Dazed Summer 2017 : Lana Del Rey by Charlotte Wales

[*ana*]

CL: Yeah, I don’t like going there much but I went there with you. We have this in common, too: we both ran away to Britain. If I could live anywhere in the world, I’d live in London.

LDR: If I could live anywhere in the world other than LA, I’d live in London. In the back of my mind, I always feel like I could maybe end up there.

CL: I know I’m going to end up there. I know what neighbourhood I’m going to end up in, and I know that I want to be on the Thames. I subscribe to this magazine called Country Life which is just real-estate p*rn and fox hunting. It’s amazing. OK, so, if you weren’t doing you, what would you do?

LDR: Do you have a really clear answer for this, for yourself?

CL: Yeah, I would work with teenage girls. Girls that are in halfway houses.

LDR: That’s got you all over it. I’m selfish. I would do something that would put me by the beach. I would be, like, a bad lifeguard. (laughs) I’d come help you on the weekends, though.

CL: Do you like being in Malibu better than being in town?

LDR: I like the idea of it. People don’t always go out to visit you in Malibu. So there’s a lot of alone-time, which is kind of like, hmm. I’m not in (indie-rock enclave) Silver Lake but I love all the stuff that’s going on around there. I guess I’d have to say (I prefer) town, but I’ve got my half-time Malibu fantasy.

CL: The only bad thing that can happen in Malibu really is getting on Etsy and overspending.

LDR: Oh my God, woman... (laughs) Tell me about it. Late-night sleepless Etsy binges.

CL: Regretsy binges. OK, so, lyrically, you have some tropes and one of them is the colour red. Red dresses, scarlet, red nail polish... I kind of want to steal that.

LDR: You need to take over that, because I think I’ve got to relinquish the red.

CL: Well, I overuse the word ‘wh*re’.

LDR: You take ‘red’. I’ll trade for ‘wh*re’. I’m so lucky.

CL: I love this new song (‘Love’).

LDR: Thank you. I love the new song, too. I’m glad it’s the first thing out. It doesn’t sound that retro, but I was listening to a lot of Shangri-Las and wanted to go back to a bigger, more mid-tempo, single-y sound. The last 16 months, things were kind of crazy in the US, and in London when I was there. I was just feeling like I wanted a song that made me feel a little more positive when I sang it. And there’s an album that’s gonna come out in the spring called Lust for Life. I did something I haven’t ever done, which is not that big of a deal, but I have a couple of collabs on this record. Speaking of John Lennon, I have a song with Sean Lennon. Do you know him?

CL: I do, I like him.

LDR: It’s called ‘Tomorrow Never Came’. I don’t know if you’ve ever felt this way, but when I wrote it I felt like it wasn’t really for me. I kept on thinking about who this song was for or who could do it with me, and then I realised that he would be a good person. I didn’t know if I should ask him because I actually have a line in it where I say, ‘I wish we could go back to your country house and put on the radio and listen to our favourite song by Lennon and Yoko.’ I didn’t want him to think I was asking him because I was namechecking them. Actually, I had listened to his records over the years and I did think it was his vibe, so I played it for him and he liked it. He rewrote his verse and had extensive notes, down to the mix. And that was the last thing I did, decision-wise. I haven’t mixed the record, but the fact that ‘Love’ just came out and Sean kind of finished up the record, it felt very meant-to-be. Because that whole concept of peace and love really is in his veins and in his family. Then, I also have Abel (Tesfaye), The Weeknd. He is actually on the title track of the record, ‘Lust for Life’. Maybe that’s kind of weird to have a feature on the title track, but I really love that song and we had said for a while that we were gonna do something; I did stuff on his last two records.

CL: Do you have a singular producer or several producers?

LDR: Rick Nowels. He actually did stuff with Stevie Nicks a while ago. He works really well with women. I did the last few records with him. Even with Ultraviolence which I did with Dan (Auerbach), I did the record first with Rick, and then I went to Nashville and reworked the sound with Dan. So, yeah, Rick Nowels is amazing, and these two engineers – with all the records that I’ve worked on with Rick, they did a lot of the production as well. You would love these two guys. They’re just super-innovative. I wanted a bit of a sci-fi f lair for some of the stuff and they had some really cool production ideas. But yeah, that’s pretty much it. I mean, Max Martin –

CL: Wait, you wrote with Max Martin? You went to the compound?

