Doingbird Spring 2011 cover, ph: Collier Schorr, stylist:

Collier Schorr photographed Britt Maren for the spring 2011 Doingbird Magazine cover in New York on December 18, 2010.

Doingbird Spring 2011 Cover
Model: Britt Maren
Photographer: Collier Schorr
Stylist: David Vandewal
Makeup: Peter Philips

"Transition" - Naty Chabanenko, Directed by Tim Richardson

Tim Richardson directed Naty Chabanenko in the film "Transition", in New York on July 22, 2010 with stylist William Graper.

"Transition"
Model: Naty Chabanenko
Director/DP: Tim Richardson
Stylist: William Graper
Makeup: Dotti
Hair: Tristan Waikong
Diretor: Jeff Elstone
Story Director: Aramique
Creative Director & Executive Producer: Kaya Sorhaindo
Editor: Graeme Pereira
Original score: 'The Melting Clock' by Gary Gunn

Love Magazine Spring 2011 Cover preview: Lea T, ph: Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott, stylist: Katie Grand

Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott photographed Lea T for the Spring 2011 LOVE Magazine cover.

Love Magazine Spring 2011 Cover
Model: Lea T
Photographers: Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott
Preview courtsey: LOVE Magazine Website

H&M Spring 2011 Video - Anne Vyalitsyna, director: Amir Chamdin, stylist: Cathy Edwards

Amir Chamdin directed Anne Vyalitsyna for the spring 2011 H&M Video in London on November 17-19, 2010.

H&M Spring 2011 Video
Model: Anne Vyalitsyna
Director: Amir Chamdin
Stylist: Cathy Edwards
Hair: Malcolm Edwards
Makeup: Lisa Butler

Britt Maren on The Imagist

From The Imagist:

Britt Rocks The Balenciagas from the imagist on Vimeo.

Now Representing Hilary Rhoda

Jil Sander Fall 2010 Campaign II - Daria Strokous, ph: Willy Vanderperre, stylist: Olivier Rizzo

Willy Vanderperre photographed Daria Strokous for the spring 2011 Jil Sander campaign in Paris on November 13, 2010 with stylist Olivier Rizzo.

Jil Sander Spring 2011 Campaign
Model: Daria Strokous
Photographer: Willy Vanderperre
Stylist: Olivier Rizzo

Addiction by Ayako Spring 2011 Campaign - Daria Strokous, Photo: Steven Meisel, Stylist: Lori Goldstein

Steven Meisel photographed Daria Strokous for the spring 2011 Addiction by Ayako campaign in New York on September 17, 2010.

Addiction by Ayako Spring 2011 Campaign
Model: Daria Strokous
Photographer: Steven Meisel
Stylist: Lori Goldstein
Hair: Guido Palau
Makeup: Ayako

Armani Exchange Spring 2011 Campaign Video: Alejandra Alonso

Matthew Scrivens photographed Alejandra Alonso for Armani Exchange Spring 2011 Campaign on November 2-3, 2010 in California.

Armani Exchange Spring 2011 Campaign Video
Model: Alejandra Alonso
Photographer: Matthew Scrivens

February 2011 American Vogue Editorial: Angela Lindvall, ph: Patrick Demarchelier, stylist: Tabitha Simmons

Patrick Demarchelier photographed Angela Lindvall for American Vogue on November 18, 2010 with stylist Tabitha Simmons.

American Vogue February 2011
Model: Angela Lindvall
Photographer: Patrick Demarchelier
Stylist: Tabitha Simmons
Hair: Garren
Makeup: Yumi

Models.com Model Style Interview with Fei Fei Sun

Full Interview can be seen at models.com

Jeans - Zara, Coat -Burberry, Bag – Proenza Schouler:


With her effervescent personality and one of a kind look, Fei Fei Sun has become one of the most coveted girls of the moment. Her face can be seen in the pages of fashion bibles like Vogue Italia, V and i-D, but when she isn’t bringing designer creations to life, Fei Fei is just a normal girl who loves shopping, traveling and learning more about her new hometown.

MDC: I know you’ve been in New York for 6 months, how has it been for you so far?:

Fei Fei: Amazing! New York is a very crazy city and a new home for me. This is my first time in New York, and everything for me is new. I’m still learning everything, like how to go to the subways and supermarkets, my new agency here. When I’m working, I’m meeting new friends, and learning about the new everything with New York, good shops and good restaurants, and which food is New York people’s favorite. I’m learning that the New York City feeling is a lot like Shanghai, very young.

