Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista… all feature in 90s by Thierry Le Gouès. For these are the supermodels who helped redefine the fashion industry in the Nineties, and who the legendary French photographer helped put on the world’s radar. Le Gouès’ images have now been compiled in a glossy new photography book, giving a fascinating insight into the extraordinary creativity and energy of the decade
Here to fuel everyone’s ongoing obsession with the Nineties is a must-have new coffee table book from French photographer Thierry Le Gouès. Simply called 90s, the pages of this glossy publication are bursting with Le Gouès’ striking fashion photography that both documented a turning point in the fashion world and introduced the world to a new class of supermodels.
The book’s dazzling cover image of a nude Kate Moss painted entirely in gold sets the tone. After all, who could be a better choice than Kate, whose meteoric rise in the Nineties was a defining feature of what many regard as the golden era of fashion and creativity. Le Gouès came up with the idea of the Goldfinger-inspired image of a nude Kate shimmering in full gold paint for an Esquire cover with make-up artist Kenny Campbell. The tagline that ran with the captivating image? Golden Girl: Kate Moss conquers the world.
Throughout the next decade, Le Gouès became one of the key figures in the Nineties’ creative fashion explosion. This was the time when the big titles like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, as well as more avant garde London magazines such as i-D and Dazed, were happy to give young creatives like Le Gouès the freedom to lean into and shape the cultural zeitgeist with their shoots – as demonstrated by the 280 photos pulled from his archive for the book.
One of the first models that Le Gouès shot for a big title was Carla Bruni, the legendary French model and former First Lady of France. A friend and muse, Bruni features heavily in the book, and even writes the preface, where she describes Le Gouès’ style as “imbued with delicacy and empathy, the shots are simple and joyful.”
This was only the beginning of myriad magic pairings between Le Gouès’ lens and now-famous faces throughout a career which also saw him work for brands including Alexander McQueen, Cartier, Fendi, Gucci, Thierry Mugler and Pierre Cardin.
Within the pages of 90’s, you’ll find a black and white cover shot of Naomi Campbell for Vogue Hommes, a cinematic shot of a giant Linda Evangelista stepping out of a billboard in a latex catsuit, and astonishing portraits of Amber Valletta, Eva Herzigova, Tatjana Patitz and more. Plus, of course, Kate.
90s is the fourth book to be released by Le Gouès in collaboration with PowerHouse Books. His first, Soul, which was published in 1997, was a bold and important statement that championed Black models at a time when they were largely excluded from fashion editorials. The book itself featured Black models shot in a high contrast, graphic style, and was such a success that it led to a multi-year international Nike campaign.
Now with the publication of 90s, fashion and art obsessives can fully indulge their nostalgia for the culture-shifting decade.