LDR: Have you been there?

CL: No. I’ve always wanted to work with Max Martin.

LDR: So basically, ‘Lust for Life’ was the first song I wrote for the record, but it was kind of a Rubik’s Cube. I felt like it was a big song but... it wasn’t right. I don’t usually go back and re-edit things that much, because the songs end up sort of being what they are, but this one song I kept going back to. I really liked the title. I liked the verse. John Janick was like, ‘Why don’t we just go over and see what Max Martin thinks?’ So, I flew to Sweden and showed him the song. He said that he felt really strongly that the best part was the verse and that he wanted to hear it more than once, so I should think about making it the chorus. So I went back to Rick Nowels’ place the next day and I was like, ‘Let’s try and make the verse the chorus,’ and we did, and it sounded perfect. That’s when I felt like I really wanted to hear Abel sing the chorus, so he came down and rewrote a little bit of it. But then I was feeling like it was missing a little bit of the Shangri-Las element, so I went back for a fourth time and layered it up with harmonies. Now I’m finally happy with it. (laughs) But we should do something. Like, soon.

CL: I would like that. That would be awesome.

Lust for Life is out this spring.

Editor's note: this interview has been condensed from the print edition.

dazeddigital.com

 

[gbam]

Limited edition cover

Alek Wek & Grace Bol by Viviane Sassen

Styling: Robbie Spencer
Grooming: Irena Ruben

Close ups



Text by Susanne Madsen

Photographer Viviane Sassen brings two fearless fashion icons together for Dazed - here, they speak out on anti-war activism and multiculturalism in modelling.
“If we are talking about celebrating women, we have to celebrate (diversity) as well’’ - says model Alek Wek, who fled her native South Sudan to spread messages of peace, positivity and progress to the rest of the world.

In a special fashion collaboration shot by Viviane Sassen, she's joined by fellow South Sudanese Grace Bol who speaks of the injustices she witnessed there as a child. “The country is going in (the right) direction, we just have to be patient” she says. “We'll get there.”

ALEK WEK

Alek Wek has the kind of smile you can hear on the phone. She’s raving about the brilliantly diverse cast at Marc Jacobs AW17, the magical moment that was Dries Van Noten’s age-inclusive 100th show (“We were looking at each other like it was a high-school reunion!”) and the fact that so many models from her generation are back. We have a long way to go in terms of diversity, she says, “but the dots are finally starting to connect”.

Wek is as electrifying as the day she arrived in fashion. The embodiment of haute couture and all that is beautiful, she was scouted at 18 in 1995 while studying at the London College of Fashion, and found herself shooting with Steven Meisel before opening and closing Ralph Lauren SS97 as a newcomer. Boom. There were other successful black models at the time, but none who looked like Wek, the first African model to land an Elle cover.

Her images with Irving Penn and Herb Ritts (that oiled-up Pirelli shoot with baby radishes for a mohawk) along with Wek ripping off her blonde wig on the runway at Betsey Johnson are the stuff of trailblazing fashion legend.
But Wek’s most important work has perhaps been as an activist and ambassador for the UN Refugee Agency, which she praises for drumming up ways for people to get involved and help raise funds to feed and shelter refugees. “It has not calmed down at all there,” she says of her home country of South Sudan, its famine and the way women and young girls are being violated by men. She’s also worked with the H&M Foundation, a project that has raised millions for refugees.

Above all, she is incredulous that we’re even discussing whether or not we should help refugees. “There’s nothing political about being a refugee,” she says. Wek was five when civil war broke out and South Sudan life became strictly about survival. Forced to leave their home when local police ran out of ammunition to ward off the militia, her family escaped into the bush with what little they could carry, foraging for foods that were safe to eat and selling salt to buy passports. All this with a father too ill to walk, who died before they could make it out of the country.

“It’s difficult for me when I hear certain individuals in the media describing refugees as criminals or thugs. And we’re talking about children, women, old people – the most vulnerable of the vulnerable. They don’t want handouts. I have cleaned BBC Radio toilets to put myself through school, waking up early every morning before I could go to class,” she recalls of coming to the UK as a teen via her sister who was already there.