MDC: What do you like when you’re shopping?

Fei Fei: I like simple clothes in simple colors; white, black, with just a little color here and there. I like going to Topshop, H+M, Zara because it is nice and cheap, and sometimes Barneys for really nice bags and nice shoes. I like clothes with clean shapes. It is fun going to vintage shops with my friends, but I feel like know very little, I’m still learning about fashion.

MDC: Have you had any really fun experiences modeling recently?

Fei Fei: Modeling for me is such a crazy thing. In New York, everyday I can feel new things coming into my life. I really enjoying working with many different teams, with make up and hair, stylists, and photographers. The people are always very nice and friendly and funny. They’re always full of great ideas. My favorite thing has been changing my eyebrow color and playing with different eyeshadow colors, especially greens, yellows, and other bright colors. I really like the feeling of spring.

All photos Betty and Janelle for models.com.

Close up of Fei Fei’s chic PS1 and boots by Celine:

Free Soul Spring 2011 Campaign behind the scens video: Angela Lindvall

Yu Tsai photographed Angela Lindvall for the Free Soul Spring 2011 Campaign on October 30-31, 2010 with stylist Rushka Bergman.

Free Soul Spring 2011 Campaign Video
Model: Angela Lindvall
Photographer: Yu Tsai
Stylist: Rushka Bergman
Hair: Giannandrea
Makeup: Fiona Stiles

Free Soul Spring 2011 Campaign Video: Angela Lindvall

Yu Tsai photographed Angela Lindvall for the Free Soul Spring 2011 Campaign on October 30-31, 2010 with stylist Rushka Bergman.

Free Soul Spring 2011 Campaign Video
Model: Angela Lindvall
Photographer: Yu Tsai
Stylist: Rushka Bergman
Hair: Giannandrea
Makeup: Fiona Stiles

Pepe Jeans Spring 2011 campaign video: Anne Vyalitsyna

Warren du Preez photographed Anne Vyalitsyna for the spring 2011 Pepe Jeans campaign in London on October 14-15, 2010.

Pepe Jeans Spring 2011 Campaign
Model: Anne Vyalitsyna
Photographer: Warren du Preez

Japanese Vogue March 2011 Cover: Izabel Goulart, ph: Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, stylist: George Cortina

Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin photographed Izabel Goulart for cover of Japanese Vogue in New York on November 4, 2010.

Japanese Vogue March 2011 Cover
Model: Izabel Goulart
Photographers: Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin
Stylist: George Cortina
Hair: Luigi Murenu
Makeup: Dick Page

Prada Spring 2011 Campaign: Mariacarla Boscono, Photo: Steven Meisel

Steven Meisel photographed Mariacarla Boscono for the spring 2011 Prada campaign in New York on November 2-7, 2010.

Prada Spring 2011 Campaign
Model: Mariacarla Boscono
Photographer: Steven Meisel
Stylist: Melissa Rubini
Hair: Guido Palau
Makeup: Pat Mcgrath
Casting Director: Ashley Brokaw

Selita Ebanks on Wendy Williams Show - January 17, 2010

I Can't Stand the Rain

Today in Manhattan it is currently 34°F (1°C), and rainy.

"I Can't Stand the Rain" is a song originally recorded by Ann Peebles, and written by Don Bryant, Bernard "Bernie" Miller & Ann Peebles. The song became Peebles' biggest hit when in 1973 it reached #38 on the US Pop Chart and #6 on the R&B/Black Chart. The single also reached #41 on the UK Pop Chart in April 1974. It was one of John Lennon's favorite songs and in a Billboard Magazine article he commented, "It's the best song ever."

Lanvin Spring 2011 campaign preview: Iselin Steiro, Photo: Steven Meisel

Steven Meisel photographed Iselin Steiro for the spring 2011 Lanvin campaign in New York on November 1, 2010.

Lanvin Spring 2011 Campaign
Model: Iselin Steiro
Photographer: Steven Meisel
Stylist: Alber Elbaz
Hair: Guido Palau
Makeup: Pat Mcgrath

+j Jil Sander for Uniqlo Spring 2011 Campaign preview: Isabeli Fontana, Photo: David Sims, Stylist: Joe McKenna

David Sims photographed Isabeli Fontana for the spring 2011 +j Jil Sander for Uniqlo campaign in New York on November 7, 2010 with stylist Joe McKenna.

