Vaginas make fashion ads art

Kristen McMenamy

Hefty photo-book Marc Jacobs Advertising 1998-2009 is the work of arty, fashiony, super-photographer Juergen Teller. Everyone, even my dad, knows Jacobs is a big deal. He’s the only New York womenswear designer shops like New Look bother to knock off, and inspires more “Get the look” features in shitty magazines with Jennifer Aniston on the cover than anyone else. Jacobs is no cultural slouch, so of course he employed Juergen Teller to shoot the ads for his clothes. Back in the early 90s, Teller blazed a trail for that whole generation of point-and-shoot, over-exposed style of photos done by people such Ryan McGinley. You may know it as the current visual shorthand for youth.

For the Jacobs campaigns, instead of shooting teenage airhead models, Teller took pictures of musicians, artists and directors. The list includes Meg White, Kim Gordon and Thurston Moore, Michael Stipe, Harmony Korine, Cindy Sherman, Charlotte Rampling, Samantha Morton and shoplifter Winona Ryder, and Teller himself. Basically, the sort of people you’d hang with, if you’re old, cool, and you live in New York.

Sometimes when he does shoot models such as Kristen McMenamy you get to see their vagina. Recently, around about the same time Jacobs went all hard-body and Speedo tan-line, he risked a lot of his indie credibility and had Victoria Beckham star in his spring/summer 08 ads, the best image saw Teller put a bag on her head. Ha ha.