MODOLLS
Objectification, infantilisation
& unnatural digitised beauty.
TRUE STORIES* from fashion castings
MUSEUM DOLL NO.1
Doll no.1 grew up on a council estate in South London and used to be a club kid. She was almost a super but it sort of didn’t happen. At 27, close to retiring, thinks she may move to Ibiza with her much younger Italian DJ boyfriend (when he comes out of rehab). Hangs in a hairdresser/stylist/model mega-pack and has not lived in one place for longer than 2 months in last 12 years, so very nervous of how it might be to live more like a normal person….
MUSEUM DOLL NO.3
Museum Doll no.3 is doing a masters degree in French & Russian literature. We cast her for her over-size head, melancholy pout & the far away look in her eyes.
MUSEUM DOLL NO.8
Russian and one of 12 exactly identical fair haired, high cheek boned, full lipped, white Russian dolls, I mean models, that we cast for the show. Impeccably silent movie and expressionless except when talking with other Russians in Russian about their exhaustion and what shows they'd got. My Mother thought they were all one person, changing quickly behind the scenes.
MUSEUM DOLL NO.2
With Doll No. 2 shoot was a little tricky because the head holes of garments were bigger than her body, and kept slipping off. But looked great in photo! Eerily lovely & needing just the littlest tweak in post. Later though we had to send her home from a show because she wasn’t responding to her own name and none of us were sure where she was at.
MUSEUM DOLL
NO. 6
Nordic, or maybe Finnish? Uses only first name for bookings, which we couldn’t pronounce properly. She didn’t speak on the shoot, just held neutral power poses and spent most of the time on the phone to her agency. Was Eurostarring to Paris that evening for a big German catalogue shoot and air kissed everyone on the team before she left but made no eye contact. Paid quite a lot for her which included only minimal residuals hence smaller image here, reproduced with kind permission etc.
MUSEUM DOLL NO.4
Doll no. 4 is from Sweden and is the daughter of a very famous anthropologist who married a wild child/model/turned actress/painter. She plays the violin and could not stand in the window for very long as her skin was burning.
MUSEUM DOLL NO.12
Totally worked the room with her immaculate everything. Extremely self contained, extremely professional. Sending money home each month. Brazilian boyfriend collected her from show on motorbike. Heard she recently gave birth to Paolo Jnr. Congratulations!
MUSEUM DOLL NO. 7
Gentle, accommodating, radiating an old fashioned kind of modesty. Was on special banana and milk, white food regime so refused all offered sustenance. When we tried to cast her again, agent said she had found it hard to maintain target body weight and had left modelling to go back to study in Poland.
A loss to the industry frankly.
MUSEUM DOLL NO.11
Looked super pale and ethereal but was actually committed surfer and was saving up to buy a farm and raise livestock with her boyfriend, a fellow Australian model. Quite steely despite looking like she reads a lot of Irish poetry and feels the cold acutely. In it for the short haul. Currently rotating Milan, Tokyo, New York.
MUSEUM DOLL NO.10
Just left school, very posh, from Surrey. Very body awkward except when we got her to jump up and down with her eyes closed to Bon Jovi, where she was able to lose herself in the moment and evoke some natural spontaneity. I thought she had real potential at the casting, but that it could go either way. Since spotted her in weekend supplement wearing 5 budget dresses for summer. Maybe back at college now?
MUSEUM DOLL NO.15
We cast her as we thought she looked very early era Margiela. Plain, Belgian, un-make-up-able. We had to foundation over her eyebrows to match the other girls. On the day it didn’t quite work out look-wise as no one else was quite so early era Margiela as her.
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