Cherokee Jack and Sam Mallos by Annemarieke van Drimmelen in WSJ Magazine Men SS-2022

Annemarieke van Drimmelen Captures Cherokee Jack and Sam Mallos in WSJ Magazine AOC Fashion

WSJ Magazine shares this spring 2022 men’s fashion story featuring models Cherokee Jack and Sam Mallos. Photographer Annemarieke van Drimmelen and stylist Giovanni Dario Laudicina traveled to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where they shot the fashion story at El Rancho de las Golondrinas, or “the Ranch of the Swallows.”

This historic ranch, now a living history museum, dates from the early 1700s and was an important ‘paraje’ or stopping place along the famous ‘El Camino Real’, the Royal Road from Mexico City to Santa Fe.

Van Drimmelen [IG] has close ties to New Mexico, since her father moved there nearly 12 years ago. “The light is absolutely phenomenal—the way it reflects on the earth. It brings this amazing warmth,” she says, noting that these qualities once drew artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe to the area.

Both models looks quite spectacular in the WSJ Magazine photo shoot. AOC’s complimentary link takes you to WSJ to review the product credits.

Cherokee Jack’s Heritage

Last year I had a totally visceral response to Cherokee Jack’s images by Richard Phibbs — his first ‘commercial’ shoot as an adult. He modeled as a child for years. Cherokee Jack by Richard Phibbs for Man of Metropolis | Minnesota History of Mankato Hangings AOC Fashion

The images caused me to reflect on our mutual Minnesota area upbringings, my writing a play about Minnesota statehood that was performed by my school, and the Mankato hangings — a devastating part of the heritage of my small Minnesota city that was unknown to me until then.

In trying to know more about the model, I learned a bit of agonizing Mankato, Minnesota history.

The Place of Women in Cherokee Society

The people of Cherokee Nation call themselves the Aniyunwiya, which means ‘Principal People’. The Cherokee society is historically matrilineal, meaning clanship is passed through the mother. Among the Cherokees, women were considered the head of household, with the home and children belonging to her should she separate from her husband. Women had an equal voice in the affairs of the tribe.

In writing about Bella Hadid’s references to the Egyptian goddess Sekhmet Tuesday evening, I referenced the demise of warrior goddesses, an end to female power and influence that was in its final phase in fifth century Greece. That statement is historically correct about Europe and the rise of Christianity.

But in the ‘undiscovered’ Americas, advanced indigenous cultures flourished and women held significant power in tribal affairs, generally enjoying far more power than the white Christian women who arrived in the Americas.

T Magazine's Fluffy, Furry Ancestral Creatures by Toby Coulson with Cherokee Jack and Briana Michelle

T Magazine's Fluffy, Furry Ancestral Creatures by Toby Coulson with Cherokee Jack and Briana Michelle AOC Fashion

Modern-day nomads are slowing down, honoring traditions and the roots of our culture. This T Magazine fall 2021 feature on ‘Winter’s Fluffiest and Furriest Outwear’ highlights not only whimsical textures in which we are one with furry creatures in an animistic, psychological relationship.

Presented by models like Briana Michelle and Cherokee Jack with close, ancestral ties to the land, we are all invited to pay our respects to cultures and a biosystem eons older than the prevailing patriarchal, white-man’s so-called Christian vision of dominance over the the earth and its peoples.

AOC isn’t suggesting that all references to indigenous cultures belong to ‘the good guys’.

Consider the Arizona man Jacob Chansley, known as the QAnon Shaman, who led an insurrection against the US Capitol on January 6. We must not be naive about men wearing big, furry hats with horns. They can kill you.

Cherokee Jack by Richard Phibbs for Man of Metropolis | Minnesota History of Mankato Hangings

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Cherokee Jack by Richard Phibbs for Man of Metropolis | Minnesota History of Mankato Hangings AOC Fashion

Ford model Cherokee Jack [IG] — home agency Ignite Models in Minneapolis —covers the current issue of Man of Metropolis magazine, edited by Seth Travis. John Moore styles Cherokee Jack in images by Richard Phibbs [IG].

Anne is totally derailed by these images. 110% derailed.

Anne of Carversville rarely gets behind new models, except for the refugee models out of Africa. We are their biggest champion in a collective sense.

Once AOC opens the Pandora’s box of featuring new models, it’s a potential onslaught of inquiries and unsolicited portfolio links. My daily reality will be double trouble — worse than requests for free-ride posts on AOC linking out to paying clients for the writer. We deny them all.

However, within the context of this moment — how my brain is operating on July 15, 2021 — it’s impossible for me not to comment on the visceral response I’m having to the ‘take my breath away images’ of Cherokee Jack by Richard Phibbs.

1. When high-integrity images are so beautiful that they move me to tears, I must respond to the gift.

2. When through its exquisite beauty, a fashion story quietly addresses the brutal facts of American history and the suffering meted out to native peoples in America, my words cannot possibly do that fashion story justice.

3. When images prompt me to apologize on behalf of OUR [Cherokee Jack’s and mine in 2021] country to his ancestors, the pictures have impact way beyond their initial exposure in a high-quality, men’s lifestyle magazine.

The editorial serves as a reminder of how a model and a stylist and a photographer can work together in perfect synchronicity — with an editor who shares the same vision. It also helps that the photographer has the technical and artistic vision of Richard Phibbs.

Peony Girl Told Me I Was Needlessly Harsh

My three-year-old alter ego Peony Girl gave me a lecture last night — suggesting that perhaps I was needlessly harsh regarding the new Gigi Hadid editorial in the August issue of Harper’s Bazaar. To be honest, my three-year-old self had me wavering in her argument, and I considered an apology.

No more. I am moving Gigi’s editorial next to this one, and rest my case. Once I saw Hadid’s video and the joy in her eyes, I felt the emptiness of the Harper’s fashion story. These images reaffirm my written response.

Gigi Hadid and Cherokee Jack both feel to me like people of awareness. There is nobility in Cherokee Jack’s images that Gigi doesn’t exude, but I know she understands and would appreciate my commentary.

Hadid processes images like these and feels them deeply, too. In her own words, she is less overtly emotional on issues of justice than her sister Bella. But it’s always been clear to me that Gigi Hadid feels deeply, even if she is more guarded than Bella [who has also learned to button up attitudes and emotions in the glare of a public life.]

None of this human capacity for ubuntu came through in Gigi’s images. Nor did the joy she expressed in the video. The final product was dour, dour, dour, as I wrote.