Milk Studios’ Mr Mazdack Rassi shares his nine to five.

Mr Mazdack Rassi was an easy choice to kick off our new series that lifts the lid on the working lives of some of the world’s most successful men. First, he’s one of our Style Council members. More importantly, he co-founded Milk Studios 20 years ago in the Meatpacking District of New York as a photography studio. He has since built it up into nothing short of a global media conglomerate that does, well, pretty much everything – be it fashion shoots, casting or film production – and welcomes through its doors men such as A$AP Rocky and Mr Kanye West, who called Mr Rassi “a humanitarian” and “a visionary” when he presented him with the Fashion Los Angeles Innovator Of The Year Award in 2015. Needless to say, he’s a driven chap whom we could all learn a few work habits from. Find out how he motivates himself, what’s in his office, and what he eats for lunch below.

My working environment is a little bit different than most. To understand Milk, especially here in New York, is to understand 80,000sq ft of creativity that touches on multiple industries. We have 11 divisions, and we’re based in LA as well as New York. We have a digital creative agency called the Milk Agency. We have our facility business, Milk Studios, on both coasts. There’s our services businesses, which include our film division, post-production facilities and digital teams. Then we have consumer products. In a year-and-a-half we’ve created a substantial make-up company. There’s also the Milk Gallery, which publishes books and prints.

I wake up at about 6.30am, walk to work, and get there at about 8.30. Everything kicks off at about 9.00am. My days are full from morning to the end of the day, which is about 6.30pm, with wall-to-wall meetings.

My morning starts with a triple-shot latte at our café. It is run by The Smile, one of the coolest restaurants in New York. Then, I’ll gather together my team and see what the day holds. At the end of the day, I have to have a regroup with the team. We cover so much ground that I don’t remember my morning meetings.

Throughout the day, I bounce between Milk’s different divisions and think about the company and the brand. I can go from one studio, where we’re shooting the biggest campaigns for Balenciaga and Calvin Klein, to our music room, where we’ll be working with young musicians. Then I might be in another space where we’re collaborating with Kanye West, then into another room where we’re working with A$AP Rocky. Milk is an incredible space filled with makers and creators and visionaries.

My lunch is usually on the go. I always have the same thing: a baloney sandwich from Chelsea Market across the street. It’s made from good old white sliced American bread, with lettuce and tomato. It reminds me of being a kid.

I have a bit of a uniform for work. It’s mainly Acne Studios. I have about 10 white Acne shirts. And I always wear blue or black Acne jeans. I’m pretty heavy into sneakers as well. I always buy two of the same pair and store one away. I think the biggest collection I have are Yeezys. I have Air Jordans, too. Sometimes I’ll spend around an hour on a Sunday cleaning some of my old school sneakers with a toothbrush.

**I have a great office, which is at the top of Milk in New York. ** It was built in the 1950s and it looks like an old architect’s office – skylights and big windows, that sort of thing. It’s a little draughty, which I like. I have an incredible photograph collection in my office. My prized possession is a collection of original work by Sam Haskins. He did his last exhibition in our gallery. I also have a lot of incredible photos by Steve McCurry of National Geographic, such as “Afghan Girl”.

If I have any spare time during my working day, I’ll try to get away from the computer. Turn everything off and randomly pick up one of my photography books, slow down and find some inspiration.

**I love what I do. It’s not work for me. ** It’s busy, it goes fast and what keeps me going is the different projects that we work on and my adrenaline.

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