This story is part of Image issue 21, “Image Makers,” our third annual celebration of the homegrown fashion luminaries who are designing a global fashion future built from the L.A. that was. Read the whole issue here. You can purchase the issue in print here.
There’s still a mystery and magic to the road found in everyone’s favorite movie. The cinematic is calling you to pull over on Mulholland Drive. How you choose to do so is up to you. In this feature, photographer Zamar Velez, model Ariel Toole and a small crew consisting of Yasmin Istanbouli and Ashley Lynn Hall wondered what it might be like to reenvision Mulholland Drive as a fashion runway. Velez, known for his moody silhouettes and for co-founding Black Image Center, brought his camera. Toole assumed the role of protagonist, fitted in looks carefully curated by Tinbete Daniel. The side of the road is understood as a boundary. It’s not a space most dare to examine closely. Maybe it’s the narrowness — there’s not much between a cement road and the cliff. But Toole’s presence, carefully and artfully rendered by Velez, helps transform the shoulder into a horizon. Her silhouette is clarifying — there is more beyond what we can see. More out there to experience, more to encounter, more mystery, more wonder, more to the most famous street in the movies than what meets the eye. — The editors
Model Ariel Toole wears Bottega Veneta dress and boots.
(Zamar Velez / For The Times)
Model Ariel Toole wears Bottega Veneta leather shirt, pants, tank and bag.
(Zamar Velez / For The Times)
Ariel Toole wears Ferragamo leather jacket and pants.
(Zamar Velez / For The Times)
Model: Ariel Toole
Makeup: Yasmin Istanbouli
Hair: Ashley Lynn Hall
