Lola Leon and Carlota Guerrero for Dion Lee
Carlota Guerrero and Dion Lee are a match made in fashion-bondage heaven.
In a recent campaign, the Spanish photographer (much in demand for her work centring the female body) captures Lola Leon with many iterations of Lee’s signature cage chain.
The images are seductive, provocative, and - as if invited by the product’s name - play with the idea of fetish. But instead of restriction, the cage chain becomes the site of dynamic movement and freedom. Guerrero juxtaposes bondage with liberation as she reimagines the chain into a swingset, trapeze, and accessory to a corde lisse made of Leon’s own hair.
Female agency is at the forefront of the images, which feature Leon as the lone subject. She’s depicted suspended mid-air in a bag-chain bikini; a modern Rapunzel lowering herself (not a prince) to outside freedom; and a naked spectator, seductively posed by a computer displaying her own photo. Leon is both the subject and voyeur, the viewer and the viewed.
The chain, custom-made in Arezzo, sees its most vulnerable iteration as tears in the campaign’s only headshot. The image does more than just show off the alternating silver and gold details of Lee’s jewellery. Staring straight into the camera, Leon’s gaze is worn out yet defiant. Her expression carries a sense of burden, adding a layer of emotional heaviness to the glamorisation of sexual freedom.
Perhaps it's the centrality of the female figure to both Guerrero’s and Lee’s wider bodies of work that makes their partnership so seamless. Provocative in both visuals and thought, the duo show what it means to use ‘sex sells’ as more than an empty marketing tactic. Though not (yet) available in the form of tears or trapeze, the cage chain can be found at Dion Lee as jewellery, handbag hardware, and shackle detailing in ready-to-wear apparel and footwear.
See more from Dion Lee here / Carlota Guerrero here / Words by Sharyn Budiarto
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