Since only half of the term “music promo” consists of music (the other half being all visual hype – something fashion types know loads about), asking fashion designers what their favourite music videos are kind of makes sense.

Designer Christopher Shannon loves Neneh Cherry so much he even reckons the stuff she’s making now is great. For her part, Neneh used to work at i-D and her biggest hit, “Buffallo Stance”, was inspired by the Buffalo look heavily promoted in The Face in the eighties. Christopher also designs some very fashionable tracksuits, clothes that men actually want to wear – which you’d think would be an obvious thing to do, but is actually considered pretty avant-garde by fashion people if a catwalk is involved. Christopher’s way with elasticated waists and artificial fabrics has already caught the eye of Reebok, who he now collaborates with, and helped Christopher score a space at Topman’s MAN show for the third season at this coming London fashion week. He spoke to us about his Neneh obsession.

“I probably first saw this video when I lived in Liverpool, watching and recording The Chart Show on a Saturday morning. I’d have been lying on the floor in the lounge, maybe eating some Rich Tea biscuits, probably wearing my half mustard, half black hooded tracksuit top that I bought on this really awful market by the Liverpool docks, with a bum bag, some Reebok ERS and some African pendants! Quite full-on for a ten-year-old, really. Or maybe my fake maroon and black Fila baseball jacket – which I wore till it fell apart.

I was obsessed with Neneh Cherry. Her track “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” is about AIDS, something we only heard about when the kids at school were making jokes about it. In fashion photographer-turned-director Jean-Baptiste Mondino’s video, Neneh’s rap is written across the screen, hammering the point home. She looks amazing – wearing a tight, minimal Azzedine Alaia number. Being very fashion- and performance-led, Mondino always shot really simple videos. The big speakers and the dancer with her mad hat look pretty underground, but it still feels like fashion editorial. Judy Blame did the styling and Afrika Bambaataa produced the track. Basically, videos don’t get better.”

Jean-Baptiste Mondino also shot Neneh’s “Buddy X“, which Christina Aguilera and David LaChapplle shamelessly copied for that video Christina did with Lil Kim. Mondino’s most most famous video, though, is Madonna’s “Justify My Love”, with the painful, pretending-to-be-a-lesbian bits.

JAMES ANDERSON