Paul Cavaco, stylist and former creative director of
Allure: “Every year we did a story about topical treat-
ments to take care of aging skin. One of the ideas was
moisturizing your body. The challenge was how do we
show this in a provocative way? So it’s not just about, you
know, greasing your elbows—putting cream on your skin
is a picture we’ve seen a million times. So what’s the pic-
ture? You have to draw in the reader. If a writer writes a
great story but the photo isn’t drawing in the reader visu-
ally, you’re not helping. So the story was assigned, and
then Cindy was booked for the shoot. Usually I like to go
over some of the text with the photographer while we
figure out the shot, but we booked Cindy before any of
the story’s research was even in.”
Cindy Crawford, model: “I’m sure I was vaguely briefed
on the concept of the story. But [not fully knowing the
concept] is the fun thing. We just get there that day and
we try to figure out how we’re going to tell a story
through photographs. That gives me excitement and
adrenaline, you know what I mean?”
P. C.: “We all grew up in a time when a lot of what hap-
pened on set happened at that moment. The photo
would just...happen. You were used to being agile
enough and having worked with each other enough that
you could figure out what to do.”
C. C.: “So the shaving cream shot, to my memory, was the
last one of the day.”
Gucci Westman, makeup artist: “We talked to Cindy
about doing a nude idea—you know, with her covered in
shaving cream....”
P. C.: “Like [you would be with] body lotion.”
G. W. : “...inspired by those Guy Bourdin and Helmut New-
ton images that are so strong. Looking at the woman as a
powerful entity as opposed to an object—strength in the
body, strength in the pose.”
P. C.: “Her body was beyond. It still is beyond!”
C. C.: “I’d already had kids, right? [Crawford was 43 and
the mother of a nine-year-old and a seven-year-old.] So
that was very empowering, showing the beauty and
strength of a grown-up woman who’d had [two] kids. Plus,
the idea that it was a story about maturing skin and how
women want to feel beautiful at any age.”
ORAL HISTORY
“If I said Iremembered howmany bottlesof shaving creamwe went through,I’d be lying.”G. W.: “We wanted to create a memorable image.”
P. C.: “Originally we had Cindy nude—she was only wear-
ing a G-string—in a kiddie pool that we had filled up with
shaving cream (the idea wasn’t to see the kiddie pool in
the picture, it was just to hold in the suds), but it wasn’t
working. We knew within 10 minutes it wasn’t working.
Here’s the thing: When you’re working with a supermodel,
everything looks fine. She got in the pool, and it looked
great. But can we one-up it? Can we make it better? Can
we make an image you’re going to remember? We can do
a nice image, but what we want to do is make a lasting
image. So then we were like, now what do we do? How do
we make this stuff stick on her?”
C. C.: “At first they had me put the cream on myself, but I
couldn’t quite see the placement. Gucci finessed it.”
G. W.: “It was just the two of us in the studio initially, apply-
ing and making sure it was all in the right places, and we
had buckets of shaving cream mixed with soapsuds—we
had to mix the two so the mixture would last longer. Every-
thing looks super easy in the final shot, but reapplication
was constant because it would melt or dissipate.”
P. C.: “We had to send my assistant out to the drugstore for
more shaving cream. We got whatever was available.”
G. W.: “If I said I remembered how many bottles of shaving
cream we went through, I’d be lying—I used a wet sponge
and kind of lobbed it on wherever we needed it.”
C. C.: “We didn’t want a whipped-cream bikini—it was
about finding the right amount so it didn’t look so strategi-
cally placed. And once that was happening, and I was
trusting the team, it was so different than modeling a
dress. Sometimes being naked is easier, to me, because I
understand how to make strong shapes with my body.”
P. C.: “You have no idea what a shot is going to look like [in
the end]. You’re just trying to do the best job you can do
on set. I adore everybody who was involved in this one. At
the end of the day, it was a job, and we got it done.”
C. C.: “I loved the story. Strong and whimsical at the same
time.” —AS TOLD TO BRENNAN KILBANECrawford was covered
in a mixture of shaving
cream and soapsuds.