Tasaki Atelier’s creative director Prabal Gurung has turned a spray of falling water into this cascading necklace by arranging pearls and diamonds onto a white and Sakuragold line. Venetian courtesans would sit for portraits wearing pearls in defiance of a law forbidding it. Perhaps they identified both with their sexy, sheeny quality and their humble salty beginnings.
It’s a bright October day beyond the studio windows, but this voluminous black jumpsuit by A.W.A.K.E. Mode (layered over a Boujo Hake top) and the black polyboards on set absorb the light. The pearls on Chun Jin’s chest gleam.
Hair stylist Yoshitaka Miyazaki built Chun Jin’s hair into an upsweeping protuberance as if she – in her Chanel racedriver jumpsuit, Levi’s hoodies and shoes by Manolo Blahnik – has blown in from the Formula 1 track.
Winter cruise collections are back, just as cruises themselves have returned to vogue having suffered a reputational dip for becoming floating Covid-19 incubators. TANK’s fashion director and shoot stylist Caroline Issa layered three white cotton tops by Boujo Hake above trousers and pale gold jewellery by Dior: using the most essential items to create drama.
This Chanel top’s straps, patterned with raceflag checks, frame Chun’s necklace by Brogan Smith. As a memento of elsewhere attached to the most on-the-nose symbol of home, the keyring remains one of travel’s brashest and best souvenirs.
Chun’s clothes are all by Dior, paired with shoes by Manolo Blahnik. Bullfighting, motor racing and mountaineering are – according to Ernest Hemingway – the only sports; “all else is merely games”. Dior’s creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri’s show took place in Seville. Spanish tradition through the eyes of an Italian at a French house: this is how fashion also travels.
Outdoor pursuits also require sleekness and simplicity, as in these leggings by Moncler and backpack by Montblanc – though a fuzzy Moncler jacket will keep you warm on the mountainside.
This Valentino look is a twist on a tuxedo – the shirt is cut like a bib, tiny above the long black skirt. The tuxedo is arguably the closest formal menswear gets to fussiness; this look is a little more severe. Three simple elements adjusted with guile by styling assistant Jacquin Cunningham create a sense of reserved poise.
Dean and Dan Caten of Dsquared2 sprinkle crystals onto the humble apron to make it altogether less a symbol of functionality. Here it transforms a Boujo Hake tank top and Dsquared2 jeans.
Fashion represents, in Roland Barthes’ words, “a refusal to inherit”. The triangular panel between Chun’s legs flutters like a loincloth. Spikes, studs and chevrons are jumbled together but softened by tulle: King Arthur queues for Berghain, all in Gucci.
Chun peeps out from under her Akoni sunglasses in eyeliner applied by make-up artist Jinny Kim. The camera flash stops working momentarily and photography assistant Francesco Zinno joins TANK’s creative director and shoot photographer Sohrab at the viewfinder. Sohrab presses the button and the room is strobed with white light, but Chun’s eyes are safely shaded.
Chun’s skirt, blazer, underwear and white loafers are all by Miu Miu. The transparent skirt is a way of shading downwards, like smudging charcoal with a thumb. Every outfit is like a shadow, the body’s weird twin.
The bodysuit – this one with Parisienne ruffles by Saint Laurent – used to be worn mainly by dancers to allow for optimum movement and to showcase muscle. Chun brings an athleticism to the shoot that energises the room. Clothes without a body in them are, after all, just fabric and seams.
Chun angles herself to look almost 2D, emphasising the asymmetry of this cotton ArdAzAei draped top above sporty leggings, shorts and shoes by Moncler. Touchdown – or primed to hurl a discus?
She looks up into the floodlight, her chin following the upturned toe of her trainer. Whether you’re on the field, racetrack or runway, the only way is forward.