Stylewhyse x Massief: born in brutality

My love for fashion as a craft knows no bounds. Up until this point, I had mainly shown my expertise through writing. As provocative as words can be, they may never captivate the beholder as intensively as an image does. Stylewhyse is a new baby formed by the desire to transcend the two-dimensional boundaries of words.

That having been said, I was delighted to create an aesthetic for the Brussels-based jewelry brand Massief.

Before I even started thinking about clothes, I analyzed what Massief’s customer looked like at the time. It mainly consisted of people looking to buy statement piece jewelry; people wanting to add a little wow factor to their outfits. However, I said to myself that this could be expanded. At the moment, Massief’s jewelry was the statement to a quite understated wardrobe, which in itself is fine, but I wanted the shoot to showcase what a potential client could look like and, in effect, to truly capture the high-fashion potential that this brand has.

What then came into realization was a combination of mundane items under a high-fashion design. Like this cashmere embroidered top constructed from antique ivory gambling chips by Nouka Rous.

The selling point here is really the movement in this belt by Valentine Tinchant. It really captures that the brand is boundless. The all-black underlayers direct your eyes to the belt and then the jewelry, sneakily playing off each other.

However, it was this simple catsuit that really did the trick for me. In combination with the model, it really brings out the alien-esque shapes. What was really important for me was that the heel looked like an elongation of her feet.

What really stuck with me about this shoot and all of my other work is that styling is, in essence, access. The access and availability you as a stylist have to certain pieces. Because what you can think of, what you can moodboard, is much more and sometimes even much more spectacular than the end result. However, that’s what sometimes creates the magic behind the job, what makes us grind even harder and makes us think of options we hadn’t explored.

Photos by: Linde Stevens

Makeup by: Charlotte Brondeel