The unexpected, the unusual, and the downright beautiful: the work of Marie-Amelie Sauvé has become the benchmark of contemporary fashion styling. She’s as at home putting together outfits that evoke and celebrate the pure and unfiltered fantasy of fashion as she is creating commercial looks that women across the world will fall in love with; that’s no mean feat. Starting off as an intern for French Vogue,Marie-Amelie has ascended up the industry and is arguably one of its most influential stylists. Creating some of French Vogue‘s most iconic images under its then-EIC, Carine Roitfeld, Marie-Amelie worked with the late Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin and after went freelance. She cemented her legacy consulting for the likes of Trussardi as well as consulting and styling with her close collaborator and friend Nicolas Ghesquière, first at Balenciaga and now at Louis Vuitton. In doing so, she has been half of one of the most powerful partnerships in fashion.
Between styling for fashion’s biggest campaigns and steady editorial work for W, Self Service, and T Magazine, where she is Fashion Director, Marie-Amelie Sauvé has created her own magazine, Mastermind, which she developed over the course of two years and launched at Bookmarc in New York during the recent NYFW. With the work of photographers Jamie Hawkesworth and Steven Meisel alongside images from Nicolas’s personal archive, as well an exclusive interview with Isabelle Huppert, Mastermind is a biannual that promises a new “perspective on the people and issues of our time, spanning culture, design, art, fashion, and beyond. Mastermind is setting our times to words and images.”
Read: Nicolas Ghesquière at Louis Vuitton is a fashion love story.
You’ve said that Mastermind sets our times to words and images. How would you describe the current state of affairs?
Currently what we are witnessing is an overpowering, and sometimes overwhelming takeover of the online world, which is fantastic and brings us so much. But the idea behind Mastermind was to take time, slow down, look around and have impactful images along with important text that inspire the reader to change their ways, to maybe skim less and look at things more carefully, and in more detail.
After your illustrious career, why did you feel it was the right time to make Mastermind?
I felt like it was time to open my horizons, I have been wanting to change my focus from solely fashion to all the other interests that inhabit my life — culture, politics, cinema. And this felt like the right time because of the digital revolution. It’s interesting to go against what is expected. And of course Mastermind will be present digitally, we will just do it differently.
Where did the magazine’s name come from?
I am obsessed with the concept of the mind and everything that goes with it, and it’s a concept that is present in every chapter of the magazine. And then there are also my initials, MAS, which are obviously a strong part of my identity. It all comes together as Mastermind.
Tell me a bit about the thinking behind the cover image?
The idea was to have something that would engage and provoke. Something unusual. The image is unexpected, so is the format of it. I love the idea of having a beautiful female face on a sculpture of a man’s body. It brings up the right questions about the society we live in.
What are some of your favorite stories in the issue?
It’s quite impossible for me to answer as I view the magazine as a whole, the chapters can’t be separated one from the other, they make sense together because they create a coherent and strong editorial proposition.
How did you get Xavier Dolan involved? Were you a big admirer of his work prior to working on the magazine?
I have always been very touched by Xavier’s work and I have always wanted to do something with him, to unveil his personality in an intimate and unusual way. He has so much to share while being a very private person. I feel very lucky that he opened up the way he did, it’s a real privilege for me.
Credits
Text Lynette Nylander