With its provocative covers and editorials, Love magazine has never shied away from controversy, but its latest edition is causing a stir for different reasons. Dubbed “The Talents,” the magazine’s Autumn/Winter issue focuses on celebrating the creative spirit via an all-star portfolio of influential women from the worlds of film, music, and fashion. Supermodels Kate Moss, Carolyn Murphy, and Gisele Bündchen are on the front page, as is music legend Cher, singer Florence Welch, actresses Alicia Vikander and Poppy Delevingne, and Star Wars bot C-3PO. The eclectic lineup is completely in line with Katie Grand's offbeat sensibilities and provides a succinct overview of the moment’s pop culture obsessions. With the issue hitting newsstands on July 27, Style.com caught up with Grand, editor-in-chief of Love, to talk reimagining Kate Moss, playing David Bowie in front of Iman, and the unflappable glamour of Cher.
The theme of the issue is “The Talents.” How did you go about making the selection of who would be included?
I wanted to do something with a group of people who were super-talented, and I couldn’t put my finger on what fields they came from. Quite often I think of a name before I think of who would be right. I’d seen Florence [Welch] early on; she’d played me her album in the kitchen and we danced around to it. Initially we had wanted her for the Marc [Jacobs] campaign, but she injured her foot and was unable to do it. I knew I wanted to work with her, though, in some capacity, so she was one of the first people we had in mind for this issue.
When there’s an issue with quite a broad title, you can bring in a lot of different characters. It was just important to me that there was an authenticity and a kind of weight to everyone who was in there. Gisele [Bündchen] was the second person I asked, and it just evolved from there. Kate [Moss] was actually one of the last shoots we did. Dave [Sims] hadn’t worked with her for 11 years, and it just felt like the right moment, and for him, the right publication. C-3PO was really random. My friend Gwendoline Christie is in Star Wars, and it kind of came from some conversations with Gwen, like, “Oh, it would be great to do one of the characters from Star Wars.” And then I had a meeting with Louis Vuitton, and they said they were just starting to work with Alicia Vikander, I was really interested in Alicia, and everyone in my office really fancied her––well, the straight men did.
With Alicia and Mia Goth, you really tapped two of the most visible up-and-coming actresses; what stood out to you about them?
I think they both have good relationships with fashion houses, which is probably why we were chatting so much about them. Verde Visconti from Prada has always said how great Mia was, and how much she likes her, how cool I’d find her, and that she’s one of my kind of girls. Because I have good relationships with the fashion houses, I can ask them and say, “Who’s interesting at the moment that I might not be thinking about?” or “Who’s going to turn up and be really into it?” David photographs all these super celebrities, but I think he’s best when he has a rapport with someone in front of the camera. So [it’s necessary] to do a bit of research on who’s going to be cool and into wearing clothes. That’s always important.
As this was the first time in over a decade that David Sims had shot Kate, what was the energy like on set?
With Kate you feel like it’s a very sweet picture of her. It was quite funny because we’d got this whole set up, and he and I were like, “Should we do something quite sexy and nude?” We’d built kind of a bedsit for her to be in, and when she arrived, she got on the bed and she just had on a pair of knickers, and he just kept saying, “Hmm, I’m not sure, not sure.” So Kate came off set, and we went to the dressing room, and she was like, “I think he’s embarrassed because he’s known me since I was a kid, and he doesn’t want to see me in this sexualized way; he wants to see me as a mate.” So we kind of just put Kate in some men’s trousers and a jacket, then it was fine.
Love has really been instrumental in the rising popularity of the social media models like Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner; do they play a role in this issue?
We’ve been working with Cara [Delevingne], Georgia [May Jagger], and Kendall, and all those girls for quite a few issues now––I didn’t want to break away from it, but I wanted to have a part of the magazine that felt a bit more grown-up. For this issue the cast is mostly very established women, but there is one shoot by Drew Jarrett, which is Kendall, Bella Hadid, Lucky Blue Smith, and Lucky’s sister, Pyper. It’s all location. It’s dusty, with natural hair and makeup, and it’s not how I’ve shot those girls before. I wanted to carry on working with them: I love Bella, she’s such a cool girl and we’d only done two shots of her in the last issue, and I really wanted to do more of her. I wanted Kendall in the issue as well, but I wanted to see them in a different way than how we’d shot them with Sølve [Sundsbø]. Drew created these beautiful, intimate images that are unlike what they’ve done previously.
The model lineup in this issue is phenomenal—
We couldn’t do this without Anita Bitton. We have a David Sims-Yohji Yamamoto shoot: Iman is in it, Carolyn [Murphy], Gisele, Missy Rayder, Adriana Lima, Julia Nobis … it’s 13 proper models, and we shot the whole thing in a day. That would’ve never happened without her. David Sims is the ultimate Bowie fan, and when Iman turned up—and everyone was so excited about having her in the studio—his assistant, completely innocently when she came onto set, they were just playing Young Americans, which is so normal on a David set. When Iman came off set, we got her pictures, and David said to his assistant, “I can’t believe you put David Bowie on—that’s so uncool, that’s so uncool!” And Iman had heard the whole thing, and she walked back on set, and she just said: “You know what, honey? It’s fine. I love it when people play my husband’s music when I’m modeling.” It was just like, aah, this is so amazing! Iman, you are a god! David will hate me for saying this, but that was really, really good.
How did you approach working with Cher? She’s been photographed in so many different ways over the past five decades.
Joe McKenna, who styled her, had also styled her for the Marc picture, and there was this brocade jacket he and I both really liked, and we talked about her wearing it in the final photo. What he was really excited about was when she came to the studio. She comes to the studio, she goes into hair and makeup, she then works with her personal stylist, and then she comes onto the set as Cher, so he got to see her before the process was finished. It seemed like an old-school way of working that both of us were really intrigued by. It’s like a Marilyn Monroe thing; here’s that famous quote from her, when she says, “shall I switch her on?” You just imagine that. Cher comes to the studio in a pair of jeans, or whatever, and then comes out from the dressing room as Cher. That was kind of exciting for us both; there was a really good picture, which David wouldn’t let me use, of him doing a selfie with Cher. I wish we could’ve used it! There are so few people you’re really in awe of, and obviously for everyone it was Cher. Marc was just so crazy about her, and he was on the set [of Love] as well.
Was he photographed for the issue?
He was just there—I think he wanted to maximize his time with Cher!
LOVE 14 ‘The Talents’ issue Autumn/Winter 2015 goes on newsstands 27 July
. This one with Kate looks the best so far. I'm sure Cara's one will still follow...
