Feel the Power

 
 
Kylie Bax @ Women (NY)

"She is timeless & fearless. Kylie will do anything for a great picture." Timeless and fearless aren't exactly the two words we'd put together very easily, as often fearless relates to fast and what comes fast has big chances to go fast, but the description suits Kylie Bax as perfectly as her outfits in Steven Klein's most recent story in Vogue Italia (May 2010). We've never been afraid of apparent contradictions and even love some paradoxes for what they represent, we're not going to miss an opportunity to talk about one of the most delightful. Actually in Kylie's case timeless and fearless just complete each other and we could consider her limitless commitment is the key to her timeless appeal. And the main ingredient behind her beautiful comeback.

 
 

Comebacks as a concept has never been our cup of tea, to be honest. Don't like the mechanism and never trust the buzz it sometimes creates. So, we'd rather focus on facts in a more descriptive manner: a one-girl editorial in one of the most coveted magazine (styled by Patti Wilson, all the credits can be seen on Women Management blog). This probably doesn't require any kind of hype to get noticed and the visuals speak for themselves. Steven Klein is one of these photographers with a strong, almost unmistakable signature-style and even if you can clearly feel it all over this story, there is definitely a part of unexpected we owe to Kylie alone. Might be her fearless side in action. Might be the timeless appeal working. And you understand well how both interact.

 

The conversation we had with someone consider her favorite model ever ("she is and always will be" but no name-dropping as the border between work and private life is pretty tiny here) actually debuted with literature. The book in question was "almost sculptural, with an omniscient narrator – but quite human". It could be our words on Kylie's Vogue story. "Almost sculptural" or even literally sculptural goes for the overall aesthetic. The "omniscient narrator" is more of a personal perception of the pictures but we guess you can understand what we mean there too. And "quite human" would be the way Kylie moves the line in Steven Klein's work, how she performs and she transforms a purely visual composition into soulful narration which brings us back to the initial idea of omniscient narrator. The title warns you about The Power of Fashion but Kylie is definitely the one who tells the story here.