“So it’s not about trying to get out of a situation where you feel it’s not comfortable enough. Your life is on the line.” When she first arrived in London, she’d run home before it got dark. “Because darkness for us (meant that) you might get shot and nobody would be held responsible.”

Now, she giggles at her mum being horrified when she bought a brownstone in Brooklyn in 1999, because she thought the area was dangerous. There, she writes poetry, paints large canvases – of her dad, desert landscapes and abstract forms exaggerating the lifelines in her palms – and plays the violin. She credits her mum with her strong sense of self-worth, and is grateful for the belief she instilled in her that as a woman you are strong and beautiful, not just on the outside. “I think that is very important to educate the younger ones on. We can have fun with the clothes and the make-up, but underneath – that’s the beauty of a woman.” What’s kept her interested in fashion all this time? “I love that I have a voice and I don’t just have to talk about the clothes. (I love) seeing fellow South Sudanese people now in the fashion business. If we are talking about celebrating women, we have to celebrate (diversity) as well.”

GRACE BOL

There’s an energy field around Grace Bol. Her editorial work balances pure, magnetic power and poised cool, the kind of presence you either have as a model or you don’t. After being discovered at the age of 19 at a mall in her hometown of Kansas City, Missouri, her first local modelling gigs quickly led to fashion proper. “Coming into fashion, I loved it. I get to travel, I get to meet different people, different cultures. I love adventure, exploring the world, different cities, countries, wildlife,” she says.

Bol is on the phone from her agency in New York, recently back from Paris where she capped off another strong season walking for Marc Jacobs, Gareth Pugh, Balmain, Loewe and Haider Ackermann. Over Christmas, she visited family in her native Sudan. Like fellow South Sudanese model Alek Wek, she fled the country because of civil war, coming to the US with her family at the age of “eight or nine” through a UN camp.

“I was shocked by the snow,” she says, laughing. “We didn’t know how to deal with it, but we learned. We learned (to overcome) the language barrier, too, (especially) the children.”

As a child in a war-torn country, was Bol aware of what was happening around her? “I saw a few things, but our parents did everything to keep us away... They distracted us, and we were very happy as kids even though we were in the worst place. They made us feel like we were in the best (place).” During her last visit to the country, she says that she saw a lot of change.

“Politics-wise, it was still unstable. But I think the country is going in a direction where it won’t stay that way. The world could help by coming in to talk to them and try to unify them. I think it’s best to come in without giving them weapons because they are not in a good place for that.”

Bol wants to make the most of the platform fashion offers to speak about her experiences, and has hosted talks on activism paths within modelling. “I could have said anything while I was in school but it wouldn’t have reached anyone,” she says. “Right now, in my position, I can send a good message to people and it will reach them. It’s a good place for me.”

Who are her own role models? “Michelle Obama. She’s strong, she’s smart, she’s always been about unity and... I don’t know, I love everything about her,” she says. It’s too bad, I offer, that the current White House occupier seems beyond reasoning with.

“I know, we just have to be patient. We’ll get there.”

instagram.com/dazed & dazeddigital.com/

 

[gbam]

Alek Wek & Grace Bol by Viviane Sassen

Styling: Robbie Spencer
Grooming: Irena Ruben

instagram.com/dazed & wefolk.com

 

[lewak]

A real shame this Viviane Sassen is a limited edition. Her work really means something!

Not sure the same is true of Lana Del Ray in 2017.... Or Courtney Love.....

Maybe the new singles will knock my sox off. Been a while.....

 

[StockholmFW]

Lana Del Rey: Wild At Heart

Photographer: Charlotte Wales
Celebrity: Lana Del Rey
Stylist: Robbie Spencer

Missing images

visualizing.fashion

 

[dsamg]

Hanne has an editorial or a story?

