Finely detailed The 1954

Finely detailed The 1954 XK120 was painstakingly restored to full glory and includes many bespoke elements, including lattice pattern seats and a smaller steering wheel to accommodate David Gandy's 6ft 3in frame MIKKELLER BAR LONDON; BEN EINE (EINESIGNS.COM) 56 / Jaguar Magazine

In person There’s a time when you have to shake things up. Now I love being behind the camera, not in front’’ Poster boy Gandy, who grew up passionate about cars, has come a long way since he drove a 1988 Ford Fiesta Matilda this morning. I’m like, ‘What do I do?’ I miss not seeing my baby come and give me a big smile. You can’t achieve that with work, you can’t buy that. You can’t explain your love for that child – it’s overwhelming. That’s our little pack and hopefully that pack will grow.” Gandy doesn’t need to work, he wants to work. And modelling is becoming a far smaller part of that work. He’s also a man with a five-year plan, which is something, he says, he’s always had – and that we should all have. He won’t divulge details, though, like a Bond villain about to pop 007 off in a needlessly extravagant and escapable fashion. But there are plenty of hints. “There comes a time when you have to shake things up,” he says. “I find now I love being behind the camera more than in front of it. One reason being the industry’s completely changed. You just haven’t got the high level of shooting creativity that you had five or ten years ago. It’s vloggers and influencers, who do a lot of shots themselves. They don’t understand what it means to have an incredible art director and photographer. “Maybe I’ll go it alone. Do something that isn’t a collaboration. But then I do really like working with other people. When you see the impact you can have when you get things right with a big brand, it’s amazing.” Whatever he does, the direction will be forward. He’s inspired, he says, by the history of London and its creative energy. He works predominantly with brands that feed off a strong heritage. Yet he knows that it, they and he all need to evolve to survive. “I always want innovation, change,” he says. “You can’t stand still, you’ve got to move forward. Heritage is incredible to have, but it’s how you take that heritage and bring it into a modern era.” As he stands by the XK120, grand, graceful and exuding history, but revived with modern technology, he couldn’t be illustrating this better. J Jaguar Magazine / 57