The Meaning of Cool

caryn.franklin / Caryn Franklin at i-D, Deep Fashion does have Heart, Fashion does care - All Walks thanks Terry Jones and trica, Founders of i-D, i-D Magazine, i-D Soul, Terry Jones, The beginning of i-D, Tricia Jones /

When All Walks was in its infancy back in 2009, we looked around for supporters. Who would agree with us that individuality, uniqueness and a beautiful soul is the coolest thing of all?

For our first campaign (featuring diverse women who didn’t all conform to fashion norms) to work, we needed a home for our pictures. i-D Magazine were there and so were Terry and Tricia Jones founders of this iconic Street-Style Bible first published in September 1980.

At the recent British Fashion Awards Terry and Tricia collected an Outstanding Achievement Award after stepping down from i-D to take long walks amongst the Welsh Hills by their home, and divide the rest of their time between N.Y. and L.A where their children and grandchildren live. Some of us were there to cheer them on along with Marc Jacobs, Kate Moss, Muccia Prada, Donattella Versace and agree with Dylan Jones, editor of GQ, whose speech, proclaimed this “the most overdue award in Fashion.”

And it is fitting, now all the fanfare has subsided for All Walks Beyond the Catwalk to salute the Jones’s, photographed above, in their favourite setting..the Welsh Outback.

Between them they have a formidable contacts book, an adoring global audience and horizons filled with creative opportunities…perhaps they will, in time, pick up the phone.

Or they could relax, look out at the sunset amongst the trees, and enjoy the the applause, my own included.

Having worked with them both at i-D in my formative years from 1982-1888, I couldn’t have wished for a better introduction to fashion and more importantly to working and not loosing myself to the corporate machine. The dialogue that clothes and image facilitates, was given full respect at the i-D HQ, where our whole remit was personal identity and individual statement. There was no High Street, the word brand or lifestyle hadn’t even been uttered, and we didn’t have advertisers dictating terms in the editorial section. This was because fashion was viewed as simply ‘a tool ,’ a set of values, a beautiful thing or things to embolden and enliven us all.

And so…bookended by the beginning issue below (which as a student I bought from the small adds in the back of Vogue)…

…and the final and current issue under Terry’s stewardship, the Jones tenure has indeed been priceless, I can look back.

My time at i-D would shape the way I thought forever. And it would continue to influence the projects I chose and choose to this day. Plus Terry knew how to have fun and make mischief, while Tricia, although only in her early 30s, when I joined fresh from St Martin’s, was always a Wise Woman to me. Tricia’s later projects under i-D Soul: Beyond Price, Learn and Pass it on, Safe and Sound, to name a few, would prove that Deep Fashion does have Heart.

Tricia has also been behind All Walks in our quest to charge future creatives (todays students - tomorrow’s big names) with the nous to care about emotionally considerate design and practice and to honour diverse beauty and an ethical code.

We have been lucky to work with some brilliant people.

Terry and Tricia Jones Thank YOU.