Sunday, February 7, 2010

Body Conscience

Daria makes an appearance in the third issue of LOVE magazine in an editorial shot by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott.

Fashion Icons: Body ConscienceLOVE Magazine Issue Three
Daria Werbowy by Mert and Marcus




Do you like your body? No.
Do you love it? Yes! It's a love/hate thing.
Your body is a ... ? Tool. A 12-piece Black & Decker set.
Would you change it? Ask me when I'm 50.
How do you feel about being naked in LOVE? One should always be naked when in love!

Its taken me a while to form an opinion on these images but after much time, sorry for the delayed posting everyone!, I have come to the conclusion that these images are truly gorgeous. There is no doubt in my mind that Daria has the strongest editorial of all in this issue (click here for the others).

I have to say, I am certainly surprised that Daria went along with this editorial. I never would have pictured her as the model willing to do a complete nude but after last years In Love editorial I guess anything is possible. I am also surprised that photographers Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott managed to produce such a spectacular editorial as this. I can't help noting the difference between this editorial and their most recent works with Daria (Point Break and The Deep End) the former being so robotic and devoid of any real tension or expression. But these images are so great in expressing a connection established between subject and photographer, model and lens. The photos are stripped of any embellishments or distractions and an intimate relationship is forged.

Yes, there is a Helmut Newton reference but I don't think that is suffice to describe these images  - Mert and Marcus prove that they can truly hold their own. Particularily in the second last shot, which happens to be my favourite of the editorial. It is so abstract and rarely the type of image we see in fashion magazines these days. It is provocative but only in the fact that it is so unexpected - not because of the nudity, which by now is fair game in fashion and such a natural aspect of life. Tom Ford said it best - "With a more natural relationship to nudity, we might also be freed up to find each other a lot more fascinating. There's an equality to being naked; the fewer clothes and accessories a person wears the less you judge them, and the more you notice their truest traits, like their eyes or their charisma, their great hands or their one-of-a-kind hair or, most importantly, their personality and character." It is so true, that this editorial really focuses the viewer on the person rather than the clothing, the setting, the accessories. Its why I am so shocked that a large publication fashion magazine would have the guts to print this! I'm in awe at the level of modeling that Daria projects through this. She truly proves herself capable of anything ... this was a surprise from a publication like LOVE, a surprise from Mert and Marcus but I think that beautiful images such as these have come to be expected of Daria. I can't wait to see if anything tops this in 2010!

It's hard to put in words but the images speak for themselves ... I'd love to hear your opinions though!

image credits: scanned by fearless123 at theFashionSpot.com

7 comments:

  1. I've been waiting for your post, Tinsley. Patiently of course :)

    @ http://jezebel.com/5462544/naked-supermodels-are-the-future-of-the-magazineeconomy

    They have a more cynical view of this whole 'nude as art' thing. If it's true that the cover models measurements only differ between one another of a few inches then this is really not about body diversity. If Love magazine truly believe they are celebrating 'diverse' women-who just happen to be amazonian models then it has a warped view of womens bodies. I don't dispute for a second these are fine women. Daria's ed in particular is stunning-her poses are strong but I question what the extreme nudity is actually for. I'd have respected Love Magazine more if they had said that they wanted the most banging bodies on their covers because they want their magazine to sell rather than the tried and tested spiel of the ed being a 'celebratory' look at a 'diverse' selection of the most 'beautiful' models bodies.

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  2. i get addyads' point. it doesn't seem to me that the love project is so honest.
    also, i agree with you, tinsley, about the fact that daria's pics really outstand the other models' parts, that look more mediocre.

    it's a bit like in the pirelli cal. there there was a sort of daria's sub-cal. here there is a daria's section, that is very emotional and leaves us speechless. unlike the other models' pics, that are more predictable and more trivial, more m&m average.

    daria is not only a gorgeous woman, but an exceptional model, and this is a further confirmation.

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  3. Two or three inches huh? That kind of defeats the whole purpose of being diverse. I think LOVE really dug themselves a hole with this whole diversity thing. I agree, I would have appreciated the effort more if they said "these are the models with the best bodies and they're posing naked". Not diversifying beauty.

    For some reason when I look at these pictures I don't even recall the rest of the editorial. I think these shots by themselves would be suffice. It seems that all it takes to be Kate Moss is a cigarette and the other models don't really do much to make an impression .... (Lara's though I do like).

    I wonder now, since Daria has been doing more nudity as of late, and considering how much she works with I&V, if she will appear in the Purple Naked section of Purple ... I wonder how much that would differ from Mert & Marcus' photos. If it ever happens!

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  4. i think they took themselves too serious with the whole 'diversity' thing. it comes across as self-congratulatory and ruins the pureness of the editorial. as for Daria's ed itself, it's so personal and almost intrusive to see her like this.

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  5. that may be the reason why she outstands the other models so much in this case. to me it looks like she is the only to do an emotional nudity, something deeper and more personal thing than the others, who are just like they are doing a routine editorial. same for the photographers.
    seeing the shootings done for puprle by i&v i definitely hope she doesn't do it either, cos they look weak to me.

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  6. That's what I find so alluring about Daria's editorial, that it is so in fact "intrusive". I wouldn't use that word though. Personal yes, and unreserved.

    Purple used to be a much better publication and their nudes with I&V used to be much much more impressive if you don't count the last few (Dree and Freja ...). They are more simple and less stylized than Mert and Marcus' works but I think they are interesting in their own right. Right now it seems that its just the wrong models being chosen for them.

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  7. Did anyone notice that wonderful Burberry black trench Daria is wearing in her ed? :) :) Yeah, me neither until just now.

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