If a modern-day fairytale is comprised of “magical self phone mirrors” reflecting “so many fragments of self”, as artist and writer Precious Okoyomon writes in Chopova Lowena’s new book Conversations with Friends, its pixies and princesses are obviously outfitted in the London brand’s signature pleated carabiner skirts and colourful graphic prints. For their third literary project, designers Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena-Irons looked to The Snow Queen, a Danish fairytale by Hans Christian Anderson, to illustrate their AW23 collection. Inspired by 70s ski wear and Georgian dress, the fairytale was a natural fit for the garments, themselves, worn by none other than Chloë Sevigny as the icy monarch.
The story comes to life through Precious’ prose and a series of surreal images captured by Charlotte Wales, which depict Chloë posing for a selfie, wearing dark, dagger-like black eyeliner, blurring the lines between good and evil in a game of chess and smoking a blunt in a field of fantastical talking roses. “Everyone thinks that I’m evil, but I’m just really hot,” she says in the story, outfitted in a white puffed-sleeve crop top and bubble skirt, accented with silver buttons and ties.
“I loved the idea of playing this character, giving myself over to them editorially… just giving in to their fantasy,” Chloë said at the book’s launch earlier this week. And, as far as what initially drew her to Chopova Lowena in the first place: “It was like nothing I’d ever seen before – the fact that they were using found fabrics, the fact that it was run by two young ladies operating outside the system and they were so inclusive, making clothes for all shapes and sizes. It just felt really fun, also magical and meaningful.”
To celebrate the book’s launch “in a castle high high high up in the cloudy mist”, i.e. Bergdorf’s, we spoke to Chopova Lowena about the process of creating their very own modern fairytale. Read on and get a sneak peek of the book below.
Tell us a little bit about the book. How did it come about what made you want to put it out now?
Emma Chopova: Basically, because we only do shows once a year, and this was our first in-between season — because last show was our first show — we wanted to do something special. Books feel very special and they feel more significant; it’s a long-lasting thing, which we really love. We’ve done them every once in a while because we didn’t really used to show. We both really love fairytales and folkloric tales and at first we thought about a children’s book and then it kind of evolved into a fairy tale.
Did you have a specific relationship with the story of The Snow Queen?Laura Lowena-Irons: Yeah, it was a story that I read a lot as a child. I have no idea why it was just one of those books that was on the shelf and I really loved it. It’s quite Christmassy…
EC: And we love Christmas.
LL-I: I would always read it with my younger sister. When we did this last collection, it was inspired by 70s ski wear and Georgian-era clothes. We wanted something that was kind of those two things and the story of The Snow Queen is like good versus evil. So, it kind of felt like the right fit and then we wanted a heroine to take the starring role.
So it had to be Chloë! What makes her ideal for the starring role?
EC: Well, we had a little bit of a relationship with her. She’d bought something from us and as soon as we knew that, you know, she liked something we made, we were really excited. It was always in the back of our minds that she’s the dream girl to be in a campaign and we thought a book would be incredible. We’ve always loved her so much and I think she fits so well with being the good and evil character. She was amazing, when we were doing the shoot, she completely like…
LL-I: She embodied the character.
EC: She transformed into the role as soon as she knew what the sort of thing that she was doing was.
Tell me a little bit more about the shoot.
EC: It was really fun.
LL-I: We were here for two days again.
EC: It was our first time back to New York in a few years. So that was really fun. That was the first time we met her. Her whole family was there and it was just really lovely.
LL-I: It was amazing to watch her come to life in front of the camera.
EC: And in all the outfits!
Everyone looks so amazing. I just love the motion and action in the images.
EC: Yeah, Charlotte [Wales] is amazing. She always brings that and the collection is always half-inspired by sport, so there’s always this element of motion that we like to bring in. Charlotte is amazing at bringing that and the glamour and the softness and all of that to it.
It’s such a natural fit. And I love the way Precious interpreted the story as well. I’m curious what sort of notes you might have given them?
EC: I mean, we started off with very little direction, just the story itself. We were discussing a few different things and really, the only thing that we wanted was to modernise it. Because we were working with Precious, we wanted it to be completely their style, their take on it. So we just didn’t give very much direction. It’s really, really beautifully written.
What are some of your favourite fairy tales?
EC: I mean, when deciding this it was really between The Snow Queen, cause that’s Laura’s favourite, and we were looking at Bulgarian fairy tales, which are my favourite.
LL-I: Like Grimm’s Fairy Tales which are kind of like, offbeat…
And kind of dark. I remember reading them growing up.
EC: Bulgarian fairy tales are quite dark. I was actually just back home and because my brother has kids now, we were looking at our old children’s books. I grew up with some incredibly illustrated, old, Eastern European versions of fairy tales. I think that made me love that so much.
LL: Also having nieces and nephews and reading actual story books has influenced us in a way — having pictures and stories and understanding what they mean to people.
Of course, that playfulness and that world’s super felt in your brand and everything that you’ve created.
EC: Yeah and there’s definitely an element of humour — of like, cartoon and childlike things within the brand. It was really fun to be able to embrace that even more.
Credits
Photography Charlotte Wales
Styling Agata Belcen
Art direction Jamie Reid
Images courtesy of Chopova Lowena