The essence of longevity in the creations and vision of Yohji Yamamoto is a rare trait in the fashion world – a world of constant turnover, trends and replacement. One facet that embodies this fact so readily is modelling, as beautiful young girls are chosen to represent these trends and then so quickly pushed aside for a new look, a new walk, a new attitude.
Kirsten Owen is one of the few models who has managed a longevity in the industry and staying power that does not branch from international superstardom and celebrity fame – she is no Naomi Campbell – but rather from a natural and transcendent beauty that so quietly surpasses directional trends. With a career that began in 1985 and has continued on and off since then, Kirsten arrived in the fashion world at a time of great change and an evolution in the avantgarde scene, with the rise of the Belgian and Japanese designers spearheading a race forward in design technique and a new aesthetic for the nineties.
For A#2, guest editor Gerdi Esch celebrates this calm, strong woman with a poignant and celebratory text that accompanies Kirsten’s own self portrait photography in rural Canada. The images possess a raw and unencumbered beauty, marrying the stark winter countryside with the intimacy of Kirsten’s lens turned upon herself both inside and outside. Movement and blurring add a sense of adventure and play to the images, removing any sense of a ‘produced’ photoshoot – revealing the human element. Kirsten appears pensive, serene and engaging. Everything a model should be, coupled with a natural grace and a grounded energy.
Gerdi on Kirsten:
“As a model she survived every trend in the last twenty years. She stayed her beautiful self. And every time I see her walk in Paris in that very own way of hers, I see that girl in front of me again. Because over the years she didnt lose that girl. We and our generation, too, we haven’t lost her. She still is an image, the image, inextricably bound up with those very precious 90’s when fashion repented, so to speak, and started looking for real, pure beauty.”