Metal Nº 37

The Face championed as a fashion bible for an entire generation. Rather focused on style than fashion, the magazine – founded by Nick Logan – challenged the idea of fashion itself. When Alexander McQueen was approached to be featured on the cover of the April 1998 issue, the designer was supposed to work alone; but he called genius photographer Nick Knight to collaborate on the editorial. While McQueen had just been appointed at Givenchy, he just also introduced the Fall/Winter 1998 Joan collection, centred on the figure of the Virgin of Orleans. To produce what is today considered an iconic fashion image, Nick Knight had to go beyond what was defined as a fashion image itself. He recalls: “When it comes to fashion photography, weirdly, people only want to see pretty girls in pretty dresses, jumping down the street catching a taxi. But these women probably got various cancers, a husband cheating on her…” Because McQueen was himself a mind-shaker, Knight decided to borrow the visual language of the Joan collection, making Lee McQueen look like his work – Alexander became Joan of Arc, a martyrdom burnt on the flames.