You should know first of all that the lookbook photographs were taken on film by Maxime Ballesteros, now long-time collaborator of Jen Gilpin, the creative mind behind DSTM. Their authenticity (for want of a better, less overused-by-the-fashion-pack word) complements Gilpin’s designs tremendously well: this is a designer who herself describes her cuts as “striking yet realistic”. The sculptural approach to construction allows for an interplay between silk and leather, sheer panel inserts and cut-outs, and immaculate harnesses and stud detailing. All of which works in considered contrast to give rise to typically womanly strength; read: irrefutably sexy but in an empowering fashion, à la Beyoncé as of late, if you will. Even the stilettos, red lips and nails somehow serve as touches of irony, rather than vulgar and offensive stereotypes of female seduction, as they easily could. The magic, as it were, is in that sculptural approach; that is the attention to the body’s contours and fluid lines that results in almost geometric cuts and drapery. And that kind of sexy is always far more sincere and frankly far less cheap than glamorised ideals.