Hanne Gaby in @acnestudios for the new issue of #dazed with @emmawyman + @susiesobol_makeup + @jawaraw

 

[dsamg]

HANNE GABY ODIELE – DAZED & CONFUSED – SPRING 2017

Photography: Clara Balzary
Stylist: Emma Wyman
Hair: Jawara
Makeup: Susie Sobol
Casting: Noah Shelley

womenmanagement

 

[Benn98]

Dazed Summer 2017



Lana Del Rey

Photographer: Charlotte Wales
Stylist: Robbie Spencer
Hair: Anna Cofone
Makeup: Pamela Cochrane
Cast: Lana Del Rey








Dazed Digital Edition

 

[Benn98]

Dazed Summer 2017



Alek Wek & Grace Bol

Photographer: Viviane Sassen
Stylist: Robbie Spencer
Grooming: Irena Ruben
Cast: Alek Wek, Grace Bol









Dazed Digital Edition

 

[Benn98]

Dazed Summer 2017

No Wave

Photographer: Collier Schorr
Hair: Holli Smith
Makeup: Thomas de Kluyver
Cast: Hannah Bennett, Ulrike Hoyer, Taja Festner






Dazed Digital Edition

 

[Benn98]

Dazed Summer 2017

Kim's Videos

Photographer: Angelo Pennetta
Stylist: Camille Bidault-Waddington
Hair: Rudi Lewis
Makeup: Stephanie Kunz
Cast: Grace Hartzel








Dazed Digital Edition

 

[Benn98]

Dazed Summer 2017

And Eat It Too

Photographer: Eloise Parry
Set Designer: Alice Kirkpatrick
Stylist: Emma Wyman
Hair: Jonathan De Francesco
Makeup: Nami Yoshida
Cast: Georgia Howarth







Dazed Digital Edition

 

[Benn98]

Dazed Summer 2017

No Loitering

Photographer: Letty Schmiterlow
Stylist: Agata Belcen
Hair: Jonathan De Francesco
Makeup: Nami Yoshida
Cast: Mariana Zaragoza, Celine Delaugere, Gisele Fox, Tessa Bruinsma, Ratner







Dazed Digital Edition

 

[Benn98]

Dazed Summer 2017

Power Lines

Photographer: Julia Hetta
Set Designer: Sophie Glasser
Stylist: Hannes Hetta
Hair: Tomi Kono
Makeup: Topolino
Cast: Marte Mei van Haaster







Dazed Digital Edition

 

[Benn98]

Dazed Summer 2017

Isabelle Huppert

Photographer: Camille Vivier
Set Designer: Azzedine Saleck
Stylist: Tamara Rothstein
Hair: Gilles Devigry
Makeup: Carole Lasnier
Cast: Isabelle Huppert





Dazed Digital Edition

 

[Benn98]

Dazed Summer 2017

Comme As You Are

Photographer: Dario Catellani
Stylist: Celestine Cooney
Hair: Pasqual Ferrante
Makeup: Emi Kaneko
Cast: Saschi Nozaki, Davie Kaim, Madison Murphy, Catie Widmann, Victoria Simes, Shamysia Waterman, Michiko Higuchi






Dazed Digital Edition

 

[Benn98]

Dazed Summer 2017

Syd

Photographer: Fumi Nagasaka
Stylist: Alison Marie Isbell
Hair: Tamas Tuzes
Makeup: Ingeborg
Cast: Syd




Dazed Digital Edition

 

[Benn98]

Dazed Summer 2017

Heavenly Spheres

Photographer: Joyce Ng
Set Designer: Danny Hyland
Stylist: Elizabeth Fraser-Bell
Hair: Shiori Takahashi
Makeup: Jessica Taylor
Cast: Hayett McCarthy





Dazed Digital Edition

 

[Benn98]

Dazed Summer 2017

Green Room

Photographer: Jamie Morgan
Stylist: Lyson Machessault
Hair: Naoki Komiya
Makeup: Ceilia Burton
Cast: Ella-Rae Smith, George MacKay, Anders Hayward, Sophia Brown, Sorcha Groundsell





Dazed Digital Edition

 

[Benn98]

Dazed Summer 2017

Hanne Gaby Odiele

Photographer: Clara Balzary
Set Designer: Whitney Helleson
Stylist: Emma Wyman
Hair: Jawara
Makeup: Susie Sobol
Cast: Hanne Gaby Odiele





Dazed Digital Edition