For AnOther Magazine Autumn/Winter 2020, photographer Craig McDean and stylist and AnOther Magazine fashion director Katie Shillingford collaborated on a shoot celebrating emerging designers, starring the sublime South Sudanese-Australian model Adut Akech.
Titled The Wand of Youth, the shoot is accompanied by a film, premiered here, which brings the work of these brilliant designers to life – from Stephanie Uhart’s knitted feather yarn dress to Tolu Coker’s appliquéd upcycled-leather jacket, featuring her late father Kayode Coker, who was involved in fighting for equitable justice for marginalised communities, and Angela Davis – a garment which appears on a cover of the magazine.
“I knew people would question and ask about the prints and the people in them as they are really dominant and stand out,” said Coker of her approach to fashion. “I use clothing to spark important conversations. This is at the forefront of my mind every time I design or create.”
“This look is called ‘Obsessive Comfort’ and it aims to emulate the feeling of seeking comfort and hiding within yourself,” said Uhart, meanwhile, of her purple-coloured creation. “The soft and fluffy texture seemed like an ideal way to evoke that emotion. It’s deeply personal because every look in the collection represents an emotional stage that I went through while making the collection in lockdown.”
Watch the film below and see the full story here.
Film: SPOON, Craig McDean & Masha Vasyukova. Hair: Eugene Souleiman at Streeters using Wella Professionals. Make-up: Peter Philips for Dior Beauty. Model: Adut Akech at Elite Models. Casting: Noah Shelley at Streeters. Manicure: Hanaé Goumri at The Wall Group. Digital tech: Nico Fallet. Photographic assistants: Nathan Jenkins, Dani Bastidas and Paul Jedwab. Styling assistants: Molly Shillingford, Rebecca Perlmutar and Christelle Owona Nisin. Hair assistant: Claire Moore. Make-up assistant: JinDian Yang. Production: North6. Post-production: Gloss Studio. Music: Toby Anderson XY mari. Special thanks: Nico Fallet.
Clothes in order of appearance by: Stephanie Uhart, Bradley Sharpe, Jo Miller, Sinead O’Dwyer, Karolina Widecka, Jordan Dalah, Ellen Hodakova Larsson, Tolu Coker, Sarah McCormack, Jie Wu, Pierre Louis-Auvray, Anna Isoniemi and Nico Verhaegen.
A version of this story appears in the Autumn/Winter 2020 issue of AnOther Magazine, which is now on sale internationally.
