Iconic 20th Century Images, Reinvented

A History Lesson From Angela Bassett, Spike Lee, Ruth E. Carter, and LaToya Ruby Frazier

Angela Bassett wears a Gucci dress; Bulgari bracelet.
Directed by Spike Lee; Photograph by LaToya Ruby Frazier;
Styled by Costume designer Ruth E. Carter. […]*

Spike Lee needed a queen. Three queens, in fact. One in front of the camera, one behind it, another to make sure everything looked and felt just so. As a filmmaker who has been tackling racism in America for more than 30 years, Lee has often strived to do many things at once: mix comedy and drama, satire with seriousness, and brazenly resurrect the past, as he did with his latest movie, ­BlacKkKlansman, in order to forcefully comment on the present. His approach to directing a fashion shoot—a ­fashion joint, this being a Lee production—was no different. He saw it as an opportunity to pay homage to two lifelong sources of inspiration: famous photographers who have powerfully captured black iconography of the past century, and the timeless power of black women.

Hence the three queens he had gathered inside a photo studio in Hollywood.

There was Angela Bassett, the actress, whom Lee first directed in Malcolm X, and whom he had chosen specifically for her imperial charisma. “So regal, so majestic,” Lee remarked. There was LaToya Ruby Frazier, the artist acclaimed for her work exploring the intersection of race, family, and place, who also shot the movie posters for BlacKkKlansman. And styling the proceedings was Ruth E. Carter, Lee’s costume designer since School Daze, his second feature, whose intricate work on Black Panther helped give the blockbuster its singular aesthetic and earned her an Oscar nomination. Together, they would spend the day paying tribute to some of Lee’s favorite photographers, including those in his personal collection, like James Van Der Zee, Irving Penn, and Gordon Parks, the late director of the original Shaft, and a hero of Lee’s. The idea was not so much to re-create celebrated images as to channel them into something new, with Bassett starring in a variety of shape-shifting roles—formidable diva, bohemian temptress—as the director saw fit. […]

“When I really like people’s work, and there’s an opportunity to work with them, I love doing it,” Lee said, explaining that he saw Frazier’s photography as an extension of the same lineage they were now celebrating. “Simply put, she’s killing it.”

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Courtesy of: W Magazine


Posed in a setup often used by Irving Penn, one of Spike Lee’s favorite photographers, Bassett wears a Moschino gown and Moschino Couture gloves; Balenciaga earrings; Toni + Chloë Goutal necklace; stylist’s own stole. Directed by Spike Lee; Photograph by LaToya Ruby Frazier; Styled by Costume designer Ruth E. Carter.

*Produced by Meghan Gallagher at Connect the Dots; Production Manager: Jane Oh at Connect the Dots; Photography Assistants: J. Mims, Gregory Brouillette, Giancarlo D’Agastaro; Digital Technician: Adam Kryzer at Milk Studios; Retouching and digital production by black and white on white; Fashion Assistants: Allia Alliata di Montereale, Nadia Beeman, Sharon Chitrit; Set Assistants: Cory Bailey, Sara Gernsbacher, Andrew O’Connell, Brian Rothlisberger, Derek Milton; Production Assistants: Nikki Patrilja, Jeremy Sinclair; Tailor: Carolina Glover. Hair by Randy Stodghill for Oribe at Opus Beauty; Makeup by D’Andre Michael for Dior Beauty; Manicure by Ashley V. Williams for DND. Set design by Gille Mills at the Magnet Agency.