With her inspiring presence since she arrived on the fashion scene in the early 2000s, Irina Lazareanu is the ultimate Cool Girl™. Her strong sense of personal style and post-punkish elfin beauty saw her become the muse of both Karl Lagerfeld and Nicholas Ghesquiere and a frequent collaborator with Kate Moss. Now two decades into her career, Irina looks back with Models.com and shares an excerpt from her recently published book, Runway Bird: A Rock ‘n’ Roll Style Guide.
Staying Power is an ongoing series celebrating models who have spent at least a decade working at the top of the industry. Through a selection of their most significant images, these household names and cult fashion favorites tell their stories.
Vogue Czechoslovakia, April 2022
Photographed by Branislav Simoncik
I flew to Paris on the morning of February 24th, 2022, to shoot my first Vogue cover in years and start promoting my new book, “Runway Bird.” I was, as you can imagine, in high spirits and keen to get to work. When we landed and were allowed to turn our phones on, notifications started chiming across the aisles: Russia had invaded Ukraine. My mood went from effervescent to despair as I took my first steps out of the airplane in a state of disbelief. As each one of us arrived that morning, I recognized the same sadness in their eyes and, deeper behind that, an all too familiar quickening memory of fear and oppression at the hands of the USSR. If you’re from Eastern Europe it’s baked into your DNA.
It was Jan Králíček, Creative Director and Fashion Director of Vogue Czechoslovakia, and photographer Branislav Simoncik who came to our rescue, buoyed our morale and helped us figure out “what can a fashion magazine do for peace?” In my experience, things never seem to work out as they’re initially intended to, and this cover shoot bears that out. This story was supposed to be an homage to indie fashion in the first decade of the 2000s. One of the aspects of that decade I miss the most was how smartphones and social media were yet to arrive. Without the distraction of Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, etc, when artists got together they spent more time in uninterrupted dialogue where ideas developed more fluidly into creative collaborations.
Erin [Wasson] and I were tasked with recreating the distinctive look of the era, rife as it was with punk attitude and a confluence of musical references ranging from Grunge to New Wave & Krautrock. With the help of our gifted stylist Chiara Totire, we set about painting an honest and intimate portrait of what was sartorially synonymous with those years. As Erin put it that day in her inimitable idiom: “self and expressive”. Erin always had the ability to foresee trends through the sheer exuberance of her crisp and unique clarity. She has the intelligence and perception to always find something rare and wonderful that’s happening in the social consciousness of a time and transform it into art. The last-minute addition of the peace sign on the cover seemed an appropriate nod to the underlying feeling of deep concern we all felt that day as children of the East. The amazing Vogue Czech team managed to pull us away from despair for a day, and I think you can feel that in the images.
Dior Couture, 60th Anniversary, 2007
Photographed by Robert Fairer
Paris Fashion Week is undeniably the crown jewel event within the industry. Some of my most unforgettable runway experiences took place in the City of Light, most notably Dior’s 60th anniversary at Versailles. Along the halls of The Orangery was the longest catwalk I’ve ever walked — nearly a mile! To be honest, though, it felt more like ten in those heels. The show’s casting was a who’s who of supermodels: Linda, Naomi, Amber, Shalom, Gisele — the list went on. That season, John [Galliano] transformed his muses into three-dimensional interpretations of works by impressionist and modern painters. Every model was given a brief for a pseudo-theatrical role to help her get into character. Gisele became the Black Wasp, Helena Christensen was Catherine the Great. I became Kiki de Montparnasse in an outfit he had designed with my ‘playful’ personality in mind.
The energy backstage was frenetic! We all felt this show might be remembered as an important moment in the history of fashion. The excitement was palpable. As it turns out, gathering sixty supermodels in one regal environment makes for a captivating storyline. Without giving too much away, I’m sure you can imagine the narrative twists and turns such a rogue’s gallery of characters could create. There was enough diva drama around to make Marie Antoinette blush. For starters, a certain supermodel was missing in action. Her private jet was sitting on a runway fuelled and ready to go. She, however, was experiencing some technical difficulties with her significant other due to unpredictable weather patterns caused by his insufferable attitude. There were three separate makeup tents assigned to different ranks: ‘model’, ‘supermodel’, or ‘super supermodel’. Whoever had this brilliant idea wasn’t long for this world. Ranking supermodels in order of importance isn’t something any mortal should ever attempt.
