Karen Elson’s Moment of Reckoning

The model and musician calls out harassment — and a need for change — in the fashion industry in her new book, “The Red Flame.”

BY LEIGH NORDSTROM

It was five years ago that Rizzoli approached Karen Elson about making a book of images based on her life, an easy sell regarding a model and musician of Elson's success and longevity. But she didn't see value in simply compiling beautiful photos of herself throughout her decades-long career.

“For me, it was always imperative from the beginning that the book was authentic to me. That it felt like I wasn't just putting just photographs of me out there. That there was also the story behind it,” Elson says over a Zoom call from her home in Nashville. “Because I think often as models, we get limited to people's expectations of us, which aren't very high. And I felt like it was really important to show that the backstory is actually very powerful, and it is for most of the models I know. They're a very interesting dynamic. I felt like it was very important for me to be honest and vulnerable as well. I'm not just saying, ‘Here's a picture of me looking beautiful backstage at blah, blah, blah, or for this magazine.' I want it to be vulnerable. And talk about things that are hard as well, that are systemic to the fashion industry.”

The result is “The Red Flame,” out today, which features plenty of striking images from the 41-year-old's career as a model, but also dives into her experiences and trauma from harassment and body shaming within the fashion industry.

“I feel like there's a moment of reckoning that has started happening these past couple of years that definitely influenced my writing the book,” Elson says. “I felt like it was an opportunity to hold the mirror up to the industry and say, ‘Hey, these are the things that I see. These are the things that I've experienced. What are we going to do about it? What are we going to do to give models a lot more sort of agency over themselves?'”

Elson has been at home in Nashville with her dog and two children throughout the entire pandemic, save for a trip to

Italy for Milan Fashion Week last month. She reckons it's the longest she's been in one place since she was 16 years old, and describes it as a blessing in disguise.

“I mean, the world is really, really insane, and every day is a new set of challenges. But I'm just trying to ride the wave right now,” she says, pausing to let her dog into the room. “My job usually requires me to jump on a plane, go on set in some way, shape or form, perform. But it's such a relief actually, in a way, to wake up in the morning, go talk to people about my book, and have a little bit more routine for my life.”

Elson says she sees a need for a book like hers both from where she is in her life, confident and unafraid of professional blowback, and a growing trend of models being championed for having their own voice.

“It's been an interesting time for me as a model because I do feel the advent of social media has given a lot of people a voice. So these days bad behavior, really bad behavior, there can be whistleblowers. And there can be people who speak more openly about these things, which I don't think it's a bad thing,” Elson says. “But