Four Croatian Models Celebrate Female Body

Lea Gobo, Lana Petanic, Ana Popovic and Malina Grahek embodied the four elements of nature in front of Mare Milin’s camera.

On our pages you may have read the article and seen the video of the campaign of the fashion manifestation Quelle Fashion.hr spring/summer 09, which will be held from July 10 to 12 in Zadar. 

Famous Croatian fashion photographer, Mare Milin, shot a campaign called “Peti Element” (The Fifth Element) and here are the results. The campaign shows four female models who symbolise the four elements of nature: fire, water, earth and air, and fashion as the element on which the other four meet each other.

- First of all, as a photographer I had to adapt to the theme which the producer assigned, due to the concept of architectonic wonder itself, such as “Sea Organs” and “Farewell to the Sun”. The theme itself got off from the cohesion of the four elements (fire, water, earth and air) and their presence in fashion. We thought fashion in a new context as the junction point where the elements mix with one another. We concentrated on evoking these elements of nature serving “dressing” in fashion photography, and in fashion in general. Here I mainly refer to fashion accessories which often have an important influence in many editorials, as in defining someone’s fashion awareness. The idea itself is extremely decent and discrete, it celebrated the female body and sends a series of messages through the mentioned accessories. For example, the model who holds a scarf who dances in the wind symbolises the air, the model next to there with a quiet and proud expression on her face and a necklace represents the earth, the third model with sunglasses and warm reflection marks fire and warmth, and the fourth model completely fresh and aquatic represents water. This is what I personally wanted to add to the campaign: a process of reading between the lines which I use in my work – said Mare Milin after shooting the campaign.

Apart from Mare Milin, as art director of the campaign, the director of Fashion.hr, Vinko Filipic, explained his view of the concept of “Fifth Element”.

- As we set the manifestation from the point of view of the creation and production, the story of the four elements jumped out on its own, and today it will be present during the review in Zadar. Reviews are held on an installation which absorbs solar energy (fire) and in that way goes on living after sunset. Then are Sea organs and an immediate closeness to the seas (water), the sounds mix with summer breeze which kisses the shore (air), and the final touch, it all takes place on the shore (earth). We called Mare Milin to interpret our view of Zadar. In this way we go towards the end of the story which follows a logic, because we will all be exposed to the game of the mentioned elements, and in this way we will celebrate fashion as an expression of human creativity.

The head roles in the campaign were played by Croatian models with experience abroad: Lea Gobo and Lana Petanic from Talia Model, and Midikenn’s Ana Popovic and Malina Grahek.