Kristen McMenamy

[lelaid]

I find her so much more appeal now over when she was working in the 90's. I think she just got better with age, it really make her face more dynamic and interesting.

 

[Neely]

^ Absolutely agree! She has had a great career that keeps getting better and better

 

[Hannyeng]

STYLE.COM/PRINT F/W 13.14
Model:Kristen McMenamy
Photographer:Nick Knight

glossynewsstand.com

 

[Hannyeng]

A style notes about kristen on style.com

"It Was Always Kristen"

Photographers and designers clamor for Kristen McMenamy as much now as they did 30 years ago. That's because the supermodel is still risking life and limb for the elusive perfect picture

McMenamy is one of the great models. She will do anything in the pursuit of a great picture—and has. Today, McMenamy is the story, and she is unsure about the clothes she will wear to be herself—the best version of herself, for a feature about herself, in which she has nobody to please but herself. Still, she wants a good picture for the photographer.

This is what distinguishes her from many other models, and it's why so many photographers want to work with her at age 48—even when models literally half her age are considered "old" in the industry. McMenamy breaks all of the rules; she defies all conventions in her pursuit to be the best at what she does. There are almost no lengths to which she will not go.

McMenamy generally likes to work with photographers she has known well over many years. She likes to work with the best. Besides Knight, she has long-standing working relationships with Juergen Teller, Steven Meisel, and Tim Walker, among others. And before Richard Avedon and Helmut Newton died, she had particularly fruitful working relationships with them. They have all aided McMenamy in her pursuit of the perfect picture. This is not a self-centered pursuit; a perfect picture is not one that will necessarily make her look beautiful, or pretty, or nice even. It is simply a great photograph. This is why she has been part of some of the greatest fashion images of all time. She is acknowledged as one of the greatest actresses in still images.

Of course, this pursuit could drive you slightly mad—and you don't even get an Oscar at the end. When I first met McMenamy in the flesh, on a shoot three years ago, she was slowly being strangled by a boa constrictor. At the time, she declared, "I'm fine! I like it." The stylist, Nicola Formichetti, was trying to get the attention of the animal handler by shouting, "Mr. Snake, Mr. Snake!" (Formichetti had, of course, forgotten the man's name.) "The snake is killing her, Mr. Snake!" This, incidentally, was another Nick Knight shoot.

"That was nothing," McMenamy recalls today, during her latest, gentler shoot with Knight. (The photographer is known for pushing his subjects hard, in the nicest possible and most polite of ways. Helmut Newton, on the other hand? "Well, he was a meanie," according to McMenamy.)

Photographers have put her through the wringer—or rather she has put herself through the wringer. For a Mert & Marcus shoot she was thrown into a deep tank of water after a bondage expert tied her arms and legs together. She has appeared somewhat battered and bruised for Juergen Teller. "He was more upset about those pictures than me!" she says. It was during a shoot with another photographer that she actually obtained those injuries, later finding out she had a broken collarbone. For McMenamy, the only question that remains: Is the picture good? If so, then fine.

In real life, away from the photographic reproduction and the catwalk version of herself, McMenamy is not that different. She brings a disarming honesty and truthfulness to everything she does and says. "I have really gotta be myself," she explains."I can give someone a bit of what they want, but only a bit."

She is tall, slim, and strikingly beautiful—and not so much the unconventional beauty that she has often been made out to be. Her spirit, her sense of freedom, her slight dorkiness, and her honesty are her most unconventional qualities. They are also the things that have stood her in good stead and make her instantly likeable. And despite her being in the second wave of true supermodels, with a fearsome reputation preceding her, McMenamy is somebody that you feel quite protective toward. While it might be a slightly bigger and more extreme version of herself that appears on paper or under the klieg lights, it is also one that appears vastly more confident. That is why, it seems, it takes time to be her.

"I need constant feeding of my self-esteem," she says matter-of-factly, in her disarmingly honest way. "I am so insecure, which also makes me a great model. I know it is for that reason. I am constantly trying to prove something. If you give up, if you think, 'I'm great,' then you're dead. You're dead! If you think, 'I'm great and I have nothing else to prove,' then you have nothing else to prove. You just go away."

"I will always try to be better," McMenamy says. "At 48, I think I can be better. I'll think I can be better than at 28. I will be better! And I will always feel like that. Modeling has been my life. I love acting as well, but this has been my life."

"I can say that fashion is my family. That might sound stupid to a lot of people, but it is a big part of who I am. It's my family."

 

[Hannyeng]

cont

If fashion is her family, then Donatella Versace is her big sister. And McMenamy will always openly and sincerely declare, "I love her." It was during the Versace Spring campaign of 1993, shot by Avedon, that McMenamy was truly elevated into fashion's pantheon and heralded as part of the next wave of supermodels. It was Donatella who was instrumental in making this happen.

The next wave was initially positioned as the antidote to the original "supers"—Cindy, Christy, Linda, et al. But, in large part because of Versace, the new set of models was elevated to that same position. "Kate, Amber, and Kristen. It was a fantastic moment, really a fantastic moment, with their arrival," Donatella explained to me a few years ago. "Kristen was a big problem with my brother at first; she was crazy! Gianni just did not understand right away. The stories, ha! Between her and Linda, oh it was like watching a movie that never ends.…Backstage was heaven. It was heaven!"

