There is no one in the world quite like Daphne Guinness. The model, singer and designer has always walked to the beat of her own drum, in sky-high heels and fascinating fascinators. She has topped best dressed lists, befriended fashion royalty and, through it all, maintained a striking visual individuality. It is not surprising that, when it came to shooting a video for her single, Heaven, she sought the eye of fellow aesthete, David LaChapelle.
‘David and I first met in LA in 2000 through our mutual friend Isabella Blow’, she recalls to Grazia. ‘He took me for dinner at El Coyote and we clicked instantly. We have been close friends ever since. We are like sister and brother. Cosmic twins. I love the universes that David creates: he has a unique sense of light, proportion and colour - His work, for me, often evokes the drama and atmosphere of a great painting.’
Indeed, as these images – a UK exclusive – show, LaChapelle was the perfect person to capture Daphne’s uniqueness in film. For her, it’s a symbiotic collaboration that proves wholly fulfilling each time.
‘We have worked together many times over the years’, she says. ‘David has called me an “extreme model”: he has put me in very challenging and often dangerous situations in the pursuit of the perfect shot - the edge of a cliff, underwater, in a microlight aircraft, on the edge of a volcano. Our collaborations are always exhilarating and he captures that energy.’ Don’t try this at home…
Other musicians – Lady Gaga, Beyonce among them - often speak of stepping into a role onstage, a persona that helps them enter a certain zone of confidence and self assurance. But Daphne doesn’t feel she belongs on that list. ‘I have always expressed myself through what I wear and that carries through to my visual work with David’, she explains. ‘I don’t adopt personae, I merely try to project myself visually and musically as a whole.’
The lights and lenses of David LaChapelle may present Daphne’s life as a gilded one, but we all have ups and downs, especially in 2020. ‘As an artist I am striving to create beauty and hope in these times of chaos and uncertainty’, she says of the single, and the album on which it features, Revelations. ‘Heaven reminds us that in the real world all things will fade and die and, like the golden era Hollywood movies, art is all that remains as a testament to the greatest love stories. I hope the album connects with people and encourages them to forget their troubles for a while and to dance.’
Be right back, just turning the lounge into a nightclub.
Daphne Guinness' new album Revelation is available via Agent Anonyme/Absolute