+j Jil Sander for Uniqlo Spring 2011 Campaign
Model: Isabeli Fontana
Photographer: David Sims
Stylist: Joe McKenna
Hair: Guido Palau
Makeup: Diane Kendal
Casting: Madeline Kiersztan at Ms4

Jil Sander Fall 2010 Campaign - Daria Strokous, ph: Willy Vanderperre, stylist: Olivier Rizzo

Willy Vanderperre photographed Daria Strokous for the spring 2011 Jil Sander campaign in Paris on November 13, 2010 with stylist Olivier Rizzo.

Jil Sander Spring 2011 Campaign
Model: Daria Strokous
Photographer: Willy Vanderperre
Stylist: Olivier Rizzo

WWD January 2011 Cover / Givenchy Pre Fall 2011

Givenchy Pre-Fall 2011
Models: Izabel Goulart & Lea T
Location: Industria Studio, Studio #6,89 Jane Street, NY, NY.

Dolce and Gabbana Spring 2011 Campaign Preview III: Izabel Goulart & Isabeli Fontana, ph: Steven Klein, stylist: Tabitha Simmons

Steven Klein photographed Izabel Goulart for the spring 2011 Dolce & Gabbana campaign in New York on November 11, 2010 with stylist Tabitha Simmons.

Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2011 Campaign
Models: Izabel Goulart and ISabeli Fontana
Photographer: Steven Klein
Stylist: Tabitha Simmons
Hair: Garren
Makeup: Diane Kendal
Creative Director: Dennis Freedman
Art Director: Brendan Dugan
Acting Coach: Susan Batson
Location: Pier 59 Studios

Pepe Jeans Spring 2011 campaign preview: Anne Vyalitsyna, ph: Warren du Preez

Warren du Preez photographed Anne Vyalitsyna for the spring 2011 Pepe Jeans campaign in London on October 14-15, 2010.

Pepe Jeans Spring 2011 Campaign
Model: Anne Vyalitsyna
Photographer: Warren du Preez

DSquared2 Spring 2011 Campaign preview II: FeiFei Sun, Photo: Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, Stylist: Katie Grand

Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott photographed FeiFei Sun for the spring 2011 DSquared2 campaign in Los Angeles on October 30, 2010 with stylist Katie Grand.

Dsquared2 Spring 2011 Campaign
Model: FeiFei Sun
Photographer: Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott
Stylist: Katie Grand
Art Director: Giovanni Bianco
Makeup: Tom Pecheux
Hair: Paul Hanlon
Production: Roz Norman at LaLa Land

Loewe Spring 2011 Campaign preview: Mariacarla Boscono, Ph: Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott, Stylist: Katie Grand

Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott photographed Mariacarla Boscono for the spring 2011 Loewe campaign in Los Angeles on November 1, 2010 with stylist Katie Grand.

Loewe Spring 2011 Campaign
Model: Mariacarla Boscono
Photographer: Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott
Stylist: Katie Grand
Makeup: Lucia Pieroni
Hair: Paul Hanlon

DSquared2 Spring 2011 Campaign preview: FeiFei Sun, Photo: Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott, Stylist: Katie Grand

Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott photographed FeiFei Sun for the spring 2011 DSquared2 campaign in Los Angeles on October 30, 2010 with stylist Katie Grand.

Dsquared2 Spring 2011 Campaign
Model: FeiFei Sun
Photographer: Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott
Stylist: Katie Grand
Art Director: Giovanni Bianco
Makeup: Tom Pecheux
Hair: Paul Hanlon
Production: Roz Norman at LaLa Land

V Magazine 69 - Iris Strubegger, ph: Karl Lagerfeld, stylist: Haider Ackermann

Karl Lagerfeld photographed Iris Strubegger for V Magazine on November 27, 2010 in Paris with designer Haider Ackermann styling.

V Magazine Issue #69 Editorial
Model: Iris Strubegger
Photographer: Karl Lagerfeld
Stylist: Haider Ackermann
Hair: Laurent Philippon
Makeup: Stephanie Kunz
Casting Director: Evelien Joos
Scan Source: Austin Smedstad at Starworks

January 2011 Italian Vogue Video, FeiFei Sun, Photo: Steven Meisel, Stylist: Karl Templer

Steven Meisel photographed FeiFei Sun for Italian Vogue on November 30, 2010 with stylist Karl Templer.

