Tilda Swinton & Saskia de Brauw: Serpentine Sirens
Amanda Harlech and Jerry Stafford Channel the Dark Romanticism of Paris in Our Second A Magazine Curated By Preview
“There was a very special chemistry between the Tilda and Saskia that turned into something very close to theater-play,” says photographer Vincent van de Wijngaard of shooting Serpentine, a series of noir-ish images of the actress and model for the forthcoming issue of A Magazine Curated By Iris van Herpen. “I used a lot of locations in around Pigalle that were connected to the symbolist poets.” Art directed and styled by seasoned Creative Director Jerry Stafford, the issue’s curator Iris van Herpen, and fashion authority Amanda Harlech, longtime consultant to Karl Lagerfeld, the editorial takes inspiration from The Angel of the Odd, last year’s exhibition of dark romanticism at Paris’ Musée d’Orsay. “We loved the mood of this period and the obsession with chimera, devils and vampires,” says Stafford, of the series featuring Van Herpen’s vast collections. “We felt that Iris' clothes— and we delved deep into her archive—were the perfect response.” The spread sees the images of Ms. Swinton and de Brauw interspersed with quotes from the French poet Victor Hugo, illustrations of Pigalle, Paris’ famed red light district, and an essay by Harlech. “Vincent’s photographs defy time,” says the writer and Chanel Couture consultant. “The emotion in his work spills out into the elegy of his watercolors, creating a heartbreaking beauty. We are all ghosts of everything we experience. Man's fear of woman, the femme fatale, the cry of absolute love all echo in the wasteland of Paris, in the dark corners of Pigalle.”