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The latest lookbook release by Mexican designer Victor Barragán stars Lourdes “Lola” Leon .
Shot by photographer and director Mayan Toledano, the thriller shows the young model being spied on, changing into raunchy looks to indulge her peeping tom, played by the artist Ally Bo.
Some of the photos feature Leon holding a flip phone in a denim jacket and a blonde wig that is spray-painted with the label’s logo. The plot gets all the more exciting when she’s on a pink bed in a seedy hotel, blatantly posing for the camera and the viewer behind it while wearing a fringed purple and blue dress. The lookbook culminates at a staged murder scene, where she’s wearing a barely-there red bandage dress.
According to Vogue, Barragán and Toledano were inspired by old ’00s music videos like Foxy Brown’s “I Can’t” and J. Lo’s “If You Had My Love”, along with local Mexican television shows.
“There is some irony mixed with telenova vibes about being extra and dramatic that we reflect in Barragán,” the designer explained. “This type of sense of humor is the reflection of Mexican TV culture that we had in our DNA and we enjoy playing with it in our art direction.”
Toledano also thought of spy themes and references, including the erotic thriller Body Double by Brian de Palma.
“The film is about a guy who spies on a woman and becomes increasingly more obsessed with her,” says Toledano. “With Lola, I wanted to switch the roles a bit, so she learns that she’s being spied on and plays the part for it, to her own pleasure.”
Toledano and her crew worked for two days to shoot the project at a motel on Long Island. The series of photos--which is accompanied by a short clip--tells a story through the clothing. Each change of clothes is supposed to be a new disguise and persona that Leon’s character takes on.
At one point, she wears a pair of denim shorts that aren’t actual fabric but are instead painted on her body.
“I think Lola emotes the same energy as these women in the music videos and in the film who are being surveilled and constantly pursued by men but reclaim the voyeurism to her own power and confidence,” says Toledano. “She’s someone who is in control of her own gaze, in real life and in front of the camera. Lola was really easy to switch between the different characters we gave her, it was both playful and a fantasy version of who she really is.”
