Greg Foley was the first person I ever knew to sport a grille. Years before any hip hoppers ever jumped on the grillewagon. And I have to confess, the longtime creative director of Visionaire and V/VMan magazines was also one of the last people I ever imagined would write a children's book.
And yet, there it is, Thank You Bear, gorgeous and spare and sweet and inspiring and thoughtful and utterly free of any of the jaded posing that made me so weary of the densely packed fashion galaxy that has accreted around Visionaire over the years.
But that's not fair; Foley and his Visionaire co-creators are no more to blame for the annoyingness of their groupies than the Dalai Lama is for Richard Gere. Thank You Bear is the first in a promised series of books from Foley, and I, for one, am stoked to see what comes next.
For the books themselves, of course, but also to see how he can top the blurbs he got for the first one. Seriously, this is the only children's book in existence to come with the endorsements of both David Bowie AND Iman, Karl Lagerfeld AND Michael Stipe--AND the King of Sicily. Good to see he's putting those groupies to work.
Buy Thank You Bear at Amazon [amazon]
Whew. Seems like his V Magazine collaborators were as surprised as I was. [vmagazine.com, image: dan forbes]
Check out the blurbs at thankyoubear.com [thankyoubear.com]
When Michael Stipe says deems something as cool, even if the very thing he decided to endorse was daily prostate screenings, I'd do it.
Call me a follower, but he's the coolest man on Earth. I wonder if he knows anything about infertility?? I'm guessing no, but then again, he is Michael Stipe.