Issue link: https://www.balharbourdigital.com/i/56249
Alexa Chung is one of Lagerfeld's many muses. Inès de la Fressange first served as a muse to Karl Lagerfeld in the '80s and recently re-emerged on his Chanel runways. The silent muse behind an artist has enthralled the fashion world for more than a century. De la Fressange is 54 years old; Elle Fanning is 13. But in her brief time on earth, Dakota's little sister has inspired more than one designer. She starred in Todd Cole's arty video for Rodarte, A ; Marc Jacobs is besotted by both siblings, wondering aloud, "When you're en- chanted it's sometimes very hard to put your finger on exactly why." nd yes, there is a deep mystery at the heart of the muse-master matrix. Sometimes it is more baffling than others—Vivienne West- wood, a wayward genius who manages to combine 18th-Century court wear and street punk to great effect, describes her muse as a "very engaged and caring person." You would never guess, but she is speaking of Pamela Anderson. Pam may well be very nice, but she doesn't immediately spring to mind as the embodiment of Vivienne's vision. And what to make of the shaggy-haired Alexa Chung, who seems to be on everyone's muse shortlist, from old guys like Marc and Karl to up-and-comers like Carven designer Guillaume Henry. Chung describes herself modestly as "very much a cookie-cutter hipster," but she is in fact a designer, producing a capsule collection for Madewell. And who inspires Chung? As it turns out, she spends her time dreaming of the Golden Girls of the 1960s, music muses like Anita Pal- lenberg, Françoise Hardy and the still chic, still performing Marianne Faithfull. 42 BAL HARBOUR O livier Theyskens, himself one half of an unusual duo—his Theyskens' Theory represents the marriage of an avant garde sensibility and a mass brand, also cites musical influences in his formative years. A film he charmingly describes as "Seeking This Pretty Susan," starring a very young Madonna, he allows, might be responsible for his ongoing fascination with brocade and zippers. But if Theyskens looks to the icons that enthralled him during his years at the Lycée, Stella McCartney reaches back even further to the source of her ideas. At first she demurs,"The idea of fashion designers now having muses seems so old fashioned to me," she argues. "To single out one person to rep- resent all of the different women in the world just seems very dated, and it's not really the way we work." But then she softens. "I do look to my mum for inspiration quite a lot. I like her natural and effortless attitude to style…But I think that as a brand we think and react to what's going on around us, picking up on the general feeling within the atmosphere and really trying to represent millions of women. We are much more interested in using different kinds of women to build a whole woman…If anything, we have too many ideas actually." And in the unlikely case that inspiration does run dry, there is always the family pet. Th e C u rv e of F or g otte n Th in g s