She’s Beauty, She’s Beast
- Auntie
- May 10
- 2 min read
Dahling, it doesn’t get much more fashion than this, dahling, I simply had to snatch this one off of Art Fart’s desk & scramble to my typewriter, dahling: yes, it’s true, Staley-Wise is showing a smorgasbord of iconic fashion photography from Helmut Newton & Steven Klein, dahling!
Talk about a match made in fashion heaven, dahling, these images positively drip in that super sharp imagistic polish, poshness you can almost taste, dahling — the pictures aren’t just about clothes, but about the fantasy surrounding the female form, dahling, a place where clothing can take you in your mind, a utopian idea that is here a little fraught with sensual danger, & where the slick-haired & long-limbed lasses of the runway are the bosses — one gets the impression that they are a little dangerous themselves.
Certainly, dahling, we see the development of the “strong woman” that was especially popular in the parlance of the 90s & 2000s: here are its icons. Here is how a piece of truly powerful clothing can make you feel: as if you could seduce anyone or anything, even through the picture plane, as if you could tame any beast, make every situation your own personal sub. That’s right, there’s a bit of fetish going on, & why not? We do enjoy a bit of filthy fun on & off the runway, dahling! Can it even be posh if there isn’t at least the suggestion of sex? The women of Newton & Klein’s universe are not sexual objects, however, they are subjects, dahling, in total control of their destinies, & we their adoring objects for them to toy with as they please. It is this empowerment that gives fashion its mystique, dahling, & something Newton & Klein capture with their lenses so well: that particularly feminine power, allure & danger.
Are they captive even to their own strength? Perhaps they’ve gone too far: balloon lips & pointed cheekbones, cyborgs & surgeries, oh my! Is beauty available through a medical device? Is ugliness a disease? Do our heroines hope for a beauty even beyond the human? Dahling, one does start to wonder what the endgame of beauty is sometimes, & Newton & Klein seem to be wondering the same thing — perhaps this is what they’re showing us, the funhouse distortions we sometimes find ourselves in. Is it beauty, or is it horror? Hard to say, dahling, but it certainly is one thing for sure: it’s fashion, dahling.
—Auntie
Helmut Newton x Steven Klein: On the Dark Side is on veiw through May 9, 2026 at Staley-Wise Gallery in New York. Images courtesy of Staley-Wise Gallery.
