{"id":135771,"date":"2021-02-09T12:00:35","date_gmt":"2021-02-09T17:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/?p=135771"},"modified":"2023-03-18T17:48:34","modified_gmt":"2023-03-18T21:48:34","slug":"brooke-shields-reflects-on-creating-iconic-images","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/?p=135771","title":{"rendered":"Staying Power: Brooke Shields Reflects on Creating Iconic Images"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before Brooke Shields<\/a>‘ eighteenth birthday she was already an indisputable part of American film lore and fashion. Her influence over the decades has spanned way beyond movies into an expansive career in fashion that is part of popular culture legend. Modeling since she was a baby, her distinctive look is a persistent reference point in fashion iconography as a favorite of Richard Avedon and Francesco Scavullo. Here the woman once named Face of the Decade tells Models.com what she really thinks about the iconic imagery she helped create.<\/p>\n

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.<\/em><\/p>\n

Interview by Betty Sze<\/a>. Text & editing by Rosie Daly<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
image courtesy Brooke Shields\/IMG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Calvin Klein Jeans, 1980<\/strong>
\nPhotographed by Richard Avedon.<\/em>
\nWhat\u2019s so interesting about this is that certain photos happen and they hit the zeitgeist or they strike a chord, or it\u2019s sort of this combination of people all in the right place at the right time. And this was by far one of those situations. You can never set out to do those photos, although people often say so now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Because the photo itself was attached to the commercials that we were doing, it felt more of a part of a whole\u00a0creative direction.\u00a0It was\u00a0taken out of the realm of just modeling denim and each piece was serving a bigger purpose in a way.\u00a0We\u00a0filmed a minute-long commercial, which was the first time a minute-long commercial had ever been filmed.\u00a0We\u00a0were going\u00a0for a full\u00a0minute and\u00a0play them in movie theaters.\u00a0That\u00a0was\u00a0unprecedented.\u00a0When I look at that picture, it reminds me of a whole\u00a0project that was larger than any one of the single components.<\/p>\n

I had done big national campaigns and\u00a0worked with\u00a0Vogue\u00a0and\u00a0many\u00a0European magazines. But it was\u00a0the first time I was being asked to be an actress as well as a model.\u00a0For\u00a0me, it\u2019s always interesting in hindsight because you look back and you look at the impact a certain image had on an industry.\u00a0I never really knew what they were going to use, what they wanted, what the tone really was.\u00a0This was just me and\u00a0Dick Avedon\u00a0working\u00a0in the way that we always worked together.\u00a0It was\u00a0rather seamless. It didn\u2019t seem much out of the ordinary, except for the fact that there was an actress component to it.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0more important piece was the commercials. We were doing print before and after each commercial.\u00a0Sometimes we were shooting print on the set. Sometimes we were shooting it after a [commercial] spot was shot\u2026 it was over a course of three days.\u00a0It\u00a0felt different because it was the first time I had been asked to not just be a model but\u00a0also\u00a0be an actress\u00a0for very different characters.\u00a0This\u00a0then bled back into the print version of the photo.<\/p>\n

It was\u00a0nice to feel that it had come back around to bridge the gap from photography to cinema.\u00a0The\u00a0DP was a film cinematographer.\u00a0This was\u00a0the first time that both\u00a0of my worlds\u00a0had been combined in one project, in one campaign.<\/p>\n

The thing that was revelatory for me with regards to the Calvin Klein campaign was that for one product, we did multiple commercials.\u00a0That\u00a0one photograph\u2026, there were two photographs\u00a0that became the label and once they picked those, they kind of stuck with them.\u00a0But, the\u00a0commercials were so varied and it was just\u00a0a different\u00a0level of advertising.\u00a0The\u00a0copy was so different and inspiring.<\/p>\n

We were working 14, 15 hour days for each one of those spots.\u00a0It\u00a0was unheard of, they didn\u2019t have teleprompters or cue cards or anything like that.\u00a0I was memorizing text that was a minute long on what the genetic code is.\u00a0It\u00a0was just very unique.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
image courtesy Brooke Shields\/IMG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

