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Back in 1998 The Face magazine (RIP) commissioned the photographer and filmmaker Pierre Winther to do a cover story. The idea was simple: Go to Seville, Spain, and do a fashion shoot during the Easter parades of Holy Week, where the streets are filled with guys wearing conical masks that bear a striking similarity to those of the Klu Klux Klan.
This tradition has nothing to do with the KKK, of course—it's been going on since the 16th century, a good 300 years before the KKK was founded. But it was a coincidental confluence of symbols that Winther wanted to play on.
With the help of his stylist Greg Fay, he had the masks made in London and combined them with clothes from Prada, Gucci, and Valentino. The aim was to "combine a classical fashion story with instructive content that would not only provoke attention and curiosity but challenge our own convictions and prejudices."
But though the editors atThe Face loved the pictures and apparently had them hanging in their offices, the found the story a little too challenging to publish. "It was touching on a subject they didn't really know how to handle," Pierre told me. "They were afraid the story would be misunderstood in America." Because of this they've never seen the light of day until now.
-Grey Hutton