REINTERPRETING AN ICON

The more I see of the modelling world, the more I fall in love with the hauntingly beautiful Anouck Lepère. Every show season new crops of fresh young faces are propelled in the limelight, experiencing their Warholian 15 minutes of fame on the runway, but only a handful will ever become known. Anouck on the other hand never slipped into obscurity and remained a constant presence in the fickle world of high fashion drama. My theory is that her mesmerizingly refined and classic looks have proved to be permanently cool. She embodies a genre of old-school beauty and romanticism, often at odds with the rapidly evolving modelling industry, while still defining a certain individuality and distinctiveness. She’s exactly my kind of girl. A quiet authority with a wisdom and cleverness lurking below the effortlessly beautiful surface. She is the very embodiment of awkward grace and refinement, her pale skin and intense eyes contrasting with her expressive dark Frida Kahlo eyebrows. I never managed to find out much about the story behind the simply yet highly effective Jock Sturges images of Anouck for Paradis but here they are, inarguably important and viable artistically. Unclothed and unashamed, Anouck is almost luminescent in this more radical reading of the fashion model. The pictures edge provocatively on the borders of eroticism but stand out for being refreshingly simple and romantic. The human form is clearly being explored and with her neoclassical features, Anouck is the ideal complement to the photographer’s visual work. An unforgettable and versatile girl.

All pictures: Paradis Magazine via The Fashion Spot