US Vogue, February 1980<\/strong>
\nPhotographed by Richard Avedon.<\/em>
\nThere were a few years where\u00a0a couple of times a week after school, I was going to Avedon’s studio and we were shooting a Vogue cover. Then I\u2019d do my homework while Polly Mellen was doing her thing.\u00a0I look at that type of a Vogue cover and I knew the look, he knew the look he wanted. It was relatively easy to do because we worked really well.\u00a0I just knew him and he knew me well. So we just hammered it out.\u00a0It\u00a0was funny because, from the waist down, I was just in my blue jeans and Topsiders.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
image courtesy Brooke Shields\/IMG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TIME Magazine, February 1981<\/strong>
\nPhotographed by Francesco Scavullo.<\/em>
\nThe interesting thing about this cover\u00a0was that we were in Italy, which was so unheard of then. I was at Valentino\u2019s atelier and had done a private little show because I\u2019d never done runway.\u00a0The\u00a0runway was\u00a0maybe half the size of a table and it was just so clients\u00a0could see. They didn\u2019t have a model-model, they just had a fit model showing the clothes.\u00a0I remember\u00a0coming out and doing one little surprise [on the runway], it was\u00a0an inside joke to do this. I walked down in this really pretty sort of hand-rolled, gorgeous silk pink, pink and black dress.\u00a0At\u00a0the end of it, when all the business was done, Scavullo came into the atelier and they put on a sweater, a Valentino sweater, and he set up one of the tables by a white wall. It maybe took 15 minutes. We did it just there, then, at his office on a table smashed up against the wall.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was so shocking to me that [the cover] was such a monumental declaration. That the face of a decade\u00a0\u2026 I remember laughing. I said to my mom, \u201cmom, who decides whose face it is?\u201d She\u2019s\u00a0said\u00a0, \u201cI don\u2019t know. Let\u2019s not ask any questions, just take it and we\u2019ll just\u2026 just smile and move on.\u201d\u00a0I remember thinking, who decides this? Is it God? Who gets to arbitrarily pick somebody\u2019s face and say that that is the face of a decade? It just was funny to me. It was an honor obviously, but it definitely didn\u2019t feel earned as much as it felt decided by the powers that be.
\nThe coolest thing\u00a0about that cover was that I got to keep the sweater. And [usually] I never got to keep anything!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
image courtesy Brooke Shields\/IMG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Keith Haring & Richard Avedon poster, 1985<\/strong>
\nThere was a lot of pressure surrounding this.\u00a0I think this was\u00a0a mistake. Avedon had done the Nastassja Kinski snake poster and everybody thought this would be a brilliant idea.\u00a0Keith was a friend. My mom was\u00a0a huge fan of his and somehow we all, through Andy Warhol, and,\u00a0Avedon,\u00a0there was\u00a0a\u00a0combination of everybody sort of knowing each other. So Avedon thought it would be a really great idea to join forces with Keith and create a sort of equally amazing poster with the idea of, I\u00a0think\u00a0selling a ton of them. I\u00a0assume\u00a0he sold many of the Nastassja posters.\u00a0Nastassja\u2019s was so unbelievably gorgeous and unique and unseen. I think that there was a lot of pressure to\u00a0come up with the next thing.\u00a0But I think,\u00a0when you try to do something like that, it can\u2019t work.\u00a0It doesn\u2019t happen that way. That\u2019s not the way I believe true, true, true art kind of emerges.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The day of the photoshoot I woke up and one eye was just practically swollen shut. I don\u2019t know what it was, a bite or an allergy or something had gotten in my eye.\u00a0We\u00a0tried to cancel the photoshoot\u00a0and said,\u00a0unless I wear an eye patch, I\u2019m like a pirate.\u00a0Maybe that would have\u00a0that might have actually been something! That might\u2019ve been more. Now,\u00a0as I\u00a0think\u00a0about it,\u00a0it probably would have been the best way to do it. Instead,\u00a0they said, we will\u00a0fix her eye [in post-production].\u00a0I thought,\u00a0that doesn\u2019t seem really right, but nobody wants to give this photoshoot up.\u00a0Keith had\u00a0drawn these beautiful hearts and\u00a0had\u00a0painted them and\u00a0did\u00a0them specifically for this photoshoot. \u00a0I thought,\u00a0just do as they say.\u00a0In my opinion,\u00a0it just was never fabulous.\u00a0It\u00a0was a little bit forced. Keith was happy and sweet and we just had fun being together, but Avedon wanted to create a caption underneath it\u00a0that I felt\u00a0was really crude. That\u2019s how they were going to market the poster. They were going to market it as this new, fabulous, beautifully printed horizontal poster as a follow-up to Nastassja\u2019s\u00a0and\u00a0the caption was going to be \u2018Brooke Shields with a heart on for Keith Haring.