MEET THE CREATIVE EXPLORER

BENJAMIN SHINE

Benjamin Shine doesn’t define himself as an artist, a sculptor or even a designer. “I don’t want to be boxed in by those labels,” he says. “I think of myself as a ‘creative explorer.’” He has worked with the likes of Riccardo Tisci (when he was at Givenchy) and John Galliano (at Maison Margiela), but his most recent “exploration” was making the tulle portrait of Amber Witcomb for

FASHION’s 40th-anniversary cover. Shine, who is based in London, England, spent the day with us on set in New York and used images of Witcomb to create his portrait. “I strive to transcend the technique and capture a sense of the person,” he explains. “Amber emanates a quiet and timeless strength, and her facial silhouette is captivating—it’s Grecian Pre-Raphaelite.”

Shine discovered his talent for painting with fabric when he studied fashion at Central Saint Martins in London. He began creating sculptural pieces and artworks, but he didn’t use tulle until over a decade later. “I remember noticing how the sunlight fell on this crumpled ball of tulle in my studio,” he recalls. “I was intrigued by the way it exposed the pleats, and I wondered if I could manipulate the fabric to create a recognizable image.”

His technique is time-consuming, and the medium is unforgiving. Once he moulds the fabric with his hands and bonds it to the canvas with an iron, it can’t be undone. The portraits, which appear to be floating, have a poetic lightness to them. “Working with tulle is so different from other media I work with—like marble, glass and steel,” he says. “It’s literally kind of there and not there, which gives it a unique spiritual and ethereal quality.”