Italian Vogue January 2011 Editorial
Model: FeiFei Sun
Photographer: Steven Meisel
Stylist: Karl Templer
Makeup: Pat McGrath
Hair: Guido Palau

Video can be seen Vogue.It and YouTube.com

Screen cap from video:

V Magazine Issue #69 - FeiFei Sun & Kristina Romanova, ph: Daniele Duella and Iango Henzi, stylist: Sabina Schreder

Daniele Duella and Iango Henzi photographed FeiFei Sun and Kristina Romanova for V Magazine on November 7, 2010 in New York with stylist Sabina Schreder.

V Magazine Issue #69 Editorial
Models: FeiFei Sun and Kristina Romanova
Photographers: Daniele Duella and Iango Henzi
Stylist: Sabina Schreder
Hair: Luigi Murenu
Makeup: Virgina Young
Scan Source: Austin Smedstad at Starworks

Spur Magazine February 2011 Interview: Nimue Smit and Wayne Sterling

Wayne Sterling of Models.Com and TheImagist.com interviewed Nimue Smit for Spur Magazine on November 24, 2010.



Nimue Smit was that instant sensation two years ago when she debuted in fashion as a Prada/Miu-Miu runway exclusive. Her wide eyed child brand of beauty certainly put her in the advance wave of the gorgeous new Dutch models like Patrica can der Vliet and Mirte Maas who were beginning to flood the runways and the editorials. But what set Nimue apart and certainly what ushered her straight from the runway to the Prada SS09 campaign as well as the Alberta Ferretti (FW09) and Armani Collection (SS10) campaigns was an extra polish of sophisticated grace. Extremely well educated, articulate and witty (with a talent for mimicking a wide variety of accents in a wide range of languages) Nimue is a distinct sign of fashion's current need to highlight girls who bring an intelligent understanding and a wider cultural value to the act of modeling. Fashion has always been about the fantasy of high style as a life style. Beyond just beauty and a sleek slim body (all of which Nimue boasts) the myth of fashion is also about the ideal of perfect diction, perfect manners and cultivating a polished exterior that reflects the elusive ambiance of chic. It is exactly that aura that this 18 year old Dutch beauty exudes in person . Freshly re-located to New York Nimue sat down with Spur of the eve of the American Thanksgiving holidays and gave us a great insight to her upbringing, her ambitions in life and her passions outside of modeling. This was what she had to share. - Wayne Sterling

Wayne Sterling: Why is it that Dutch girls speak such flawless English Nimue?

Nimue Smit: Maybe because they start us in school at a very young age. It's funny you think the english of Dutch girls is so good though. I can always pick up on a Dutch accent speaking English. There's always something a little off. In fact there was a book out that collected all the phrases with the slight mistakes the Dutch make with English.

WS: How many languages do you speak?

NS: I speak Dutch...English ...I understand some French but I wouldn't say I speak it well. The same for German. But those basic four languages. In school they taught us to read ancient Greek as well as some Latin. I think if you're going learn the Romance languages like French, German English or Spanish or Italian it's good to know the roots of your language.

WS: Wow. That's seriously impressive Nimue. Switching to pop culture, I just got an email asking what I thought of the Harry Potter movie Pt 6. I know you just saw it.

NS: I'm a big Harry Potter fan. I grew up with the books from the first one so it is very interesting for me to see the way they developed the story throughout the years.

WS: The last movie frustrated me over the point at which they chose to split the book in two parts.

NS: But at least they didn't have to cut out sections of the book like they had to in the previous films. This way they can let the story develop and be really true to the full plot.

WS: You said you grew up with the Harry Potter books...How old are you now ?

NS: I'm 18. I started modeling when I was 15 in Holland and I did the Prada-Miu Miu exclusive for my first show season when I was 16. Then right after that I did the shoots for Burberry...British Vogue...Italian Vogue with Meisel.

WS: Your parents are both doctors, yes?

NS: Yes. And I have grandparents who were also doctors so growing up I was fascinated by the whole idea of going into medicine.

WS: You're not tempted to break the tradition for fashion?

