When it comes to its campaigns, Comme des Garçons is notorious for spotlighting everything but its clothing. Instead, we have seen images featuring a dove in flight, snail-covered pegs, or artwork created by Cindy Sherman. Perhaps the most memorable campaign is AW88’s image – shot by Jim Britt and featuring his two daughters, Jody and Mimi. The minimal shot shows the brace-wearing duo throwing back their heads in laughter, in an intimate and unabashed moment of joy.
If you’ve ever wondered what the story was behind the image, a new book – edited and published by Dazed’s editor-in-chief Isabella Burley, with art direction from Jamie Andrew Reid – reveals all. While the instantly recognisable image is now linked with Comme des Garçons, it was never shot with the campaign in mind. In fact, the image was originally published in People magazine and then discovered 12 years later and licensed by the label to be used.
Entitled “SISTERS by Jim Britt, 1976” the book was four years in the making, as is explained in the foreword. After reaching out to Burley over email, Britt later revealed that he had taken many more photographs during the same session that had previously not been seen by anyone other than himself and his daughters. Bringing these images to light for the first time ever, the new book features many of the images taken before and after the final shot that was used in the campaign. Each one is just as intimate as the one we know and love, with Burley explaining that the series is joyful, hopeful, and flawed – “Everything that fashion normally isn’t.”
Elsewhere, the photographer tells the story of the series of portraits, and there is an interview with both of his daughters, as they recall growing up in front of their father’s camera. Ahead of the book’s official launch – at Dover Street Market London on October 4 – Britt will also be doing a special signing of the first 100 copies bought at DSM NY on September 6.
“SISTERS by Jim Britt, 1976” is available at sisterswithbraces.com; the first 100 copies will launch at Dover Street Market on September 6 6-8pm with a special signing by Jim Britt.