslaia, and with global fashion heavyweights from Hermes, Chanel, Dior and Saint Laurent.
New School also represents Good Catch, founded by Sarah Small, the casting genius behind the Chanel Cruise 2025 imagery and Marni’s ss24 campaigns. Then there is Campbell Addy, one of the brightest names in fashion photography in the last decade. Favoured by Naomi Campbell and feature star of a Disney-backed documentary on the life of photographers.
New School was born, partly as an ‘organic’ reaction to the world Ross inhabited but also as a conscious reaction to changing industry norms and broader cultural sways. ‘In our industry, you can be just a commodity or a financial asset, and that’s important, but also, I think being progressive and safe and actually real is a whole other kettle, and it is kinda rare,’ explains Ross. Today, you’ll find the New School base at 180 The Strand in London, where a team of five tackle some of the biggest jobs in fashion on a global stage.
Phoebe Shardlow, a producer at the company, who has a contact at every hotel from New York to Paris (a handy talent when at a globally active agency), also works closely with creative force Gareth Wrighton, who is the Art Director of Dazed and consultant at OFF-White. Shardlow suggests that these tight links between artists and the team are the central points of difference. ‘What I think sets New School apart from other agencies is that we are truly a family,’ she says.
The family-style, everyone-is-welcome approach has been a conscious drive for Ross since the inception of New School. ‘I am really, really proud that we’re a safe space for people to be themselves and proud that people of all walks of life, wherever you’re from in the world, whatever sexuality or gender you identify with, feel like they can come here,’ he says. This was best illustrated in New School’s first exhibition in 2022, entitled ‘MAJOR’, which brought together the talent roster in a display of works from across the company disciplines, an unprecedented move in the agency space.
For Simon Donnellon, the movement director behind the runway walks of Harris Reed and Nina Ricci and choreographer to Rina Sawayma and Romy, New School is ‘what it says on the tin, a new school of thought, a new approach’.
Donnellon explains that New School has created a new working model. Where traditional agencies typically fix talent to one path, New School encourages artists to explore their practices. ‘What I love the most about New School is their ethos that we can be and do many things, straddle different industries and be multi-hyphenates without feeling it dilutes what we do.
‘The fact I can jump between fashion campaigns, runway shows, artist world tours, and anything in between is so exciting’. In terms of the impact on his career, Donnellon says that working with New School has made him ‘fearless’.
‘It’s about opening doors, not closing them. They’re a new breed of agents that genuinely care about and support our careers because a win for us is also a win for them. It’s family,’ Donnellon notes.
Ross is excited about the future and what it could hold. ‘My ideal set-up would be for us to be here [in London], New York, and maybe Shanghai. That would be the absolute dream.’ Adding: ‘From there, you can really get a breadth and sense of what is going on in the world, and tapping into the old and tapping into the new and being across more things and growing divisions.’
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