Biography
One of fashion’s few superstar stylists and the former creative director of Interview magazine, Templer is at the top of the styling field. Templer came to industry-wide renown during his time as creative director of Arena Homme Plus, and through his work at French and Italian Vogue and W.
For more than a decade, the British creative's work has appeared on the pages of the aforementioned publications, in addition to Pop, W, V, and The New York Times, collaborating with a number of high-profile photographers such as Steven Meisel , David Sims , Craig McDean . He has long-standing relationships with clients including Dior, Sacai, Alexander Wang , Moncler, Tommy Hilfiger and Ports 1961, where he now serves as creative director.
Templer told Industrie, “I was always really into clothes, and that led me to get a Saturday job in a menswear store in London called Woodhouse. Working there, I started going to clubs and my taste in music started to broaden, and began following style magazines like i-D, Blitz and mainly The Face, as well as sometimes British Vogue.”
“I wanted to do pictures that reflected what I was into at the time. So I did some test pictures of guys in baseball jackets in an arcade and showed them to the art director of The Face at the time, Phil Bicker.” Templer then moved to New York and was introduced to Richard Avedon, when the pair worked on a Hugo Boss men's campaign.
The stylist soon began to pick up bigger menswear clients like Nicole Farhi, DKNY, Costume National. The jump to womenswear came naturally: "I was adding more womenswear into some of the fashion stories I was working on and then Steven Meisel booked me for Italian Vogue." Templer was 27 at the time.
Meisel continues to call upon Templer to style Italian Vogue today; the pair are prolific collaborators at the magazine. Templer is also an a creative consultant at Sacai, and styles campaigns and shows for Dior, Coach and Tommy Hilfiger. In 2019, Templer has shot campaigns and lookbooks for Zara, Alexander Wang, Moncler and Document Journal.
In 2018, Templer was amongst 25 other fashion industry veterans who were accused of professional misconduct in an investigative report published by The Boston Globe. Following the publication of the report, Templer responded with an open letter to Women’s Wear Daily, dismissing the claims. The Globe subsequently issued a letter to Templer’s lawyer stating that the story did not implicate him specifically in sexual misconduct, unlike several of the others mentioned in the story.
Templer is currently serving as Artistic Director at Ports 1961.