NS: At one point I might go to medical school. I'm not sure yet. I just finished high school this June so this is my first time modeling full time. I'm enjoying the modeling right now and as long as I enjoy it I want to keep pursuing it. I just moved to New York on my own and I'm enjoying discovering the city. It's so different from a place like Amsterdam or Paris. Paris is so organic as a city . You can see where it started on the Seine and just spread and spread. But in New York it feels so planned out. There's nothing old here. It is hard to believe that hundreds of years ago Manhattan was like one big forest when the Dutch first came here to trade. They could take boats right up the Hudson river. But you'd never believe any of that now looking at Manhattan. I was born in Amsterdam and grew up just outside of the city, sort of between the suburbs and the countryside.It' s the green heart as they call it...sort of where the houses give way to the forest.

WS: In your country, would you like to be extremely famous as a model...on the level of...the biggest Dutch girl now?

NS: That would be Doutzen. I'd say she's the most known of all the Dutch models. She's a celebrity everywhere she goes because her L"Oreal ads are everywhere but I'm not sure that I'd want that for myself. Modeling was never really seen as a big deal in Holland before, not until Holland's Next Top Model became popular. That changed it a bit...but no I wouldn't want to be known everywhere I go in Holland. I have friends who tell me that Doutzen copes with it well though . She's always polite. If she's having dinner and someone wants an autograph, she's always obliging. I have to say I enjoy going back home to Holland to visit after working. I would love to live for a little while in a houseboat in Amsterdam . That would be so quaint.

WS: How would you summarize your personal style Nimue?

NS: Well I love wearing a great sweater, probably a baggy one or maybe a jacket with very fitted pants and great shoes. I find that I'm always looking for classics and basics, That's basically the essence of my style. For that I love Alexander Wang of course.

WS: As all the models do.

NS: As all models do (laughs) Rodarte is just so beautiful to look at. I would love to have something of theirs'. I love all the luxury French brands. I love my Celine bag. It' s perfect to fit everything I need into it.

WS: You got it as a post show gift?

NS: Yes. It was the most amazing surprise.

WS: Great marketing move on Celine's part !

NS: Oh yes. I think it's great when designers offer trade for doing the shows and they offer you a quality piece because when the models really like something... a bag, a shoe...a dress...a coat...we will wear it constantly from city to city. It's a great form of advertising I think.

WS: I love the concept of the off-duty model . She sometimes makes you notice the bag or shoe even more than when it' s in an ad.

NS: I love the classics. Chanel. Yves Saint Laurent. Givenchy. Vuitton...you know the quality is always going to be fantastic. My style is try to mix all these things together with my basics to create something timeless.

WS: You're not very heavily into accessories like jewelry it seems.

NS: Not a lot and not unless it really means something to me. I wear a ring that I got from my grandparents. This watch was from my grandmother who passed away. So I like that the few pieces of jewelry I have are very special to me.

WS: And what's your current listening Nimue? Models always have the best musical tastes.

NS: I just saw Le Roux in concert. She's really good live. I also like a lot of the old music like George Harrison and Bob Dylan...The Beatles.

WS: Who are freshly out at iTunes!

NS: Yes I'm so excited!

WS: Thank you so much for our conversation Nimue. It was very nice to meet the girl behind the beautiful images.

NS: Thank you for thinking of me for this Wayne.

January 2011 Italian Vogue Editorial, FeiFei Sun, Photo: Steven Meisel, Stylist: Karl Templer

Steven Meisel photographed FeiFei Sun for Italian Vogue on November 30, 2010 with stylist Karl Templer.

Italian Vogue January 2011 Editorial
Model: FeiFei Sun
Photographer: Steven Meisel
Stylist: Karl Templer
Makeup: Pat McGrath
Hair: Guido Palau

D&G Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2011 Campaign preview: Auguste Abeliunaite, ph: Mario Testino

Mario Testino photographed Auguste Abeliunaite for the Spring 2011 D&G Dolce & Gabbana campaign.

D&G Dolce & Gabbana Spring 2011 Campaign
Model: Auguste Abeliunaite
Photographer: Mario Testino

V Magazine 69 Editorial preview - Natasha Poly, ph: Willy Vanderperre, stylist: Panos Yiapanis

Willy Vanderperre photographed Natasha Poly for V Magazine on November 27-28, 2010 in London with stylist Panis Yiapanis.

V Magazine Issue #69 Editorial
Model: Natasha Poly
Photographer: Willy Vanderperre
Stylist: Panos Yiapanis
Scan Source: Austin Smedstad at Starworks

Organice Your Life - December 2010 Cover & interview : Valentina Zelyaeva, ph: Alique

Alique photographed Valentina Zelyaeva for Organice Your Life on November 24, 2010 in New York.

