AnOther Magazine 23, A/W12Photography by Robi Rodriguez, Styling by Cathy Edwards
Valentine's Day is a time for much, much more than overwrought sentimentality. Here, we present five instances of erotica from the history of AnOther Magazine
It’s interesting to consider how Saint Valentine would have felt, had he known of the traditions he would go on to inspire, about heart-shaped boxes full of sickly sweet chocolates andshop-bought cards bearing readymade romance. As legend has it, his martyrdom sprung from his performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden from marrying, suggesting that he wasn’t quite the sentimentalist we have him down as.
Fortunately, in the 21st century there is far more to February 14th than the aforementioned gestures, which inspire little more than a stomach ache. Here, in light of the international holiday and our own exploration of #modernintimacy, AnOther selects five moments of extraordinary sensuality from the archive, from Man Ray muse Adrienne Fidelin's heated body language, to Robi Rodriguez and Jacob K's homage to a fetish weekend away in a countryside cabin.
AnOther Magazine 15, A/W08Photography by Robi Rodriguez, Styling by Cathy Edwards
AnOther Magazine 15, A/W08Photography by Robi Rodriguez, Styling by Cathy Edwards
AnOther Magazine 15, A/W08Photography by Robi Rodriguez, Styling by Cathy Edwards
AnOther Magazine 15, A/W08 Model and former muse to the one and only Guy Bourdin, Nicolle Meyer is a picture of elegant sexuality in Robi Rodriguez and Cathy Edwards’ story for the Autumn/Winter 2008 issue. “I think I had a physique and a face which appealed to him,” Meyer said in the introduction to the story. “We – a lot of the Bourdin girls – all had an almost doll-like quality.” The shoot, her first in almost 30 years, features a tactile amalgamation of textures – from plush, deep-pile carpets to the patent leather of an Yves Saint Laurent court shoe – and Meyer herself, whether perched on of a cream leather sofa in a crisp white men’s shirt, or delicately removing a pair of gold false eyelashes from her bedside – is above all else a picture of sensuous womanhood.
Photography by Robi Rodriguez, Styling by Jacob K
AnOther Magazine 23, A/W12Photography by Robi Rodriguez, Styling by Jacob K
AnOther Magazine 23, A/W12Photography by Robi Rodriguez, Styling by Jacob K
AnOther Magazine 23, A/W12 Rich wooden panelling, a velvet-tasselled bedspread and endless layers of supple leather by the likes of Tom Ford, Fendi, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Givenchy by Riccardo Tisci combine to create an overwhelmingly erotic, slightly off-kilter fantasy in this magnificent photoshoot from the Autumn/Winter 12 issue of AnOther. Throw in a few cut-out masks and latex hoods, and you have yourself a weekend in a countryside cabin to remember. “What should she be called, the woman framed always in the window, in the television dust?” Sam Riviere writes in the fragment of introductory text to the story, casting a warm, golden haze over the proceedings. We don’t have an answer for Riviere, but whatever this mysterious and intense woman's name, we want desperately to know her.
AnOther Magazine 20, S/S11Photography by Paolo Roversi, Olivier Rizzo
AnOther Magazine 20, S/S11Photography by Paolo Roversi, Olivier Rizzo
AnOther Magazine 20, S/S11Photography by Paolo Roversi, Olivier Rizzo
AnOther Magazine 20, S/S11 Paolo Roversi and Olivier Rizzo’s lingerie-focused photoshoot for the Spring/Summer 2011 issue of AnOtheris not so much a sex-fuelled romp of an editorial as a tender depiction of a group of dancers changing in their dressing room after a rehearsal. Nevertheless, the intensity of the bond between the girls, pictured as they drape unthinkingly over one another, long pale angular limbs against crumpled satin, is as intimate as it comes.
AnOther Magazine 16, S/S09 Guadeloupe-born dancer Adrienne Fidelin was muse to Man Ray and the first black model ever to appear in the pages of Harper’s Bazaar (in 1937, as part of a shoot by her lover) but other than that, frustratingly little is known about her, Cath Clarke writes in AnOther’s Spring/Summer 2008 issue. As the story goes, Ray abandoned her when he left Paris to sail to America as the Nazis invaded, marking a perfunctory end to their mysterious affair, but the series of photographs he made throughout their relationship, pictured in the magazine, serve as indelible evidence of the closeness between the pair. She is often photographed naked, and appears at all times utterly at ease in her own skin – unquestionably the most erotic trait a person can possess.
AnOther Magazine 19, A/W10Photography by Craig McDean, Styling by Olivier Rizzo
AnOther Magazine 19, A/W10Photography by Craig McDean, Styling by Olivier Rizzo
AnOther Magazine 19, A/W10 Craig McDean and Olivier Rizzo’s grainy, dynamic story for the Autumn/Winter 2010 issue of AnOther sings of a sultry underworld that’s ever-present in most cityscapes – sheets of synthetic hair fall over Givenchy’s feather-embroidered bustier and a silk satin Dolce and Gabbana corset, creating an oddly harmonious marriage of sex and grit. That the whole debacle takes place in what appears to be an disused industrial timber yard helps enormously with setting the scene, as does the dusky pink light falling over the models' figures.
