Bowie Vs. Moss

Photos by Ellen von Unwerth. Concept based on Blow-Up (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966). Q Magazine. Cover and editorial, October 2003

V.I.P.’s (Very Important Portraits) by Roxanne Lowit

Roxanne Lowit is one of the pioneers of behind-the-scenes fashion photography as we know it today. “For the first 10 to 15 years I was the only one shooting backstage at all the shows. I had no credentials to begin with but quickly realised that that was my métier, that’s what I found most fascinating.”

The revelation came when she was gifted an Instamatic camera while still attending the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York studying Textile Design. At the time Lowit was a keen painter, but with this new tool discovered a more efficient way of capturing the spirit of her subjects. “I wanted to paint the people I admired but nobody had the time, so I thought I’d take a photograph of them and work from the photograph,” she says. “However, once I took the photograph I realised that I didn’t need to capture the whole soul in a painting. So I traded in my paintbrushes for a camera.”

Her background in textile design became her backstage pass when she was invited by the designers who worked from her patterns to photograph the completed garments before their shows. Eventually word got out that Lowit’s images were something worth publishing, and in 1978 she was contacted by Annie Flanders from the SoHo News. “She heard that I was going to Paris so she said ‘if you get a real camera I’ll use your pictures when you get back’. I learnt how to put film in a real camera on the plane on the way over. Next thing I was on the top of the Eiffel Tower shooting with Yves Saint Laurent and Andy Warhol. It was all downhill from there because how could it get any better?”

But things did get better, much better. After that first trip to Paris doors flung open for Lowit and her career as a backstage fashion photographer gained swift momentum. As industry insiders came to know and love her, the invitations to the parties flooded in, which was where much of the magic happened in front of Lowit’s lens. The 80s were heady times for fashion and she was always there, stationed in the fray, ready to catch the fanfare, frivolities and outright excess as it happened. “It was phenomenal,” she recalls. “We had the Supermodels and all those designers who loved the Supermodels. There were great parties – Elton John was always there and all sorts of celebrities started coming to the shows and parties.”

These days Lowit finds the more homogenised collections produced by contemporary designers as a result of an increasingly commercialised fashion industry much less inspiring, but revels in rising to the challenge all the same. “I usually play a game with myself, how good can I make this look?” she laughs. “But really it’s just about taking a great picture and finding a great moment. It’s always exciting to think, where am I going to go and what am I going to shoot next?”For the fashion designers themselves, as Lowit recalls, it was a time of tremendous creative freedom, where their unique artistic vision was nurtured by the industry and experimentation was encouraged. The shows, it seems, were less about selling clothes and more about the artistry, theatre and spectacle of it all. “It was so much more creative back then. You didn’t need a name at the end of the runway to know who it was you were watching,” she tells me. “When you saw long red nails with vampish clothes and great big hair you knew it was Thierry Mugler. When you saw flower dresses and a girl on a horse you knew you were at Kenzo. Stripes and knits, you were at Sonia Rykiel.”

Lowit gets a kick out of shooting just about anyone who gets a kick out of being shot. “All the pictures I’ve taken are important to me. They’re all like my children. It’s always the next image I look forward to. But looking back I think my favourites are the ones where the people just enjoyed having their picture taken – they were just having a good time. That’s really when I can capture something great.”

 
 

Roxanne Lowit, Andy Warhol, Jacqueline and Julian Schnabel, Kenny Scharf, Jean Michel Basquiat

 
 

Andy Warhol

 
 

Yves Saint Laurent

 
 

Yves Saint Laurent and Karl Lagerfeld

 
 

Helena Christensen, Karl Lagerfeld and Anna Wintour

 
 

Diana Vreeland

 
 

Ralph Lauren and Diana Vreeland

 
 

Salvador Dalí, Janet Daly and the recipient of a kiss

 
 

Helmut Newton

 
 

Richard Avedon, Irving Penn and Helmut Newton

 
 

Peter Lindbergh, Arthur Elgort and Patrick Demarchelier

 
 

Robert De Niro and Al Pacino

 
 

Patrick Kelly, Iman, Grace Jones and Naomi Campbell

 
 

Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington and Linda Evangelista

 
 

>Manolo Blahnik and Anna Piaggi

 
 

Lauren Hutton and a chauffeur

 
 

Elton John in concert wearing the Donald Duck costume, Central Park, New York

 
 

Shalom Harlow

 
 

Amanda Lepore

 
 

Halston

 
 

John Galliano

 
 

Annabelle Neilson Rothschild and John Galliano

 
 

Backstage from Dior Show, Paris

 
 

Kate Moss and John Galliano

 
 

Kate Moss

 
 

Ellen Von Unwerth and Mario Testino

 
 

Herb Ritts, Christy Turlington and Steven Meisel

Blown Up

Kate Moss and David Bowie. Photo by Ellen von Unwerth, 2003

 
 

Movie Poster from Blow-Up (Michelangelo Antonioni, 1966)

The Last Flappers

Marilyn Monroe as Sugar Kane in Some Like it Hot (Billy Wilder, 1959)

 
 

Jack Lemmon, Marilyn and director Billy Wilder

 
 

Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon in drag

 
 

Audrey Hepburn as Holy Golightly in Breakfast at Tifanny’s (Blake Edwards, 1961)

 
 

Keira Knightley wearing  Chanel Couture

 
 

Make-up and styling for Chanel Resort Collection 2013

 
 

Natalie Portman photographed by Mario Testino. Vogue USA, February 2004

 
 

Portman in a still from Closer (Mike Nichols, 2004)

 
 

Michelle Pfeiffer. Photo: Herb Ritts

 
 

Madonna

 
 

Anjelica Huston. Photo: Gian Paolo Barbieri

 
 

Portrait of Isabella Rossellini by Ellen von Unwerth

 
 

Ali MacGraw

 
 

Ralph Lauren

 
 

Jean Paul Gaultier

 
 

Alexander McQueen

 
 

Louis Vuitton

 
 

Etro

 
 

Gucci

 
 

Balenciaga by Nicholas Ghesquière

 
 

Images from fashion editorial Paris Je T’Aime photographed by Steven Meisel. Vogue USA, September issue. 2007

 
 

Rihanna

 
 

Mary Jane Russell with a Christian Dior swan hat. Photo: Louise Dahl-Wolfe, 1949

 
 

Christian Dior by John Galliano Spring-Summer collection 1998

 
 

The Dolly Sisters

 
 

Jennifer Lawrence in Dior Haute Couture at the Oscars 2013

 
 

* The Last Flapper is the title of a play written by William Luce. It is based on Zelda Fitzgerald’s life.