Milla Jovovich photographed by Mario Sorrenti and, I believe, advert layout in bottom-most photo by the Thomas Elsner Studio.
The lighting and photography in this collection of photos is so beyond awesome. They are dark, warm and have so much intrigue and depth! The angles and gestures Jovovich poses to the viewer are so naturally captured by Sorrenti. It's really cool that Strenesse was into presenting their clothes like this. The chemistry that these two had in this shoot is so loud.
I really like Thomas Elsner Studio's layouts for Strenesse in the 90's. This is one that I particularly love. The inclusion of a warm wood frame with the vibrant lemony blue background is entrancing!
Published in Japan's Zipper Magazine. November 1998. (via)
These magazine scans are from the Japanese magazine Zipper, which dedicatedly chronicled the fashions coming out of the 1990s' street-fashion "Shangri-La": the Harajuku district in Tokyo, Japan. I am not sure who did the clothes in this editorial, but I think that the brand BA-TSU may be the feature designers. I wish that I could read the details in the footer of the layout.
BA-TSU is famous for their gothic lolita creations and costume design for the film Battle Royale (2000). I can't really find any huge source of their work. A translation of the characters in the title of the editorial reads: "twin anshi" -Anshi, perhaps, being a Japanese girl's name?
(Also check out Shoichi Aoki's magazine FRUiTS and Fresh FRUiTS photo books for awesome 90's Harajuku fashion)!
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ANYWAYS. These pictures are awesome and the clothes are too.
The thing that sticks with me is that everything looks so durable. The details of exposed skin feel perfectly functional for the very specific mission that these twins are on. If you wore these clothes it would be impossible not to pretend you were on a similar mission.
"We're infiltrating the robot dragon library and it is imperative that I keep my right knee cool".
I see some materials that look like neoprene SCUBA suit fabric and others that look like flannel, fleece and leather. I love the little flags of color sewn in the seams at the bottom of the gaiters and the zipper that also parts from the bottom of the jacket in the top photo. Most of all, I really like the shape of both hoodie jackets. This presentation is so cool because it feels like the twins are inseparable in life and expert in their mission because of the way each outfit is similar but with its own unique shaping, details and colors!
Jil Sander Spring / Summer 1996 catalogue and ad campaigns.
PHOTOGRAPHER: Craig McDean
MODEL: Guinevere van Seenus
HAIR: Eugene Souleiman
MAKEUP: Pat McGrath
LAYOUT / ART DIRECTION: Marc Ascoli
Simple, personal, different.
I love this photo shoot. Before I went and looked for information about the creative process of this project, I knew it was special. These pictures have an everlasting intrigue. The work between photographer and subject escalates these photos into another dimension - I can hear/feel the conversation between the creative team when I look at this campaign.
Photographer Nick Knight has produced an interesting series of films for SHOWstudio called Subjective, which highlight model's perspectives on iconic photo shoots. I'm so thankful for this interview he did with van Seenus. In it, Guinevere talks about what made this photo shoot so unique and how the industry has changed since that time. She provides fascinating insights into Craig McDean's methods, artistic collaboration and shares her personal experience of inclusion as a member of the creative team on this project. I am grateful for productions like these that talk about creative processes and mention the people who have contributed to a project.
Nick Knight has also produced a series called Transformative, similarly highlighting the work of stylists, make-up artists and hairdressers. In this video, he interviews hairdresser Eugene Souleiman about his work on this shoot:
Makeup artist Pat Mcgrath's work here is so fresh and interesting. Taking down Guinevere's eyebrows a bit with bleach tips the scales towards Botticelli.
Her treatment of the face and skin is not immediately evident, yet, her traces of
shimmer, hollows and glossy creases show you that something special has
happened.
Marc Ascoli's
project vision and layouts are totally compelling. I wish I could find photos of the
entire catalogue. He has arranged and cropped everything in such an
interesting way - adding a stuck-and-torn-apart-page effect to the outer
bottom corners of each picture along with an occasional collage of images. You can catch a flip-through of the catalogue in
the video posted below (an excerpt from Souleiman's interview starting at the 5 minute mark):
Lastly, an excerpt from the book Amber, Guinevere, and Kate Photographed by Craig McDean: 1993-2005 in which Guinevere van Seenus is interviewed by Glenn O'Brien on March 1st, 2013:
GO: Tell me about your first meeting with Craig?
GvS: I remember my first job with him—a Japanese or Korean editorial—and it went really well. I remember really understanding what he was doing. It was different for me because I hadn't worked with people yet that were doing something different and unique.
