I Am Fame - Notorious Everything

The eldest of six children born to an Italian father and an Irish mother, Testino attended at the Universidad del Pacifico, the Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru and the University of San Diego. In 1976, Testino moved permanently to London. He has shot for Vogue, V, Gucci, and Vanity Fair. Celebrity subjects have most famously included Diana, Princess of Wales and her sons. Other subjects have included many actresses such as Kim Basinger, Cameron Diaz, Gwyneth Paltrow, Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, and Catherine Zeta-Jones, models such as Gisele Bündchen, Elizabeth Hurley, and Kate Moss, and performers such as Janet Jackson and Madonna. Living in London, he continues to photograph the British Royal Family as well as contributing to the image development of Burberry, Gucci, Michael Kors, Estee Lauder, Valentino and Versace.

His fascination for beauty and models started at a young age. At that time Meisel would not play with toys, but would instead draw women all the time. He used to turn to magazines like Vogue and Harper's Bazaar as sources of inspiration for his drawings. Meisel dreamt of women from the high society like Gloria Guinness and Babe Paley, who personified to his eyes the ideas of beauty and high society . Other icons were his mother and his sister.

As he became obsessed with models such as Twiggy, Veruschka, and Jean Shrimpton, at 12 years old he asked some girlfriends to call model agencies and, by pretending to be secretaries of Richard Avedon, to get pictures of the models. To meet famous model Twiggy, the 12-year-old Meisel stood outside waiting for her at Melvin Sokolsky's studio.

He studied at the High School of Art and Design and Parsons School of Design where he attended different courses but, as affirmed in an interview with Ingrid Sischy for Vogue France, he finally majored in fashion illustration.