One from a while back.

We had an extraordinary vintage dress, a madly beautiful and moderately frightening Philip Treacy mask, a wonderful model and some stuffed birds.  And we needed to tie them all together.

And the solution my favourite occasional collaborator for this kind of thing — Siwan Hill — came up with to achieve this was pomegranates.

The Greek myth of Persephone centres on a girl stolen from her mum and swept down to the underworld by Hades (it varies with every telling).  There, she lived in darkness until her mum found her and tried to get her out.

Hades agreed to give her back, what with her being a minor and that being a bit icky and all.

But Hades, ever the trickster, also gave the poor girl the mythological equivalent of a trail mix bar for the journey home, whereupon Persephone, never having been the sharpest knife in the drawer, wolfed down some pomegranate seeds.  And thus became doomed for ever to commute between the basement and the penthouse or, if you prefer, between summer and winter.

We’ll give the Greeks a C for plot, but anyway.

 

Creative direction, hair and makeup: Siwan Hill

Photography: Scott Rylander (obviously)

Model: Jenny Maxwell of band Strange Fruit

Dress and jacket designed by Joanne Fleming

Philip Treacy custom-made mask and props by kind courtesy of Amaury Blow

Additional art direction: Laura Oaten

Assistant: Bernard Coughlan