Veronique Branquinho’s man is not the muscle-bound sportsman nor waifish rockstar boy of the runway, but a gentleman. He is refined and grounded in a bucolic sensibility, and does not wear ‘fashion’. Surpassing trends and eschewing embellishment, he is more likely to indulge in quiet luxuries – perhaps the hidden touch of a lambskin lining on a leather jacket or the soft weave of a heavy cable knit sweater.

Manon De Boer has captured this character in it’s various guises for A#6 – as models Bart, Peter and Ward relax around a log-fire – sipping whisky, listening to records, reading books and playing scrabble. Their discarded and worn garments tell a sensual narrative of comfortable masculinity with a sophisticated edge, with unkempt hair and beards and the weather of age on their faces certainly atypical of a magazine fashion story. Wearing the autumn winter collections of Veronique from 2003-2008, the three men radiate an easy charm as they seemingly enjoy what seems a cold, winter evening – stoking the fire, talking, smoking and drinking.

I know Veronique was there, just out of frame – but you can feel her presence in every image – in the blurred fawn etching on a far wall, in the records playing, and certainly in the artfully placed words on the Scrabble board:

FRIENDS | WHISKY | DESIRE | FUR | FIREPLACE | SMOKE | WINEGUM | WOOD

COGNAC | YES | LOVE