...
GO: Was there anything about the way the way that Craig worked or in his manner that seemed different to you?
GvS: I'm not sure I'll be able to clearly explain it, but for me he brings his own quirks and individuality into it. It helps you explore or be comfortable with these parts of yourself that most people think are a little awkward or weird. They become beautiful in his pictures. He carries that through with his body—he shows you positions or he does things to help it make a lot of sense. You jump right in with it, and then you work together to bring it further, to develop it from there. Most people, they wouldn't ask you for those types of awkward in-between moments or expressions. And if you gave them to them, they wouldn't really understand what you were doing.
GO: And when you saw the pictures what did you think of them?
GvS: I loved them. I didn't really get to see the pictures of that first job we did. I was probably too shy at the time to ask. But later with Jil Sander, it was very much like we were there together for four days. I think we totaled about fifteen hours of overtime. We would work until two in the morning. It became like a fun family thing and we were just exploring, so I really got to see everything. And the more he liked something, like a weird expression I might have done as a child, the more I just pushed and explored more.
GO: You said that Craig would act something out, or strike a position. Is that unusual?
GvS: Yes. Some people do it slightly. Some people just ask verbally for something and then they let you have your own interpretation. But the way Craig starts it, you really get an interpretation of the energy he wants behind it. Some people don't really even know how to ask for what they want. Craig makes it really clear. We would explore for hours and hours every day. I don't think I've ever had another experience quite like that.
...
GO: Did it seem more collaborative in nature than the usual modeling job?
GvS: Very, very much so.
GO: So when you look at those pictures do you think: I came up with that?
GvS: Sometimes you come up with something from feedback someone gives, but it's also the entire energy in the room. How comfortable do I feel around these people? How vulnerable do I feel like being? Do I trust them with the parts of myself that I don't necessarily think are beautiful? Having Eugene Souleiman, Pat McGrath and Marc Ascoli—that was the team you could just do anything with.
Kirsten Owen in 'Sportswear', Marie Claire Germany Nov. 1993 (via)
Who says you need to wear "exercise clothes" to work out? Theoretically, if you're exercising in something it then becomes exercise clothes? I really like this outfit because it's got the appropriate Boijer 2/3 ratio; two things one way, one thing the other. In this case, you've raided a huge football player's duffel, stolen his underwear and track bottoms, and replaced them with your own skirt and stockings. He will be so surprised when he goes to get dressed for practice. You can watch his reaction via military binoculars from a mossy hillside .4 km away.
Once upon a time on the internet, I ran across a picture of Milla Jovovich wearing brown makeup and some tiny orange getup while acting like a wild animal. It was so weird. The image made me laugh and I couldn't forget it. I tracked down all the pages to this weird lo-fi shoot.
Milla Jovovich photographed by Anette Aurell for Jalouse Magazine, issue #2 June/July 1997.
Maybe someday I'll translate the article (pg.1, pg.2). Other credits look to be: Bathing Suit / Vivienne Westwood, Makeup / Rosemarie Swift, Hair / Johnathan Connelly, Stylist / Annett Monheim.
Cool how you can see a YSL advert on the reverse side of one of the pages. I love magazines.
Ivan de Pineda and Lonneke Engel by Bruce Weber, VERSUS s/s 1996
Kirsten Owen by Mario Sorrenti in "Suburban Outfitters" for W Magazine, July 1998
Spring is coming, it's almost here!
This winter was dark and brutal, like an enchanted sword made out of
black ice. Everyone on the island got sick at the same time this year,
myself included. Everybody died! (Just kiddin'). Collectively, everyone
seems as excited as I am that the sun is getting stronger and that our
bodies aren't laying prone on scraps of carpet in freezing makeshift
quarantine tents. (Not really, that didn't happen).
Here she is, the queen of Icelandic music, Björk Guðmundsdóttir! When the days are so dark and short where I live I start eating lots of gjetost cheese and lighting candles all the time.
Björk's 1992MTV Cribs
house-tour of her Icelandic nest is awesome. She has this enormous and
beautifully modern chandelier with blue taper candles in her
living-room. As she lights the candles for the camera she chirrps and
trills:
"I
think this big room definitely needs a center-point, you know? And a
light in the middle... I think chandelier is a heart of every home and
in the winter its, like, dark - It's dark almost twenty hours a day.
It's quite amazing how these candles can - they actually [light] up the
whole flat and in a nice kind of way."
I love how her possessions have been curated. Everything is special!
