Denmark's Cover is not a publication whose releases I usually look out for. I think this magazine fails at cultivating a solid connection to Danish fashion scene and the talents it most likely holds in, and hiring home raised insiders is the most crucial standard I expect a local publication to live up to (don't get me wrong, I'm not claiming that foreigners should continuously get written off the editorship of the magazine - let alone that the era of globalisation must make this increasingly tough a project to take on... but still). However, a most pleasant surprise turned the corner as their January 2011 issue hit the newsstands : Snejana on and inside the magazine, wearing denim from head to toe (or almost.)
The impetus behind the editorial may not consist in challenging the fashion codes related to wearing jeans, but there's something about this that is so akin to Daria Werbowy's printwork circa 2003-2005 that I cannot help being partial to it. Nostalgia takes up an important place in my relation to fashion and I will be more prone to soak up a recent editorial if it brings to mind an older one that had a hand in reinforcing my love for the fashion industry. As for the instant association I drew up between Daria's early body of work and these images, it must have to do with the strong sense of rawness pouring off them, the proeminence of casual pieces throughout the set and the subtle range of expressions - no wonder I'm drawn to this spread so much all in all, not to mention it features Ukrainian model Snejana Onopka, who is high up in my book.
If they're going to stick around, mere models can't allow themselves to miss out on opportunities to pop up in magazines, as opposed to Snejana, whose scarce appearances only add to her mystery, and who has this brooding daintiness to her that holds her up a notch higher than the sea of tall faceless creatures that will get whisked away sooner or later.
The downside to being a model whose work extends beyond the pages of low-key publications is that you consequently earn a certain reputation and ineluctably run the risk of getting entrenched within the stereotypes people attach to you. Snejana is no stranger to getting labelled as someone she might or might not be, and sadly, her supposed persona seems to overshadow the role she's playing here, at least from the opinions I've read. To be honest, I wish her going tough wouldn't equate to her letting her inner bitchiness shine through - in people's minds, that is. I wish they would see a model getting into the character she was prescribed to get into. I wish they would stop letting what Snejana is rumored to be tarnish/magnify the image they hold of her, and I wish they would concentrate on her capability of channelling emotions into print instead.
That's why, to a certain extent, I wish models wouldn't emerge as public personalities as they've been doing for a while, so we could all objectively dwell on their actual work rather than what they may be like outside the modelling sphere - although this non-distinction between work and privacy also applies to commoners, and I find myself a little startled at how these two often get intertwined together into a single entity. Who you are privately shouldn't overstep your job, while your job shouldn't come to define who you are. At any rates, this makes me wonder if that increasing enthusiasm towards models and the personalities behind is due to fashion and the part they play in it rendered more accessible and thus more recognized thanks to the Internet, or if models are shaping up to be tomorrow's mainstream entertainment...?
source : scanned by iluvjeisa @ tFS
0 comments:
Post a Comment