Dirk Van Saene’s NºA is certainly one of the most “fashion-heavy” issues of A, having been created as one of the fashion statements of the 2001 LANDED-GELAND fashion festival in Antwerp, Belgium. Page after page opens to a new editorial or series that discusses clothing, its designers, and the nature of the industry – particularly that of Dirk’s hometown Antwerp.

It seems the artistic conceit of NºA (and hence its innate success) is the presentation of a very specific time period, place and group of people in a suitably diverse and unusual manner as to render it new and fresh. Although working with an intimate circle of contributors, Dirk managed to represent and celebrate an ideal of youthful, unconventional beauty and fashion without succumbing to any sort of “Antwerp tunnel vision”.

Uniting disparate elements with black and white print, Dirk was able to convey a multitude of concepts that question our perception of fashion – through warped social and historical contexts, and particularly viewing fashion from an artist’s perspective.

It is the latter ideal that exists behind Belgian artist Cris Brodahl‘s representation of the Paris collections for Fall Winter 2002, in which she utilised found objects to create 3-D collages. Photographed by Raymond Jacquemyns, we witness her rendering of Viktor & Rolf’s work as an hourglass wooden figure on intricately lathe-turned legs and arms with a round metal ‘head’, and Maison Martin Margiela as a white thatched leather face headpiece, with a mass of fringed “hair” trailing behind. The Margiela image is then repeated in the final page, with Cris herself wearing headpiece, the lighting inverted to offer a dark face in the shadows.

The symmetrical, geometric form of the Balenciaga figure (with angel wings for legs and triangular limbs) reflects the house’s futuristic and historical aesthetic, as does the decadent Yves Saint Laurent figure – suspended in mid-air as a blackened doll wearing a froth of white lace and grey satin.

While certainly a departure from Cris’s usual work, these pieces convey the same witty commentary on contemporary society and media imagery, through pastiche and a manipulation of our expectations through various layers of meaning.

Above: Balenciaga.

Above: Viktor & Rolf.

Above: Louis Vuitton by Marc Jacobs.

Above: Junya Watanabe.

Above: Yves Saint Laurent.

Above: Self-portrait by Cris Brodahl