Frizona in Vogue Germany’s Love Edition

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“Confusingly affectionate togetherness of two musical women full of harmony and sentiment”.* This is how Vogue Germany’s editorial “Freja and Arizona” starts. I have not bought Vogue Germany for some years now, always preferred it’s Italian and French sisters, but this editorial – featuring one of my favourite models - Freja Beha Erichsen - and her friend Arizona Muse and shot by the one and only Karl Lagerfeld, I couldn’t resist.
Just to make sure – I’m not going to write about the whatsoever nature of Freja and Arizona’s friendship. That is their private issue and not what I find particularly interesting about the editorial. What really fascinates me is how the openly homosexual Freja and her friend, staged by Karl, are playing with peoples’ fantasies and prejudices. The fact that this editorial is placed in Vogue Germany’s “Love” edition only contributes to this perception.

In the black and white photos Freja and Arizona are situated around and playing music instruments in a very intimate atmosphere. One very dark photography even shows the vague scheme of Karl himself. I love the tenderness and calmness of the overall very dark editorial, the delicate aesthetics and totally “feel” the mood of those pictures.

 

Arizona Muse (yes, this apparently is her real name!) is relatively new in the top league of modelling. The twenty year old American and mother of a little boy hit the runways in fall 2010  and spring 2011 so successfully that was listed as  one of  the “top 10 newcomers” by style.it, “face to watch” by style.com and was called “model of the moment”.

Freja Beha has been around for quite some years now. She is Karl Lagerfeld’s muse and favourite female model, has opened many Chanel shows and been doing campaigns for the brand since 2006.

The Vogue Germany editorial is not the first editorial, that shows the two together. Besides a Meisel editorial in  Vogue Italia, they have already been shot by Karl Lagerfled for the Numero magazine. Only the Numero ed didn't cause that "I want it" feeling for me.  And Arizona of course is not the first girl Freja has been photographed with in ambigous position – still, I find the editorial’s vibes really outstanding. Feel free to disagree! ;)

Another thing that fascinates me and that once again became obvious in this editorial is the close friendship between Karl Lagerfeld and Freja. I have never really thought about what being or having a “muse” really means for an artist, but in this case, the private person Freja seems to more and more take over Lagerfeld’s work. Besides those editorials that play with her private preferences, Freja kissed a girl in this year’s Chanel Cruise movie and the whole Chanel Prêt-a-Porter Fall Winter 2011/12 collection seemed to be inspired by her personal style. In a German talk show (Markus Lanz) Karl recently called her a very special person and very good friend, he hopes to stay friends with even after she stops working for him. Not bad, Freja!

The “Love” issue, by the way, is Vogue Germany’s June edition which is already in stores here in Germany. It comes with three different covers, Karolina Kurkova and her boyfriend, Anja Rubik and her fiancé and Alessandra Ambrosio and husband. I chose Anja and Sasha who are going to get married this summer. (After Vlada Roslyakova and Natasha Poly got married earlier this year – is this the wedding year for topmodels??). And last but not least I must say, I even don’t find the magazine that bad.  It’s got a very nice spread about Bruce Webber's view on the late Liz Taylor and (young) Hollywood, and moderately interesting editorials of each cover couple. I might buy Vogue Germany again. ;)