Fashion Talk

"Amazing!" With a gasp of approval, Tilda Swinton places her delicate hands on Ihe Chanel gold feather neckpiece that will eventually adorn her perfectly proportioned, alabaster frame at the BlnckBook cover shoot. "It's very regal." she proclaims. "1 just love it."

Avant-garde goddess. An icon of indie cinema. To some, the most beautiful woman on the planet. And, on this morning in Paris, fashion model. Just in from Milan, where she's currently shooting the romantic drama to sono lainore, Swinton is exhausted from a late night of filming, but quickly becomes energized by the array of colors, cuts and styles of the fashion choices before her. Slowly examining racks of clothes that have been assembled for her 5'11" frame and her own exacting aesthetic by her longtime stylist Jerry Stafford, she focuses on metallics. such as a black pleated Alberta l:erretti gown with gold medallions affixed to its three-quarters cap sleeves. "It feels like a piece of nomadic tribal wear," she offers, before stepping in front of the camera.

Its a 10-hour day. far longer than most celebrity shoots. Swinton is dedicating her considerable creative energies to this project and wants to get il right. 'Ihe photographer's suggestion that she relax and play around with the back of her skirt causes a Heeling moment ol Iriction. "This is relaxed for me," she offers, posturing steady-on. "All the girly stuff is not relaxed for me. It's hard work." Seeing images of herself.

transmitting unruffled strength on the digital monitor, she comments, "'that I can do. I can give you that. It's all that girly stuff 1 can't do." Similarly, when the photographer says she looks a bit too much like a boy in one of the pictures, several hours into the shoot, she leans in and, as if letting him in on a secret, stage whispers: "That's kind of who I am."

The anecdote still tickles her the next morning when we meet for breakfast at the Hotel Lotti, a few minutes stroll away from the Louvre. Wearing a jersey by Martin Margiela and Ihe same turquoise skirl by Yves Saint Laurent that she had on the prior day (all Ihe better to travel light), Swinton comes across as being at ease in her own skin and with her looks, an impression that she's quick to clarify. "Comfortable is not the way I would put il. Resigned is probably the right word." she says, pouring packet after packet of sugar into her coffee. "A minimal amount of experimentation wenl on in my teenage years. There was only so much 1 could do with the way 1 look. I was never big into wearing mascara or blue eyeliner. It's very easy for me to look like a Goth, where very little goes a very long way. It feels more natural for me to wear a tux than a ball gown—lhat is a kind of transvestism for me. 1 never had an aspiration to look like a doll, which is fortunate."

But she did design her own clothes as a teenager growing up in one of the most aristocratic families of Scotland, a heritage she's seemed. Source (Balck Book Magazine)