A Magazine #7: Kris Van Assche

Kaat Debo, editor in chief

The words ‘poetic’ and ‘romantic’ recur constantly in reviews of Van Assche’s work. In A MAGAZINE #7 Kris wanted to highlight the various facets of the poetry in his work. The poetry he finds reflected in the strive for the elusive dream within the images of artist duo Parkeharisson as well as that which is created when you show your vulnerability and allow other people into very personal aspects of your work. For the two fashion shoots in this issue, one featuring the Dior men’s collection and the other Kris Van Assche’s own women’s collection, Kris asked his friend, Mauricio Nardi, to be responsible for the styling and to portray his own interpretation of the collections, a task he has never trusted to anyone but himself until now.

Intrigued by his œuvre and appreciating the poetry he brings to the world of porn, Van Assche invited Jeff Burton to shoot the campaign for the Kris Van Assche men’s collection. Radically, Burton chose to use three porn actors in the sultry settings of an LA laundromat. Kris wanted to be an observer on the set and asked Burton to transcend the boundaries of a traditional commercial campaign. They shared a hilarious and for Kris, at times, very recognizable conversation about creativity, doubt, shame, pride, family, vulnerability, respect and freedom. Burton’s mother’s reaction when he first told her that he worked in the porn industry became this issue’s leitmotiv.