In this subversive editorial for NºA, Dirk Van Saene chose to place a series of luxurious designer accessories within a bourgeois living room, contrasting the aesthetics of modern Belgian and French fashion design with traditional Flemish interior decoration.

Photographers Bert Houbrechts & Kurt De Wit have reproduced a nearly identical image five times over, creating a crisp continuity between the shots – even to the point where the actor on the television screen has barely moved. Their black and white images catch the bright sunlight streaming into the frame from the right, casting shadows that add to the already heavy mood of the room. The space is ornately decorated with heavy brocade lounge chairs, wood panelled walls and ceiling, and many traditional ornaments – including a hurricane lamp and polished log clock on the mantlepiece and decorative plates on the walls.

Styling the story himself, Dirk Van Saene chose an unusual selection of dark womens accessories and placed each one around the room, causing the viewer to explore all corners of the image to pinpoint the nearly hidden pieces. A pair of leather gloves by Dries Van Noten goes almost unnoticed on the edge of the mantlepiece, and a Comme des Garçons belt seems little more than a strip of shadow resting amid the window glare on the back of a lounge chair.

The effect is unsettling and gives a strange power to the chosen objects – as though a handbag, shoe or glove is disturbing the perfect normality and order of this starched, austere environment.

Above: a Christian Dior handbag, nestled on the right side lounge.

Above: a BLESS necklace resting on coffee table, next to the silver server.

Above: Yves Saint Laurent black shoes, at the foot of the left side lounge.

Above: A Comme des Garçons black waist belt, lying on the back of the right side lounge.

Above: Black gloves by Dries Van Noten, resting on the fireplace to the left of the hurricane lamp.