To celebrate the 10th edition of Harper’s Bazaar’s UK’s November women in the artworld issue, artist Es Devlin and actor Cate Blanchett came together in creative unity. The result of their unique collaboration is a phantasmagoric fashion story ‘Flights of Fancy: Cate Blanchett Celebrates Our Natural World’.

Es Devlin at Tate Modern October 2022

In October Cartier commissioned ‘Come Home Again’, for the Tate Modern. The “choral sculpture” consisted of hundreds of creatures, each hand-drawn by Devlin. “I was working with the London Wildlife Trust and identified 243 species, which are most at-risk in London,” she explained. “And I decided I would try and draw all 243 of them, which sometimes came to 18 hours of drawing a day.” This painstaking process has culminated into a beautiful supersize structure fashioned in the shape of St Paul’s Cathedral. In the month of September at sunset each night, three choirs performed evensong within the artwork, inviting us to stop and pay attention to the nature – what Devlin calls the “non-human Londoners” – around us.

Es Devlin had listened to Blanchett’s ‘Climate of Change’ podcast with Danny Kennedy, giving the collaborators very fertile ground for the natural-world inspired artistry and inspiration for the photography set.

Some images were a backdrop, some were projected onto the star, some were fashioned round a shape of a giant hand, which symbolised both human agency and the idea of the self extending beyond the skin, and “having a connection with the network of the biosphere”.

Enter photographer Kristian Schuller [IG] and stylist Miranda Almond to join the fashion magic-making.

“It’s almost as though I’m being drawn on,” she [Blanchett] said to Devlin. “I become that textured landscaping, after all… it’s interesting that often the female of the species blends into the background.”

How refreshing this fashion story and its background are compared to the typical fashion shoot/personal interview about the same movie being featured in 10 other magazines. I agree that the clothes becomes less important, but it is a lovely break from the usual.