Tanya Ruban in 'Spice' by Dominica Jarczynska for Vogue Portugal April 2022 AOC Fashion

Model Tanya Ruban is styled by Ovidiu Buta in ‘Spice’, luxury earth colors from Alvaro Calafat, Atu Body Couture, Balenciaga, Doina Levintza, Genny, Like Boys, Louis Vuitton, Marni, Sportmax and more. Photographer Dominica Jarczynska [IG] captures the fashion story for Vogue Portugal April 2022.

This story is a shift from other recent editorials by Jarczynska who shared her thought on IG on creating the fashion story:

“We are all travellers. We are somewhere not without reason. Whole universe is a big clock and we are clogs. There is no mistake and no coincidence. Some of us feel like we are trapped in a hidden castle without any opportunity to change something. But do you want to be a prisoner of your life?”

On a personal level, AOC is fascinated by the imagery coming out of Vogue Portugal and Vogue Greece and other fashion magazines in the region. One of the marvelous aspects of fashion photography not discussed often are the triggers that images create in the mind of the viewer.

Images That Probe the Human Unconscious

They are different for me than for you. Then again, my own commentary resonates deeply with certain photographers.

For example, I discussed this ‘messaging’ around women’s history in antiquity with photographer Rocio Ramos after AOC shared Rocio Ramos Seizes the Power of Cardinals for Marie Claire Mexico and LA in October 2021. Her team was beyond pleased with my own understanding of the fashion story.

There is an intellectual group of image-makers out there ‘feeling’ and ‘probing’ the story of women’s history. Rafael Pavarotti is certainly in this group, along with stylist Ib Kamara. Their tendency is to channel the African continent or the fusion of Brazilian culture, resulting from the intersection of Catholic imperialism with both indigenous Brazilian culture and the slave trade.

Their vision adds an important viewpoint to collective women’s history generally and also the origins of women, men and all variations on gender in humanity’s origins in Africa.

I believe that if Vogue Scandinavia and more northern magazines weighed in historically, we would see more commonality and universality among women historical power and periods of equality — regardless of skin color — than is currently part of the visual narrative.