Similar to Fashion's Great Designers, there are also Fashion's Great Photographers. Steven Meisel is among them. In the past three decades, Meisel's work, both black-and-white and vibrantly colored, has been described as groundbreaking, illustrious, exuberant, and pioneering, all accurate depictions for a man who seems to lick his finger and capture the subtle changes in the zeitgeist: '90s grunge, the supermodel era, the bored housewife, nips and tucks, the terror of aging—all on Meisel's shot list as long as it remains relevant to cultural discourse.
You'll recognize many of these pictures, a selection of which has been chosen by Meisel himself to be shown in Role Play, a retrospective traveling exhibition on view at New York's Phillips Auction Gallery. Meisel, now 61, remains a frequent contributor to Vanity Fair, W Magazine, Vogue, and of special note: Vogue Italia, for whom he has photographed every single cover for the past 25 years. One in particular is seeing a recent resurgence (first image in the slideshow above), a beach scene featuring model Kirsten Owen, shot for the magazine's July 1997 issue at Nassau Beach, Long Island.
"Steven did this story for Italian Vogue inspired by figurative artist Alex Katz, who was known for creating his paintings from photographs," Steven's longtime agent, Jimmy Moffat, recently told Dazed. "So Steven decided to do the opposite, and, choosing a particular Katz painting as a starting point, he positioned his models in exactly the same poses as the characters in the painting, but putting them in different contexts and backgrounds to creating an unsettling effect."
It comes full circle. The beachside editorial, entitled "An Interpretation," was plucked from the archives and used in the revival Spring/Summer 2015 campaign of Fashion's Great Heritage Brand, Loewe, helmed by white-hot British designer Jonathan Anderson. Here, the 1997 opener with Loewe's new Amazona 75. Here, a young Maggie Rizer with Loewe's new Flamenco Knot Bag. If the tie between American-born Meisel and Vogue Italia to Loewe and Anderson seemed strung together at first, it should now fall into place.
For Anderson, the Spanish brand—with its sand hues, linens, and languid elegance—is the epitome of luxury by way of Ibiza; the "heritage" bit speaks to a lensman whose career began before many of us were born. Fashion's family of six degrees is getting cozier, there's plenty of stories to tell, and we're all better for it.
Role Play, proudly supported by Loewe, is on view through March 3. Above, click the slideshow for our favorite images currently on view; below, watch a behind-the-scenes video of the exhibition creation, shot exclusively for Opening Ceremony.