Offering up a powerful vantage-point, photographer/director Willy Vanderperre and stylist and consultant Olivier Rizzo – both highly-celebrated Academy alumni – created a conceptual remote fashion shoot during lockdown, resulting in 9 striking posters crowned with graphic design by Paul Boudens.
In the spirit of the Fashion Department’s commitment to remastering the digital-physical realm and uplifting the students graduating in these uncertain times, Vanderperre and Rizzo reconceptualised the traditional fashion shoot to create the graduation imagery. Having a personal relationship with Belgian and international super models and their agencies, together with the casting director, they could count on everyone’s voluntary collaboration on this project.
Spotlighting the work of 9 Master students, Olivier Rizzo curated key pieces. The looks were then photographed by Willy Vanderperre using different techniques from a distance, via video call. The result is the pinnacle of abstract interpretation and student-master collaboration. The proof is in the (im)perfection of the pixels. Olivier Rizzo reflects: “Our focal point was the celebration of creativity and young talent. The models themselves are also very connected to the arts in their personal life, so their honest reaction to the clothing and overall concept was overwhelmingly positive and sparked their imagination for us to capture.”