Organice Your Life December 2010 Cover
Model: Valentina Zelyaeva
Photographer: Alique
Art Director: Joep Becx

Entire issue pdf can beseen at: organiceyourlife.com

Lonneke and Valentina think back about the shoot and share their experiences:

Valentina: Ok, so let me tell you something about the shoot. The morning of the shoot was one of the coldest days in November, but we all stayed warm and cozy thanks to Lonneke. She was kind enough to let us into her cute loft to shoot the cover and videos. She prepared wonderful lunch for the crew: yummy veggie soup, organic
bread from the farmers market, local cheese and organic salad with avocado and olive oil-sesame seed-lemon dressing.

Lonneke: Thanks Val!

V: Yes, it was so good that I got inspired and the next day I copied you by making the same lunch for myself :)

L: Love to hear that, I enjoy making (hopefully) delicious foods for friends and crew!

V: I thought it was great working with Alique. She took beautiful pictures of us, and I’m hoping to work and hang out with her more in the future.

L: Yes, that’s why I am happy that Alique creates all the covers for Organice Your Life® together with Art Director Joep Becx. Alique is talented and a very successful
photographer from Holland, together we want to conquer the world! Tijl did the really cool video of us in Holiday Style. Everybody seemed to have fun at the shoot!

V: Anne-Marie and I met last year at the Pura Vida party and we have the same passion for Raw Food, so it was great talking with her about it. Her love for dolphins and sea life is something to look up to.

L: Yes that’s amazing! Anne-Marie and I have been friends for a while and we both love to discuss good foods, healthy living and other interesting things in life. I am happy the three of us could manage to do the shoot together for this cover.

V: So with this issue: What do you wish for yourself and the OYL readers for 2011?

L: Well, I wish of course the usual: Happiness, Love and Peace for me and my loved ones, but I also hope that people get inspired to do good,for themselves, for friends, family and others. An inspired world is a joy forever! And what about you?

V: The whole world celebrates New Year! That means a fresh start foreveryone, new ideas, new plans,people looking forward to a new year, and we can make goals what we want to achieve in the year to come! I feel lots of good vibes around me and I think no matter where you are and what you do, the most important thing is to meet the New
Year with positive energy and a happy attitude, and that’s what I will try to do!

L & V: From both of us, we wish everyone a very joyous end of 2010 and an amazing New Year!

Intermission Issue III Cover & Interview - Dorothea Barth Jorgensen, ph: Patrik Sehlstedt, stylist: Keegan Singh

Patrik Sehlstedt photographed Dorothea Barth Jorgensen for the cover of Intermission Magazine on October 23, 2010 in New York with stylist Keegan Singh.

Intermission Issue III Cover
Model: Dorothea Barth Jorgensen
Photographer: Patrik Sehlstedt
Stylist: Keegan Singh
Makeup: Sil Bruinsma
Hair: Rudi Lewis
Location: Drive In Studios, 443 West 18th Street, NY, USA

Playing Fashion Winter 2010 Cover: Viktoriya Sasonkina, ph: Cate Underwood

Playing Fashion Fall 2011 Cover
Model: Viktoriya Sasonkina
Photographer: Cate Underwood

Playing Fashion Winter 2010 Cover: Alla Kostromichova, ph: Roman Pashkovsky

Playing Fashion Fall 2011 Cover
Model: Alla Kostromichova
Photographer: Roman Pashkovsky

Chloe Spring 2011 Campaign preview II: Iselin Steiro, ph: David Sims, stylist: Marie Amelie Sauve

David Sims photographed Iselin Steiro for the spring 2011 Chloe campaign on November 14-16, 2010 in New York with stylist Marie Amelie Sauve.

Chloe Spring 2011 Campaign
Model: Iselin Steiro
Photographer: David Sims
Stylist: Marie Amelie Sauve
Location: Pier 59 Studio, Studios 9 & 10

Miu Miu Spring 2011 Campaign: Kasia Struss, ph: Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott

Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott photographed Kasia Struss for the spring 2011 Miu Miu campaign on November 11-12, 2010 in London with stylist Joe McKenna.