After five hours of hair and makeup and several bottles of champagne, I was covered in glitter and feathers and was methodically getting into character. Laughing and giggling myself towards the runway, I quickly realized that no one could actually walk in the shoes. “Screw it,” shouted Naomi, “we’ll float down the runway!” A mere fender bender for this group of all-stars, who, of course, pulled it off gracefully. A magical show, exquisite and delightful, it was perfect and, like all of John’s shows, we had fun–maybe a little too much fun–at the lavish after-party, considering half of us barely made it to Chanel the next morning.
Excerpted from Runway Bird: A Rock ’n’ Roll Style Guide by Irina Lazareanu, © Flammarion, 2022.
Self Service S/S 2006 Cover
Photographed by Inez and Vinoodh
The concept for our Self Service editorial was this: two parallel universes that somehow collide in the same hotel suite at the Saint Regis in NYC. Two different women, each representing the aesthetic of two different decades. The second model was my pal, Hilary Rhoda, the quintessential American bombshell and utterly intimidating natural beauty. They transformed her into a fierce 80s babe, along the lines of Brooke Shields or Joan Collins, both divas that defined a decade. My character was definitely a modern interpretation of Penelope Tree. Inhabiting a 60s avant-garde mentality, she was a combination of eccentricity and innocence, part iconic fringe, part Antonioni’s Blow Up. I hadn’t jumped around like that since seeing New Order in the 90s in Manchester.
All of this happened under the watchful eye and precise direction of Suzanne Koller. Way more than a stylist, Suzanne is a true artistic director. Throughout her stellar career at Self Service (the magazine she created with Ezra Petronio) and M Le Monde, she has consistently portrayed with aplomb a confident vision of femininity, creating timeless images that are at once modern, poetic, strong and sensual. True to form, Suzanne’s gamble here was audacious, as the story could have easily turned into a fiasco. I’m shorter than Hilary and our facial structures have nothing in common, but Suzanne found a way to utilize our differences to great effect, transforming the mood with a percussive energy that is evident in the images. Her styling was a true je ne sais quoi of peculiar accessories and glamorous gowns.
When the magic happens there’s only one thing to do: watch and learn. That’s exactly what I did that day. There’s always a surreal moment of calm and serenity as you stand on set, right before the clicking of camera shutters commences. It’s usually the time I close my eyes and take a deep breath. That day, I remember feeling that we were about to create something very special, the dedication and attention to detail of the whole crew was inspiring. The feeling of letting go, and losing the anxiety of needing perfect control of my body (which so often has better ideas than my head in these moments) is a gift.
Runway Bird, 2022
Photographed by Jan Welters
Choosing a cover for Runway Bird was an organic and surprisingly easy choice. The unanimous favorite was a photograph taken by Jan Welters & styled by Lucy Pinter. When I look at this image I feel its energy fairly accurately contains how I feel off-camera – in the search for evolving balance of harmony and chaos and its reassuring synchronicity to the tone of my book’s contents: buoyant, honest and fun. I’ve been fortunate enough to have worked with this dynamic duo many times throughout the 20 years of my career. It was Jan who took my first portrait the very day I arrived in Paris back in January 2002.
Looking back now, I can see how much this maestro of light and confirmed queen of style soon became a reassuring presence for me. During our many adventures traveling the world shooting campaigns for Lucy’s brand Superfine, they always encouraged me to be myself and embrace a sense of fun in front of the lens, with that feeling of calm that only comes with working with people you know are not just a safe pair of hands, but professionals at the absolute top of their game.
Jan & Lucy have been a source of inspiration and a font of constant happiness throughout my career, forever finding a way to manifest any image we collaborated on into a timeless gypsy-punk piece of art. They’re two of my all-time favorite partners in crime, and as such it fills me with joy that this is the photograph on the front of my funny little book.
As for what’s inside, I guess it might be best described as a series of love letters to the magical people I’ve been blessed to connect with throughout my time in fashion. Each chapter addresses a specific person, fashion house or band/musician. I give a little anecdotal vignette about first meeting them or a story that I feel best describes their personality and/or my relationship with them, then have a little fun talking about how -should you wish to- one might go about borrowing some of their clothing style or attitudes. The folk you’ll find lurking these pages are those whose influence impacted me the most, those whose spell still endures. Some challenged me, some taught me how to dress, some taught me how to love, and I share what I’ve learned from them.
Excerpted from Runway Bird: A Rock ’n’ Roll Style Guide by Irina Lazareanu, © Flammarion, 2022.