"When a new girl came along, oh my God, it was like a war," Donatella continued. "The first time they got together, it was the big girls versus the new girl. I remember one time backstage, when Linda needed to go on the runway, she was about to put in her fake boobs and found one of them had been taken. 'Where is my boob? Where's my boob?' she was screaming over and over. I think it was Kristen. It was always Kristen." She laughed.

"There was always lots of drama going on, continuous drama," Donatella added. "You could not even imagine inventing it; nobody would believe it. I would be stuck in the middle. And all those girls turned out to be icons—Kate, Amber, Kristen, all icons." When McMenamy opened and closed the last Versace haute couture show, it was distinctly a homecoming.

By her own admission, McMenamy is still dramatic. She'll often laugh and joke about it after such an outburst. It was one such dramatic yet jokey reaction (to not having been cast for a Versace couture show in 1996) that led to perhaps her most famous picture with Juergen Teller—of Kristen fully nude with a Versace heart drawn in lipstick on her chest. "At that point Versace was everything," McMenamy explains. "And both myself and Juergen had been turned down by them in some way," she adds. "We felt like complete losers, or I certainly did. We were joking around about it and being a bit 'we'll show them; we don't need 'em!'"

What appears as a comparatively tame picture now was seen as an infinitely controversial one then. Nevertheless, it further cemented the bond between the model and the photographer. As Teller simply puts it today:"Kristen is the best model I have ever worked with."

He pauses and says, "That almost needs no justification," clearly knowing what a big statement that is to make. But he continues, "There is something strangely similar between her and me. It has kept us working together for 25 years. She has totally the same understanding about things; we don't even need to talk about it. I have never met a model who is as professional about her job, who knows her body so well, and has such immense control over it. On top of that, she just looks fantastic.

And this is why Kristen McMenamy will continue to pursue the perfect picture: She's simply the perfect model to do so.

style.com

 

[Nepenthes]

DYING over her Style editorial. The first shot is everything!

 

[justaguy]

Elle France March 1992

Zone Frange
Model: Kristen McMenamy
Ph: Friedemann Hauss
Stylist: Joseph Carle
Hair: Donald
Makeup: March Schaeffer


Scans by kelles

 

[justaguy]

Karl Lagerfeld for Saks Fifth Avenue Fall/Winter 1993/94

US Vogue August 1993
Photo Karl Lagerfeld
Model Kristen McMenamy


My scans

 

[justaguy]

Karl Lagerfeld Fall/Winter 1993/94

US Vogue August 1993
Photo Karl Lagerfeld
Model Kristen McMenamy


My scan

 

[justaguy]

US Vogue November 1993

A New Breed
Model: Claudia Mason; Kirsten McMenamy
Ph: Dewey Nicks
Fashion Editor: Jackie Spaniel
Hair: John Sahag
Makeup: Justin Henri


Scans by kelles

 

[justaguy]

US Vogue April 1993

Hot Kamali
Models: Meghan Douglas; Nadege du Bospertus; Carla Bruni; Kristen McMenamy; Linda Evangelista
Ph: Steven Meisel
Fashion Editor: Camilla Nickerson
Hair: Garren
Makeup: Denise Markey


Scans by kelles

 

[justaguy]

Vanity Fair October 1995

Photographer: Karl Lagerfeld
Stylist: André Leon Talley
Hair: Julien d’Ys & Renato Campora
Makeup: Heidi Morawetz
Models: Kristen McMenamy, Charles Andrews & Hervé le Bihan


Scans lylascans.tumblr.com

 

[Perickles]

I like this woman, she's very interesting. I like the grunge style in those pictures taken by Meisel long time ago. She's kool.

 

[VogueGirl8910]

Vogue Italia December 1992
"Kristen McMenamy: Top Model ‘92"
Models: Kristen McMenamy & Wallis Franken Montana
Photographer: Steven Meisel
Stylists: Grace Coddington & Lori Goldstein
Hair: Garren
Makeup: Laura Mercier, Denise Markey & Francois Nars



lylascans.tumblr.com

 

[versustito]

BALENCIAGA F/W 13.14
Kristen McMenamy by Steven Klein

http://www.glossynewsstand.com/2013/04/balenciaga-fw-1314.html

 

[versustito]

10 MAGAZINE #47 SUMMER 2013
Kristen McMenamy, Amanda Harlech & Lisa Verberght

http://www.glossynewsstand.com/2013/05/10-magazine-47-summer-2013.html

 

[justaguy]

Elle France 18 September 1995

Kristen McMenamy en Michel Klein par Mondino
Model: Kristen McMenamy
Ph: Jean-Baptiste Mondino
Hair: Marc Lopez
Makeup: Topolino


Scans by kelles

 

[Hannyeng]

10 Magazine #47 Summer 2013 —— Cover & Editorial
Model: Kristen McMenamy
Photographer: Rorbert Schoerner
Stylist: Sophia Neophitou

glossynewsstand.com

 

[AD011620]

Mmmmsame outfit on so many pictures...

 

[justaguy]

Vogue Italia October 1992

Coppie di Stile
Photographer: Steven Meisel
Stylist: Nicoletta Santoro
Hair: Garren
Make Up: Françcois Nars
Models/Stars: Grace Coddington, Victoire de Castellane, Gilles Dufour, Loulou De La Falaise, Daniel De La Falaise, Kristen McMenamy, Hubert Boukobza, Sophie Théallet, Thierry Perez, Marisa Berenson, Costanzo Mutti, Anna Pawlowski & Patrice Touron

Scans by lylascans.tumblr.com