Self-Portrait reflects and refracts the female gaze

In 1972, John Berger argued that women had been portrayed, throughout Western art, as if they were objects of consumption. His BBC series and book of the same title – Ways of Seeing – explored the ways in which a woman might internalise society’s gaze, living life as her own spectator. A Kyle Weeks-lensed editorial in the spring issue of Dazed draws inspiration from that same thesis, dressing sets in pornographic magazine covers while models are captured staring into their fractured reflections. 

It’s fitting, then, that London label Self-Portrait should cloak the shoot in its recent collection – all ruched miniskirts, serpentine bodycons, and pastel ribbed-knit sets, which had been affixed with sinuous spaghetti straps. With a swipe of colour-pop eyeshadow and a cinematic wash of blue light, these were looks that spoke to designer Han Chong’s SS22 credo: “self-aware, self-sufficient, self-determined, self-indulgent, self-expressive, self-searching”. Click through the gallery above to see the rest of the shoot from the spring 2022 issue of Dazed, and head here to buy the mag.