Saskia de Brauw | Mario Testino | Vogue UK November 2011 | 'The Illusionist'

Mario Testino turns his lens on Saskia de Brauw, producing a sleek, dramatic, retro-feminine tribute to evening elegance styled by Lucinda Chambers as ‘The Illusionist’ for British Vogue’s November 2011 issue.

These subtle ‘tie effects’ make me smile. One of my last window collaborations at Victoria’s Secret were Valentine’s Day windows set around my fashion theme ‘Belle de Jour’. Because even then I was deeply conscious of the psychological nuances to women of visual messages, it was my recommendation that the mannequins’ wrist be wrapped with ribbons cascading to the floor as they are in ‘The Illusionist’.

You would have thought I wanted the models stripped naked in the windows. My beautiful ties came unravelled, because nice, 21st century American girls don’t dabble with submission — except that they do. Saskia de Brauw’s beautiful aloofness in these Mario Testino images underscores the complexity of female sensuality, and not only the model as pawn to both the photographer and culture, a secondary message perhaps.

Given how many top women in fashion rave about Mario Testino’s insights into what it is to be female int he world, I believe that ties reference the acceptable boundaries of female sensuality in an ambivalent culture. See Mario Testino | The Superman Photographer Who Loves Women.

The more aristocratic the culture, the greater the ambivalence and also the deviance — until monotheism arrives in poor countries, that is. Then a huge wave of guilt settles over the land and women’s lives, no matter which class a woman belongs to.

At the high end of women’s lives,  the trend I call Fashion Monasticism — a woman defined by stilettos instead of sex and sensuality — dominates. This is another key message of ‘The Illusionist’, speaking of ties that bind.  Anne

via Fashn-Scrn