Icons Grace Jones, Bianca Jagger, Anjelica Huston, and Cher all feature heavily
With a name that plays on the monumental publishing house – and perhaps its politics – @conde.nasty is the Instagram account paying homage to the fashion industry’s models, photographers, designers, and editors synonymous with decades past. Born from a love of fashion publishing and design history, the account is curated by Anna Reinherz, a 21 year old fashion student and illustrator who’s based in LA.
Reinherz’s earliest fashion memory is watching The Devil Wears Prada at the age of 10. “I think that movie probably piqued my interest more than anything because I loved Miranda so much and all of her outfits,” she explains. “It really made me want to be a part of the industry. From there I started researching designers, models, and editors and as the years went on I started watching documentaries like Mademoiselle C and The September Issue. Soon I became completely engrossed in all aspects of fashion.”
Reinherz fuels her interest by scanning the pages of archive magazines and extensively searching fashion databases. “I starting hoarding so much archive imagery,” she says. "I wanted to create a space where I could curate my favourite images and connect with people that have a mutual appreciation for past fashion.”
Each image selected has to be something that Reinherz would be happy to hang on her wall. “I have a very particular taste in imagery, so everything I post is very meticulously curated. I definitely love the 70s the most so I’m always searching for images of my favourite women from the era, like Grace Jones, Lauren Hutton, Bianca Jagger, Anjelica Huston, and Cher.”
Reinherz’s favourite designers are L’Wren Scott (“I think that her vision of re-inventing old world glamour was absolutely brilliant and she had the most refined and skilled eye”), Norma Kamali, Halston, and Thierry Mugler (“for the silhouette of their garments”) and she’s drawn to the work of photographers like Chris Von Wangenheim, Helmut Newton, Antonio Lopez, and Guy Bourdin. “I love images with glossy textures and rich contrast. All of those photographer’s works have amazing creative direction and composition as well. I love photographers from the 70s and the 80s that were beginning to push boundaries,” she explains.
Meanwhile, Reinherz cites the Bob Mackie designed ‘naked dress’ that Cher wore to the Oscars in 1988 as one of her personal favourite archive fashion moments (“Cher is the ultimate trailblazer for her ability to test boundaries”), alongside the time that Pat Cleveland descended from the ceiling at a Thierry Mugler show in 1984.
If @conde.nasty were a person, Reinherz is sure it would be Diane Von Furstenberg, “for her overall message of female empowerment” – a theme that she considers a red thread running through her IG account. “I want young people to feel inspired and learn about times past and maybe gain some new role models. All of the women that I post are role models of mine. I don’t post anyone that I don’t admire and look up to in some way.”