Chanel Iman's Got The Jazz w/Arlenis Sosa Peña

This month Chanel Iman provides a double dose of Jazz era inspired editorials in both Harper's Bazaar and MM Italy. Her spread in MM Italy, "All That Jazz," (shot by Alexi Lubomirski) is simple and playful but it's more VH1 jazz light than mood shifting, body grabbing JAZZ. In it Iman is every bit cute, child-like and airy. The fashions are nice and the mood is fun but what's missing is depth and power.





Where Iman and fer fellow model cohort, Arlenis Sosa Peña, find the real rhythm and feel of jazz is behind the lense of famed photographer, Peter Lindbergh. His Harper's Bazaar editorial, "Fashion...And All That Jazz," best capture's that 1940's era of music. Lindbergh uses some of Harlem's famous jazz spots such as the Lenox Lounge and the Cotton Club as a backdrop as both Iman and Peña provide beautiful portraits of the women of that era. Displaying her ability to meld herself into seemingly any character Iman channels the late Billie Holiday and eerily resembles the chanteuse in a few of the frames. Peña reminds me of many a young female jazz fans of that era. Young, sweet and sultry.

This jazz concept may have seen the lenses of too many photographers in its time but both Iman and Peña handle it well and deliver a moody and stunning range of images.

















"All That Jazz"

"Fashion...And All That Jazz"