Miu Miu Spring 2011 Campaign
Model: Kasia Struss
Photographers: Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott
Stylist: Joe McKenna
Hair: Christiaan
Makeup: Lucia Pieroni
Location: Big Sky Studio, Studios 9 & 10, 29-31 Brewery Road, London, UK

New York Times Article: Daphne Guinness, Fashion’s Wild Child, by Guy Trebay

Article can be read at The New York Times

Daphne Guinness, Fashion’s Wild Child

By GUY TREBAY

NO organ is more promiscuous than the eye, and no appetite more insatiable than the hunger to look. These truths go a long way toward explaining the preoccupations of a culture whose interest in imagery is defining. They also help one understand the ever-creeping appeal of fashion, a sphere that, like sport, is largely populated by arresting-looking people doing stuff that is legible without the help of words.

It is not that fashion never requires translation; a lot of it is arcane even to adepts. Certain people, too, contradictorily are both creations of the fashion world and yet somehow seem to exist outside it. Actors in a social theater, as we all are, they rise above the ordinary by giving sartorial performances unfettered by the bonds of convention or propriety or practicality or, often enough, common sense.

Daphne Guinness is one such wonderful oddity. Over the last year, hers has been among the most startling, engaging and snake-fascinating presences on the scene. Whether darting across the Place Vendôme in Paris or chatting with Alex Rodriguez at a mosh-pit art-world dinner during Art Basel Miami Beach or seated demurely at a staid dinner benefiting the American Academy in Rome, Ms. Guinness is a reliably otherworldly apparition.

Her mounds of skunk-dyed hair may be piled to “Bride of Frankenstein” heights or cantilevered in a lace kerchief that lends her a resemblance to a Rastafarian with an opulent mane of dreadlocks. Her lithe sparrow’s frame may be cinched into a sequined dress from the latest Chanel couture collection or swathed in majestic Grecian draperies or stiff garments that resemble something out of the wardrobe closet for “Spartacus” or gold lamé leggings that look as if they’d been applied with an airbrush.

Whatever else she has on, Ms. Guinness invariably wears the real jewels, her own, that distinguish her from the numerous society sandwich-boards seen strutting around, camera ready, in borrowed finery and gems. And she is typically shod in footgear whose platform soles are so high that they defy both the precepts of feminism and the laws of gravity (and the latter not always successfully; she has been known to tumble from the heights of her specially made Christian Louboutins). Venetian courtesans teetering on 17th-century wooden chopines had nothing on Ms. Guinness, whose progress to the women’s room from the dinner table at one charity dinner last fall kept a room full of guests in bated-breath suspense.

Who is this woman, what form of rara avis bedecked in diamonds and plumes?

You won’t have any trouble finding out if you ask a person with the least interest in style. Ms. Guinness — as Lady Gaga, an avowed fan, could tell you — is a titled brewery heiress; a granddaughter of Diana Mitford, the wife of the British nobleman and fascist Oswald Mosley; the ex-wife of Spyros Niarchos, scion of a fabulously wealthy Greek shipping dynasty; the 43-year-old mother of three children; the consort of Bernard-Henri Lévy, a wealthy French intellectual almost as renowned for his mind as for his luxuriant mane; and a muse to photographers as unalike as David LaChapelle and Steven Klein and to designers like the English tyro Gareth Pugh.

That she has always been defined in terms of the men in her life goes a long way toward explaining Ms. Guinness’s reinvention of herself roughly a decade ago as a kind of performance artist whose tool kit is her wardrobe. The febrile-looking, almost lunar creature that emerged from a wifely chrysalis can sometimes appear as a techno/aesthetic movement mash-up: part Huysmans and part Jules Verne. That she is handsome and even-featured only partly explains the way she captivates viewers and the lens of a camera. Plenty of good-looking women of fashion get themselves up in outlandish outfits; relatively few retain interest after the initial jolt of surprise has faded away.

Because she is rich and socially secure and also blessed with theatrical gifts hard to categorize, Ms. Guinness tends to fall outside the understanding of many observers, who look at her wearing shoes with no heels or face-obscuring veils or headpieces reminiscent of carnival ponies and brand her a freak.

What Daphne Guinness is not, she insists, is eccentric. “I truly hate the word,” she said recently, a complaint uttered first in a telephone call from London and repeated from 35,000 feet above the Atlantic as she flew to the South of France for Christmas (as a stipulation of the Guinness-Niarchos divorce settlement, her children spend the holidays with their father’s family). “I’m actually very grounded,” she added. “Also, eccentrics are almost asexual, and that is not something you can say of me, by any means.”