\u2019 My mother took one look at that\u00a0and said, \u201cwe\u2019re not signing any release. We\u2019re not doing anything.\u201d,\u00a0we refuse to be a part of that. Keith is a friend and it\u2019s cheap. It\u2019s not inspired. It\u2019s gross.\u201d\u00a0I was only 15 or 16.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know what their justification was. I think it was to just be controversial and sell posters. I don\u2019t think you can plan controversy\u00a0just as\u00a0I don\u2019t think you can plan iconic photos.\u00a0When\u00a0I heard that, I\u00a0thought, God, that\u2019s distasteful. Nothing of that makes sense to me. But we did the photoshoot and they fixed the eye\u00a0and\u00a0the best part about it,\u00a0was that we left with the artwork. My mother\u00a0said, \u201cOh yeah? Well, they\u2019re on styrofoam. We\u2019re taking them.\u201d So I have one piece over my fireplace and the other over our bed\u00a0and\u00a0one is dedicated to my mom.\u00a0She was basically saying\u00a0\u201cwe\u2019ll take this and we\u2019ll take this and you keep your dumb ideas to yourself\u201d\u00a0and\u00a0we left\u2013Keith and my mom and me. I think we all went downtown together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0funny thing was, the poster itself never really sold. It wasn\u2019t a huge success and it was because we didn\u2019t set out to do it right. They should have postponed it to a day my eye wasn\u2019t all swollen. It should\u2019ve just been what it was, this collaboration of these friends and\u00a0pop iconography in whatever way you want to digest that or regard it and\u00a0that should have been it.\u00a0Instead,\u00a0I think they were just trying to do too many things. In any case, it was not a success and I wasn\u2019t surprised.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
image courtesy Brooke Shields\/IMG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vogue Paris, October 1984<\/strong>
\nPhotographed by Albert Watson<\/a>.<\/em>
\nI always loved working with Albert Watson.\u00a0I\u00a0was friends with his son and we went to school together,\u00a0and Albert\u00a0always was able to take a big magazine like that and shoot it so that it still seemed like it retained a bit of me. Avedon was always just a little bit more in-your-face about something, a little bit more arch. He always wanted this sort of surprised look.\u00a0With\u00a0Albert, he has such a good sense of humor, always has.\u00a0Our friendship was always so good. There was a warmth to it.\u00a0I always felt very pretty when I worked with him. Different than when I worked with Avedon\u2026 or Scavullo, who had a different kind of a thing too because it was Cosmo or whatever.\u00a0Also,\u00a0I\u2019d known him \u2026 he shot my first Ivory soap ad when I was 11 months old,\u00a0so I had known him my whole life. But Albert always seemed, it just always was sort of luscious\u00a0and\u00a0I\u00a0always felt like you knew you were going to be sort of the prettiest and glamorous, but not too forced.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
image courtesy Brooke Shields\/IMG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Cosmopolitan US, February 1981<\/strong>
\nPhotographed by Francesco Scavullo. Beauty by Way Bandy.<\/em>
\nThis was my first Cosmo and this was also with Way Bandy. I remember thinking I was going to be too flat-chested for it, but because we got this\u00a0keyhole on the leather, I\u00a0was able\u00a0to borrow it that night and go to a premiere. I wore a blazer over it, a big white blazer, and it was very exciting. I felt like I had really\u00a0made it because I was grown up now enough to be on the cover of Cosmo.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
image courtesy Brooke Shields\/IMG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Vogue US, April 2003<\/strong>
\nPhotographed by Annie Leibovitz<\/a>.<\/em>
\nI remember being worried that I didn\u2019t look pregnant enough for the timing\u00a0of\u00a0the magazine so I had to kind of puff out my stomach. I knew that no pregnant photo was going to rival Demi\u2019s because hers was so extraordinary. We did this whole day underwater, and we were underwater in a tank. We had such high hopes about what this photo was going to be and\u2026 it just didn\u2019t work. It just wasn\u2019t what [Annie Leibovitz] wanted. We just didn\u2019t succeed at it. We were so frustrated because it just wasn\u2019t what we\u2019d hoped. We pictured water and pregnant and all of the references you can make.\u00a0At\u00a0\u00a0the very, very end, I stood out of the pool, and I remember thinking, \u201cOh God, this is probably going to be the one that they use\u201d\u00a0and\u00a0it sure was. It was the one where I got out of the pool and [Leibowitz],\u00a0said\u00a0\u201cstay there for one second.\u201d\u00a0That\u00a0was it. That was the photo.<\/p>\n

