Putting the fun in feminism

It was a dream come true, working with the legendary photographer Ellen von
Unwerth. I had admired her work for years, her iconic images of women like Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez, and Madonna in magazines like Vogue and Vanity Fair, her unforget-table campaigns for Guess and Chanel, but I had also felt a very strong kinship with her: here was another woman who celebrated women’s bodies without ever objectifying them. A woman who had been pioneering feminine feminism, just like me.

Before picking up a camera to become one of the world’s most celebrated fashion photographers, Ellen von Unwerth was a model herself. “I was never
allowed to move, so when I started taking pictures, I told my models to move, to have fun! Women are so beautiful when they feel free!”, she told me during the shoot for my Julia Child collection in Los Angeles. And indeed, watching our models Destene K. and Mosh blossom under Ellen’s eye on the set -with Destene at one point putting a pie on Mosh’ beautiful behind with Ellen snapping away, hollering ‘yes, yes!’- I could see that the fun and confidence she generates in women is the secret of her success.

“I don’t want to objectify women, I want to see every side of them.”
Ellen von Unwerth

When I asked Ellen, who launched the careers of many top models like Claudia Schiffer (“I found her by accident!”) and Eva Herzigova (“She is oozing with vitality!”) if she considered herself a feminist, she reacted almost surprised: “But of course! I am a woman!” When Ellen recently had a big retrospective exhibition, covering 30 years of her career, she named it ‘Ladyland’. Why? Because the German photographer has always maintained that the past, present and future is decidedly female. And although all her work is sensual, provocative and downright sexy, it is not her objective to only cast women in a typical ‘sexy light’. “I don’t want to objectify women, I want to see every side of them. There are so many sides to women!”

Meanwhile, on our set in LA, pure magic was happening. Mosh, who also happens to be a burlesque super star, was looking drop dead gorgeous in a bra and corset – with garters! – from my frivolous, pink-and-black ‘Meringue’ collection. All of a sudden, she grabbed a can of whipped cream and brought it to her mouth. With a beaming smile, Ellen started taking pictures. A gesture that in different circumstances, with a different (male) photographer, could have seemed semi-pornographic, became a joyful expression of Mosh’ sensuality: she was not trying to seduce us with that whipped cream, she was having a blast, and she was happy to have us watch. Ellen turned to me and winked: “I just love to play!”.