For Ms. Guinness, her wardrobe antics and often outlandish appearances in public “are kind of an ever-evolving art project,” she explained. “When I was a child,” being raised largely among the haute bohemians of the wealthy expatriate colony of Cadaqués, Spain, Ms. Guinness said: “I was overly serious and thoughtful, a real tomboy, always dressing up as a knight or a pirate or a red Indian. If there is anything you can say about me, it’s that I have not lost the imagination I had when I was 5 years old.”

Neither has she lost the tendency to dress in a way that makes it sometimes seem as if she is pushing impatiently outward at the boundaries of gender. Yet critics who see in Ms. Guinness's tough technological style — in her slightly barbarous emphasis on wearing feathers and pelts, in her taste for hardware — a rebuke to traditional femininity might be surprised to learn that she is, in person, a surprisingly girly girl. “For so much of my life, it was about being as small as possible or even invisible,” she said. “As a Niarchos, I was told constantly that you must and mustn’t be this or that. After I left my marriage, I found I was able to flex my muscles, to play with the way I looked again.”

Fashion, noted Ms. Guinness, who said she never reads the fashion magazines that make a fetish of her (“Scientific American is my heaven,” she said), is not meant to be taken seriously. Rule-bound by definition, fashion nonetheless holds out the possibility for self-transformation, masquerade, serious flights of fancy and even occasionally cultural critique. In Ms. Guinness’s case, it also provides a pretext for the enactment of a continuing commentary on what it means to perform the public role of a woman; as a kind of 21st-century geisha, she finds herself with the means to bypass traditional systems of patronage and the wit to mount a lively, unorthodox theater of womanliness solely to amuse herself.

“Of course, I get it wrong 60 percent of the time, but it’s about the experimentation,” Ms. Guinness said. “So much spirit and freedom of experimentation died in the ’80s,” she added. “It started with AIDS; AIDS wiped all that out. And so many of the people who would understand what I’m doing are dead now. Still, even though I am not trained at this, I try to find new ways of expressing myself and to use whatever it is I have creatively. I am not an eccentric, and I am not some sort of multitrillionaire just interested in buying clothes.”

Clothes are far from a driving force, Ms. Guinness said. What inspires her experimental flights is something more hard-headed and ordinary — a bristling refusal to conform.

“What drives me now is the idea of something being against the world,” she said. “I’m an artist, I suppose.”

Roberto Cavalli 40th Anniversary - Natasha Poly, ph: Mert Alad & Marcus Piggott, Stylist: Marlie Amelie Sauve

Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott photographed Natasha Poly for Roberto Cavalli's 40th Anniversary Book on April 15, 2010 in Los Angeles with stylist Marie Amelie Sauve.

Roberto Cavalli's 40th Anniversary Book
Model: Natasha Poly
Photographers: Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott
Stylist: Marie Amelie Sauve
Art Director: Fabien Baron
Hair: Paul Hanlon
Makeup: Charlotte Tilbury
Location: 5121 Franklin Avenue, Los Angeles, California, USA

Tom Ford Spring 2011 Fashion Show Video (featuring Karen Elson and Daphne Guinness)

Tom Ford Spring 2011 Show
Time: September 12, 2010 at 6:30pm
Location: Tom Ford, 845 Madison Avenue, NY, NY
Casting Director: James Scully
Models: Karen Elson and Daphne Guinness
Soundtrack: "Pretty Babies" by Karen Elson

Mulberry Spring 2011 Campaign preview: Nimue Smit, ph: Tim Walker, stylist: Edward Enninful

Tim Walker photographed Nimue Smit for the spring 2011 Mulberry campaign in London on October 22, 2010 with stylist Edward Enninful.

Mulberry Spring 2011 Campaign
Model: Nimue Smit
Photographer: Tim Walker
Stylist: Edward Enninful
Hair: Malcolm Edwards
Makeup: Sam Bryant
Creative Director: Ronnie Cooke Newhouse
Location: Eglingham Hall, London, UK

Chloe Spring 2011 Campaign preview: Iselin Steiro, ph: David Sims, stylist: Marie Amelie Sauve

David Sims photographed Iselin Steiro for the spring 2011 Chloe campaign on November 14-16, 2010 in New York with stylist Marie Amelie Sauve.

Chloe Spring 2011 Campaign
Model: Iselin Steiro
Photographer: David Sims
Stylist: Marie Amelie Sauve
Location: Pier 59 Studio, Studios 9 & 10