The sandy dunes were hot under foot and the wind was sharp and abrasive. Sand follicles were skipping across the surface and cutting snake like repetitions into the undulating form of the desert as the heat radiated some kind of heady mirage that could only been seen in person by the human eye.
With a 2 hour window and a team of 5 I recently drove my little team via minibus (there’s a first for everything ladies and gentlemen) to the most beautiful remote location to photograph my latest creative project for Mr Azzedine Alaïa’s first ever fragrance ‘Alaïa by Alaïa’.
Inspired by airy notes from the fragrance and quotes from Mr Alaïa himself, the concept was born to photograph his latest offering in windswept desert dunes and let the fragrance be the hero.
‘I dreamed of it like an archeologist dreams of sculptures from antiquity lying at the bottom of the sea for millennia, sculptures of perfect bodies, matched only by the women of today – an ideal and timeless beauty.’
I love the power of story telling and after reading the above quote from Mr Alaïa, my team and I worked relentlessly to story board the concept, scout the perfect desert location(in tropical Queensland no less) and source metres of the ideal silk fabric that would float in the wind just right(easier said than done).
The story is of our muse, a mirage-like figure, mysterious and transient moving through space and time like a spec of sand on the wind.
So my friends, it’s one thing to tell the story of a perfume through imagery and another to experience it’s rich complexities straight from the bottle. A picture may speak a thousand words but a fragrance can conjure a thousand stories. Let’s just say I’m packing my bags already .. let the adventure begin ..
You can shop the Alaïa Paris Eau de Parfum here
Creative Direction & Photography: Amanda Shadforth . Model: Anna Pembroke . Hair & Makeup: Miranda Emblem
