Every edition of Another Man is created with an overarching theme, and this season the erotic, the sumptuous, the mysterious and the decadent all came together to fully emulate both the spirit of After Dark, and the undercurrent of glamour and
“For the A/W11 issue of Another Man, we wanted to put our modern gentleman into a nighttime world. A world where he could be free from the restraints and morals of the day and express his secret desires. We were inspired by the old entertainment magazine After Dark – this become our title for the issue, and its vision of glamour and nightlife our focus. There is definitely a more sexual charge coursing through this issue: from the fetishistic images of Robert Mapplethorpe and Count Zichy to femme fatales like Chloë Sevigny in her opulent centrefold and the siren-like women in the David Lynch feature. There is an air of danger and excitement as well: leather and erotica come together in the Gentleman's Digest piece Objects of Desire; debauchery runs wild in our peek at Rick Owens' Paris nightclub Spotlight; and deadly icons like Helmut Berger and Alain Delon come alive in Tim Blanks's essay. Our cover star Michael Pitt embodies all the After Dark qualities we are fascinated by: he is mysterious, adventurous and always elegant – it's a devastating combination.” Ben Cobb, editor of Another Man, on the latest issue.
Every edition of Another Man is created with an overarching theme, and this season the erotic, the sumptuous, the mysterious and the decadent all came together to fully emulate both the spirit of After Dark, and the undercurrent of glamour and eroticism that was shot through the A/W11 Menswear collections. Here, Senior Fashion Editors Bryan McMahon and Sofia de Romarte selected their favourite images from the shoots, and AnOther discussed inspirations and their realisation with stylist Alister Mackie, a key protagonist in sculpting the overall aesthetic of the issue.
For the sumptuous centerfold, inspired by 1920s erotic postcards and 1970s erotic films, Mackie turned actress Chloë Sevigny into a raven-haired screen siren, draped in fur, crowned with a diadem. A world away from the sunshine filled Lyndsay Wixon story from Another Man 12, Sevigny instead exudes a quiet mystique, sensual and self-possessed amid a backdrop of tapestry and velvet. Contrarily, in a shoot with Hedi Slimane, Mackie exchanged women for men, velvet for tweed, tiaras for specially commissioned masks fashioned from leather, chains and twine. For Mackie, the starting point for the story was a tweed Lanvin suit. "In the combination of a humble, homespun fabric in a superlatively glamorous cut, so reminiscent of Bowie, we found a tangible representation of the story’s essential themes of glamour, fetishistic savagery and nature itself."
Moving away from overall themes, Mackie’s final story, Any Day Now, is a narrative touched by a veritable maelstrom of different inspirations. Working with photographer Alasdair McLellan, American yearbook photos, actor Helmut Berger and 70s footballers all came together in a character Mackie described as "a glam rock fan growing up in the provinces’, who moves from wool polonecks and a mullet to reclining, legs akimbo, in one of Gary Glitter’s original stage costumes. Lurex, fur, sequins, leather underwear, military caps, an iridescent homage to Pierre and Giles...all rub shoulders in this glittering visual feast, and rightly so. As Mackie says, ‘there was a sense of fun inherent in the original After Dark - expressing that enjoyment was the entire point of this story."
Another Man, Issue 13 is out now.
Text by Tish Wrigley
