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Vogue presents the new collection by Emilia Wickstead, including Frida among her muses

Vogue presents the new collection by Emilia Wickstead, including Frida among her muses

20 September 2024

As is often the case, Wickstead's initial inspiration was a particular muse. In this case, that inspiration was German photographer Gisèle Freund, who spent decades in Paris photographing the intellectual glitterati who either lived in or visited the city—people like Simone de Beauvoir, Virginia Woolf, and Frida Kahlo—with an emphasis on how they expressed their work, whether it was through their studios, homes, or clothes.

"It was eclectic but apt for the rich tapestry of characters you see while scrolling through Freund’s photos. All of a sudden, I felt like I had created this little bit of a girl gang,” speaking of assembling the collection, Wickstead said. “I really honed in on the contrast between the public personas of the women that she photographed versus who they were at home.”

Wickstead was also thinking about another kind of girl gang, as usual: the group of artistic women who surround her and are her most devoted clientele; many of them have been in her look books for years. When you spend time with Wickstead, it's easy to understand why so many influential women have fallen in love with her and become closer to her; she's a natural conversationalist who possesses the quality that distinguishes all the best designers: an endless curiosity. Consequently, this may explain her affinity for an explorer such as Freund, who drew inspiration from others and then utilized her camera to delve further into her subjects' lives.

Spending time in Wickstead's world is always a lot of fun, but don't undervalue the rigorous thinking that goes into her design process. According to Wickstead, "What I loved most about Gisèle was that she believed photography was suited to a female mentality,” she said. “She believed that women were excellent observers, which made them better photographers.” That exact same viewpoint contributes to the magic of Wickstead's writing.