Sea Maid

      Kristen McMenamy runs a fever in W's December 2013 editorial "Far From Land". This conceptually dark editorial tells the story of a languishing sea-maid wasting away from unrequited love à la Hans Christian Anderson's lurid classic "The Little Mermaid".

I love the dark styling of this forlorn mermaid. Pearls, rockweed, a Balenciaga sweater and a heavy and forbidding Alexander McQueen dress. Her brow-less bloodshot eyes are set perfectly in sockets sculpted with a touch of cool grey. I've never seen the application of red to the eye quite like this. It's awesome! Everything about her has a warning quality, a nocturnal animal out at midday. "If you cannot make the prince fall so much in love with you that his every thought concerns only you, then, the first morning after he has married another, your heart will break and you will become foam on the ocean...   It was the last night that she would breathe the same air as he, or look out over the deep sea and up into the star-blue heaven. A dreamless, eternal night awaited her, for she had no soul and had not been able to win one." from Hans Christian Anderson's "The Little Mermaid"

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Photography:  Tim Walker Styled by:  Jacob K Hair:  Julien d'Ys Makeup:    Stephane Marais

Reminds me of these photos of Sasha Pivovarova by Higashi Ishida in Madame Figaro, Setember 2004:

Morgan le Fay

      Clad in chain-mail, structured armor, leather, and lace, Kristen McMenamy broods like a hellion in W's September 2012 editorial "The Dame of Thrones".

I love how barbed wire and a conical Philip Treacy transparent head-piece (#4) give this Medieval Britain thing a whole Seam-In-Time feel. I remember hearing an interview with Monty Python's Michael Palin that a lot of the chain-mail worn in The Holy Grail was actually just knitted creations spray painted silver (sounds soggy). Craig Lawrence's metallic yarn chain mail shirt and pants (#3) are very convincing and wearable... something maybe Daphne Guinness would don to check out a litter of dalmatian puppies (or whatever it is that she does with herself). Her inspired silver glove by Shaun Leane (#8) certainly seems useful for glancing blows from little doggie paws.

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Photography:  Tim Walker Styled by:  Jacob K Hair and Headpieces:  Julien d'Ys Makeup:    Val Garlande