best of the season
style by CAROLINE GAIMARI
creative direction by OLIVIER ZAHM
Will selfies replace the self-portrait? They aren’t simply the product of digital cameras and smartphones pointed at oneself. Selfies are visually charged messages about yourself that can be shared instantly on social media. This is quickly becoming the first degree of narcissism, broadcasting who you are, where you are, what you’re doing, and how “fabulous” or “interesting” or “sexy” you are.
For this story, composed entirely of selfies, we asked a variety of young women to wear our favorite looks from the Spring / Summer 2015 collections and immediately send the pictures they took of themselves to us. This may be the first fashion story in which the photographer and model are one and the same. Finally, the true amateur photographer breaks into the high-fashion picture.
It’s not that we love selfie images or consider them an interesting type of public representation. What we find new about selfies is that they can’t really be judged as “photography” — there’s no definitively good or bad one. They’re a type of image created for a computer-connected world. They’re also simply intimate moments in the life of these women, sharing their love of clothing. And each selfie moment isn’t interrupted or artificially interpreted by a professional photographer and beauty team. No fashion photographer can take or will ever take this kind of self-celebrating image.
In the beginning of the ’90s, Purple was an integral player in the snapshot revolution, which championed a new kind of fashion image. Now we’re ready for the smartphone to free us further, to generate new ideas in fashion photography — strange angles, different perspectives, accidentally bad quality, or even silly images — that don’t copy or reproduce the poses and attitudes so many fashion photographers constantly revisit. This is not the future of fashion photography, either. It’s more like food for thought and entertainment in real time.
Annabelle Dexter-Jones MIU MIU
Skye Parrott PACO RABANNE
Drake Burnette OLYMPIA LE-TAN
Drake Burnette OLYMPIA LE-TAN
Annabel Thompson LOUIS VUITTON
Stacey Mark MARC JACOBS
Stacey Mark MARC JACOBS
Lily Donaldson THOM BROWNE
Chiara Clemente Thompson and Alice Rose SIMONE ROCHA
Stella Maxwell PRADA
Asia Chow PRADA
Jeanette Hayes YOHJI YAMAMOTO
Aleksandra Woroniecka GUCCI
Lily Donaldson ALEXANDER WANG
Bianca O’brien SACAI
Lucy Newman GARETH PUGH
Heidi Bivens CHANEL
Heidi Bivens CHANEL
Christina Kruse LOUIS VUITTON
Kouka Webb GIVENCHY by RICCARDO TISCI
dorothea barth jörgensen
Audrey Marnay JUNYA WATANABE
Chiara Clemente Thompson and Alice Rose PROENZA SCHOULER
Camille Bidault-Waddington CHRISTOPHE LEMAIRE
Yasmine Eslami VIVIENNE WESTWOOD GOLD LABEL
Zoë Le Ber LANVIN
Léo Depp FENDI
Léo Depp FENDI
Annabelle Dexter-Jones VÉRONIQUE LEROY
India Salvor Menuez CHRISTOPHE LEMAIRE
India Salvor Menuez CHRISTOPHE LEMAIRE
Delphine Danhier CÉLINE
Delphine Danhier CÉLINE
Léo Depp JACQUEMUS
Jennifer Eymère EMPORIO ARMANI
jeanette hayes FENDI
Jeanette Hayes FENDI
Stella Maxwell PROENZA SCHOULER
Masha Orlov SAINT LAURENT by HEDI SLIMANE
Jade Berreau and secret snow DRIES VAN NOTEN
Jade Berreau and secret snow DRIES VAN NOTEN
[Table of contents]
Emporio Armani / Jacquemus collections Spring / Summer 2015
by Cécile Bortoletti
Hugo Boss Spring / Summer 2015 Collection at the Villa Savoye
photography by Olivier Zahm
Night Pictures
by Olivier Zahm and Stéphane Feugère with Noise Paintings, a portfolio by Kim Gordon
by Arnaud Viviant
by Emanuele Coccia
by Karley Sciortino
by Jeff Rian
by Angelo Flaccavento
by François Simon
by Glenn O’Brien
by Olivier Zahm and Alexis Dahan
by Olivier Zahm
by Olivier Zahm
by Sven Schumann
by Brianna Capozzi
by Anders Edström
by Camille Bidault-Waddington
by Bella Howard
by Robi Rodriguez
by Philippe Jarrigeon
by Richard Kern
by Benoit Peverelli
by Benoit Peverelli
by Andreas Larsson
by Gianni Oprandi
by Olivier Zahm
by Alexis Dahan
by Olivier Zahm
by Olivier Zahm and Gianni Oprandi