DOUTZEN - ALLURE, AND THE ART OF BEAUTY

In 2008, Mario Testino photographed Doutzen Kroes in New York for Allure’s Best of Beauty issue. The series is remembered for its clarity and simplicity, but also for the freedom that shaped it. Mario and Paul Cavaco had a creative chemistry that allowed them to move lightly between ideas, never locked into a single narrative. Even when a story had a clear concept, they built each picture as a standalone moment, following instinct rather than formula.

With Doutzen, the starting point was beauty and the rituals surrounding it. Not just surface beauty, but the tension that sometimes exists behind it. The team talked about the things women add to themselves in the name of transformation: nails, lashes, hair, and the drama of shape. From those conversations came one of the defining images of the shoot. Doutzen in a corset, her body tightened and drawn in, yet still composed and luminous. The photograph carries an honesty about the physical pressures of beauty, but it is never heavy. There is poetry in the tension. In the curve of the fabric. In the colours and the crispness of the frame. Mario often references this image as one of his favourites from the story.

What made the series resonate was not just the concept, but the atmosphere. New York light, pared-back styling, and the calm that ran through Doutzen’s presence. While Mario is known for his energy and maximal compositions, the Allure images carve out a quieter space within his archive. They let simplicity lead. Geometry, daylight, and posture carried the story forward.

Over the years, the photographs have travelled widely. They were shown in Testino’s monographic exhibition In Your Face, which premiered at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 2012. The exhibition then travelled to MALBA Buenos Aires, Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado in São Paulo and the Kunstbibliothek in Berlin. They were also featured in Extremes at Yvon Lambert Gallery in Paris in 2014. The image of Doutzen has become a recognisable part of Testino’s fine art presence.

Seen today, the images feel as fresh as they did in 2008. In a culture that often favours saturation and speed, their calm feels modern again. Allure gave Mario and the team the permission to work with restraint, and that restraint has aged well. It reminds us that a beauty story does not need spectacle to be powerful, and that a single photograph can still hold attention without noise.

For Doutzen, it was a defining moment. A shift from pure commercial appeal into a space where her presence could be read more slowly. Mario recognised that and framed her as herself. Focused. Elegant. Strong. This is why the images endure. They come from instinct, trust, and the kind of collaboration that allows something simple to become lasting.

CREDITS: STYLIST: PAUL CAVACO. MAKEUP: TOM PECHEUX. HAIR: ORLANDO PITA