Susie Bick Cave - model, wife, mother and muse has launched her own fashion collection aptly titled The Vampire’s Wife. Named after an unpublished novel written about her by husband Nick Cave, The Vampire’s Wife is a wardrobe that mirrors at least a slight glimpse into this very private homage to his wife.
Nick Cave makes no secret that upon first sight of Susie Bick he encountered flashbacks to every female sexual fantasy he had ever experienced. His monologue for the film 20,000 Days On Earth expresses a possession and desire manifested by an unstoppable obsession to immortalise her.
Somehow the strange ethereal femininity of his poetry seeps into each piece making up a tightly edited collection that transfers effortlessly the alluring timeless mystery surrounding Susie’s very presence and embodies the sort of love and seduction we only ever imagine exists in fairy tales.
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The premise to the label is of course Susie’s imagination - admitting she’s been designing entire collections of dresses in her head since she was a child and later when she became Mrs Nick would dream up fantasy looks she might like to wear whilst accompanying her husband in public.
The very first chapter in Susie Bick Cave’s story began with her as muse. Before marrying her musician husband in 1999 she enjoyed an illustrious career as a supermodel working with the best names in the business.
Fashion photography giants including Steven Meisel, David Bailey, Helmut Newton, Guy Bourdin, Sarah Moon, Ellen von Unwerth and Nick Knight just tip the list of greats who captured her mesmerising otherworldly beauty through their lens. She performed as personal muse to legendary fashion designers Yves Saint Laurent, Gianni Versace, Azzedine Alaia, Vivienne Westwood and John Galliano who all helped evolve her into the reinvention of the traditional gothic heroine for the 90’s.
Susie Bick for Yohji Yamamoto Fall/Winter 1988 campaign photographed by Nick Knight
Her gravitas allowed her to experience dressing in highly crafted couture fabrics cut sharply into her own form. This role gifted her an insight into the heritage, design and artisan skills that go into making the perfect dress and after nearly 28 years in the fashion industry has learned only too well how to identify one.
Susie fell hard for the charm of romantic feminine dresses early in life coming of age during the seventies a time when the sensualisation of the Victorian tea dress was in full flight. On set she became known for wearing rare vintage finds from famed emporium ‘Virginia” owned by the legendary Virginia Bates. Susie would style them in contrast to the macabre mood of her beauty portraying a raunchy yet demure attraction that would eventually lead her floating confidently into a world of dark materials and hedonistic wild times.
She famously snogged model Sarah Stockbridge during the Vivienne Westwood 1989/1990 Pagan show and made a cameo appearance naked on the runway in Robert Altman’s infamous Prêt-à-Porter film in 1994.
Susie Bick Cave on the cover of Roxy Music’s Greatest Hits album in 2001 – the artwork was also used on the band’s world tour poster and was originally intended for the unreleased album ‘Horoscope’ by Bryan Ferry
In 2010 Susie collaborated on her first commercial collection with best friend and designer Bella Freud, daughter of Lucian Freud and great granddaughter of Sigmund Freud. In 1977 Bella began working at the notoriously infamous ‘Seditionaries’ store leading her to first witness Susie Bick in the flesh whilst working as assistant on a Vivienne Westwood shoot. The pair later became friends after a meeting in Bella Freud’s showroom in 1990 a significant occasion that ignited a synergy between the two that has lasted ever since.
Watch the fashion film for the Bella Freud x Susie Bick 2010 collection featuring Florrie with music by Grinderman
Susie Bick Cave stars in new campaign for Kate Moss x Equipment 2016 - watch her frolicking around behind the scenes with the iconic supermodel in this short fashion film
The overall aesthetic for The Vampire’s Wife comes from Mrs Cave’s great love of art, couture and of course, film. Her biggest inspiration includes the actress Isabelle Adjani who plays the part of Lucy in Werner Herzog’s Nosferatu and clearly resembles the designer herself. The sumptuous colours have been chosen for their jewel tones in reference to another key influence, Russian Ballet and even a specially woven silk has been produced after The Vampire’s Wife was granted exclusive access to historic archives that include details of silks made for Marie Antoinette.
This is a beautifully feminine collection that intends to serve the dual purpose of being comfortable enough to hide away in for day and still bold enough to take on the world as night falls reflecting a delicate innocence and a confident wisdom that make up both sides of the same coin crowning a dangerously seductive casual opulence rarely attained these days.
The Vampire’s Wife Collage by Jeff Mars
Delicate florals printed on sheer silk and woven cottons in pale colours craft classic prairie styles that graze the ankle and float ghost like contradicting the lustrous technicolour of taffeta silks cut mid length to accentuate a 50’s wasp waist. Ornate embellishment enriches each demure silhouette tinged with a vintage touch of floral jacquard, ruffles, ribbon-ties, folded down pockets or characterised buttons interrupted by a stunning burst of sexuality revealed by the cut of a seam, placement of dart or a slit in fabric.
A clever partnering with friend Alexandra Adamson - who’s Romanian Family Crest is the branding that ultimately wraps up the lifestyle - brings a rare seal of approval that delivers the dream in authentically packaged form. This is a label spilling over with cult status presenting us with a story that reflects every iconic heroine in art, history and popular culture and forcing us to believe we can become her by distilling our fantasies into this practical and modern collection.
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