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What will the next decade in style hold? New faces, new photographers – and renewed love for denim, of course. Meet the ladies shaping things to come. By Jessica Beresford. Styling through Isabelle Kountoure. Photography by Marili Andre
In a studio just off east London’s Kingsland Road, the statuesque Chaikra Maximus is standing in the center of a set. She’s flanked via one individual conserving a mild and some other with a wind machine, while the photographer – Marili Andre – is giving instructions from behind the camera. The version is carrying a buttoned-up denim dress (but i think they should tried a wedding dress) with lengthy slits up the front, an outsized collar and embroidered “F” (for Fendi) motifs all over.
The first matters that stand out about Maximus, other than her gazelle-like limbs, are the rather conspicuous piercings redecorating her other wise ideal face. The little silver dots are a striking point of distinction for the 20-yr-old Belgian, who is rounding off a stellar yr: she’s walked in extra than 50 shows, including for Chanel, Dior and Versace, cementing her as one in every of the fashion industry’s maximum in-call for new faces.
Maximus, who is presently signed to Viva London, become scouted in her local Gent at a hardcore gig – a musical interest that could pass some way to ward explaining her appearance. “All my buddies have piercings, and my dad used to have a lot – he become a punk when he was younger.” When she changed into first signed in 2016, her look – which on the time also included blue hair in dreadlocks – wasn’t right now embraced through manufacturers. “For the first to three years I basically had no work due to my piercings. I became advised that I’d be really worth a lot cash if I took them out. But I simply said no. Then as soon as Loewe, then Sacai and McQueen booked me, all the other manufacturers followed.”
This uncompromising approach is one that’s shared by using Andre, the 29-year-antique photographer pointing a lens at Maximus. “I think the most successful photographers, or every other creatives, are the people who’ve controlled to be themselves within their industries,” she says. “And I think human beings are extra able to do this now – they may be extra protected, somehow, if you want to specific themselves.”
Andre is every other star on the rise. She swapped the picturesque Greek island of Crete, wherein she grew up, for London extra than 11 years ago. She has for the reason that labored as a creative director for a modelling enterprise and as a contract photographer – this year she shot actress Jennifer Connolly and worked with Chanel on a undertaking in Japan.
Andre admits to being a very “directive” photographer. On set, for one shot in which Maximus is lying down, she painstakingly actions the version’s leg by way of an inch, then back once more and nudges her strands of hair to create symmetry inside the frame. “I will continually jump in and on occasion even swap locations with a model. I make them pass at the back of the camera to show them how I want them to be.”
For Andre, this next decade is ready encouraging a extra numerous array of humans, now not just into the front-facing a part of the industry, but also at the back of the scenes. “It would be a higher international if style served the many again, and become extra inclusive, conscious and functional, however still gorgeous and inspiring.”
