PAS DE DEUX: Linda Evangelista X Steven Meisel
Photo of Linda Evangelista with Steven Meisel: Courtesy of Phaidon, by Steven Meisel
Collaboration is a topic that really gets us going. We lean into where and how collaboration reveals itself as the essence of the genius it ignites. The best collaboration is always greater than the sum of the parts and, more importantly, opens a new kind of dialogue, a vision, and a road of endless possibilities.
In the fashion world, few collaborations have created more beauty and magic than that shared between photographer Steven Meisel and supermodel Linda Evangelista. A relationship that began in the pages of American Vogue in 1987 and has lasted over 35 years and is now celebrated in a monumental (big, thick, glorious!) book published by Phaidon this month.
“This book is a celebration of our friendship, and an expression of our gratitude for the lives and careers we’ve been given,”
say Meisel & Evangelista on the first page.
Then, the book unfolds with dozens and dozens of covers, campaigns, and fashion portfolios in a blend of beauty, talent, artistry, and creativity.
Reflecting on her own process, Linda here shares that she is game for anything in a set, as long as she doesn’t need to talk. She likes to escape in front of the camera, to be given a character that she can play. And good lord, can she play! There she is, kissing a chimpanzee in an ad for Barneys New York in 1991, or receiving a punch in the face for Vogue Paris in 1989, or posing as the most glamorous plastic surgery patient in the cover of Vogue Italia in 2005. Her ability to embody so many women - almost ANY woman - is astonishing. Just give her the right clothes, hair and make-up, and she can become a tomboy or a siren, a peasant, a virgin, a 50’s wife, a 60’s mod girl or an 80’s nouveau riche. In a moment she is a mirror image of Sophia Loren, all drama and smoke. The next she is Katherine Hepburn, powerful and androgynous.
Linda Evangelista Photographed by Steven Meisel
Photo: Courtesy of Phaidon
Photos Courtesy of Phaidon: Linda Evangelista by Steven Meisel
Through Meisel’s lens, Linda is right and center in front of the camera, but completely disappears into her role. Creating the illusion of Linda Evangelista in the peak of career really took a village. The book’s “acknowledgments” list almost 80 people, editors, stylists, make-up artists, hairdressers, art directors, but none of them had more influence in the model’s spectacular path to stardom than Meisel. His images - a mix of romance, glamour and nostalgia with sleek technical resources and a deep knowledge of fashion and style - were the perfect vehicle for Linda.
Linda wanted to be a model since she was a child growing up in Canada, and this photographer allowed her to play every role that little girl ever dreamed of.
In his introduction, writer Williams Norwich explains that for many, “the glamour, the beauty, and the wit and fantasy of a Linda and Steven story is transporting and curative; a positive prescription to make life a little bit - or sometimes even a lot - better, and beautiful.”
The photographs speak for themselves – born of this magical creative collab.
Photos: Courtesy of Phaidon, by Steven Meisel