Lobster Loving

Not just anyone can get away with wearing a large lobster on their head and still look chic, but a fresh-faced Kyle MacLachlan remains a picture of composed elegance in Steven Meisel’s witty 1992 campaign for Barneys New York, standing arm in arm with stellar supermodel Linda Evangelista (who, in turn, dons an interesting feather-cum-leopard-print hat). 

This week’s winning Loves post is chosen by Another Man fashion editor, Ellie Grace Cumming, who knows a thing or two about what makes an iconic fashion campaign (see her interview with AnOther below). 

Under the tongue-in-cheek headline, “Thought should be lofty, thought should be deep,” it’s impossible not to raise a giggle at MacLachlan's straight-faced expression, while Evangelista, Meisel’s longtime muse, is ever the pro.

As unlikely as it seems, lobsters in fashion are actually 'a thing'. Take Horst, for example, who defined fashion photography as a medium over his 60-year career. His 1939 photo of the costumes in Salvador Dali's Dream of Venus pavilion in the New York World Fair elevated the humble lobster to icon status. In Dali’s costumes, models happily clad themselves in shellfish and crustaceans, almost taking on a lobster quality themselves. Dali’s contribution to the World Fair was controversial at the time, clearly flaunting the streamlined futurist aesthetic of the age for his playful surrealist vision.

Just to prove that not everyone can make a lobster look good, think back to Woody Allen’s lobster moment in Annie Hall. His struggle to cook a live lobster in that painfully hilariously ordeal, is archetypal Woody Allen, all bumbling awkwardness, but still not distracted enough to drop the one-liners.

Here we speak to Cumming, our AnOther Lover of the week, who urges us to dine at 'disco lobster' and reveals her favourite fashion campaigns ever.

Why did you love this photo of Linda and Kyle?
The 90s-era Barneys ads were just so great! I was reminded of this one when reading about Kyle in reference to the new David Lynch ‘Twin Peaks’.

If the photo was yours, what would you do with it?
I would have it blown up into a poster and then frame it on the wall.

What is your favourite Steven Meisel photo?
It seems impossible to pick just one, as he's the most iconic image maker of our time! But, I find his body of work for Italian Vogue especially captivating.

What’s your favourite fashion campaign ever?
I love Juergen Teller for Marc Jacobs, especially Helena Bonham Carter, also Corinne Day and Rosemary Fergason for Miu Miu.

Best way to eat a lobster?
At 'disco lobster’ actually called Randall & Aubin in Soho, London.

What was the last thing you bought?
Safety pin earrings from Eyland Jewellery.

What are you looking forward to about the tail end of summer?
A holiday to Lopud island and Plitvice National Park in Croatia next week.