We really tried. It could have been great, but that\u2019s if it wasn\u2019t as forced as it was. We\u00a0were really battling water and timing and the dress was on my face. It was not easy to do and it was really hard to hold my breath that long.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
image courtesy Brooke Shields\/IMG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Got Milk? campaign<\/strong>
\nPhotographed by Annie Leibovitz<\/a>.<\/em>
\nI worked with Annie again to do the Got Milk? one. She wanted me to wear a turtleneck and at first, I thought, nobody\u2019s done a milk ad nude. Why don\u2019t I just do it naked and just covered, but have it be nude? I thought it would be cool. And obviously, that\u2019s why I\u2019m not a photographer and she is. She said, \u201cno, we\u2019ve got your legs. That\u2019s what I want and then I want it all to be about the face.\u201d She just sort of wanted the body to kind of go away.\u00a0We\u00a0shot that in LA while\u00a0I was doing Suddenly Susan at the time.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
image courtesy Brooke Shields\/IMG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MAC Cosmetics, 2014<\/strong>
\nPhotographed by Inez and Vinoodh<\/a>.<\/em>
\nThe Inez and Vinoodh thing was so hysterical to me because we\u2019re doing this MAC palette that was both night and day and two sides of a person.\u00a0I had never worked with a pair of photographers. I\u00a0was\u00a0used to zeroing in on a photographer and you understand their movements and their vernacular and their tone and the environment is different. It\u2019s a very personal thing and it\u2019s in the lens and it\u2019s just you and just them,\u00a0but\u00a0here they were a couple together.\u00a0They\u00a0hired a choreographer [Stephen Galloway] to stand behind the camera and emote. I could hardly keep a straight face. It just seemed so unbelievable to me. It was great.\u00a0He is\u00a0extremely lyrical and beautiful and that\u2019s what he does.\u00a0He is\u00a0this beautiful man.\u00a0It just struck me as the funniest thing I\u2019d ever seen. I just had never worked like that before.\u00a0I thought,\u00a0what am I supposed to do with that? Why is he doing all that behind the camera?\u00a0It\u00a0was really funny to me. Inez and Vinoodh have such a fascinating sensibility.\u00a0I have worked with them more than once, and would like to do so again!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
image courtesy Brooke Shields\/IMG<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pop Magazine, Winter 2017<\/strong>
\nPhotographed by Charlotte Wales<\/a>.<\/em>
\nIt was\u00a0so incredible\u00a0when\u00a0they asked me to\u00a0come back on board with Calvin and be a part of the label again. This video,\u00a0sort of retro kind of homage,\u00a0it was just an honor. It was just cool to be a part of it and have the old images be\u00a0resurrected in such an interesting way. It was fun.\u00a0I just remember thinking, \u201cyeah, I\u2019m probably the only one that can do this, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before Brooke Shields‘ eighteenth birthday she was already an indisputable part of American film lore and fashion. Her influence over the decades has spanned way beyond movies into an expansive career in fashion that is part of popular culture legend. Modeling since she was a baby, her distinctive look is a persistent reference point in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47,"featured_media":135810,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10414,16,13940,13083],"tags":[314,1332,2798,12924],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135771"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/47"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=135771"}],"version-history":[{"count":23,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146297,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135771\/revisions\/146297"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/135810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=135771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=135771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/models.com\/oftheminute\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=135771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}