Short and Sweet

“I had a dream about a pair of shoes, after which my boyfriend at the time took me round to meet Bella because the shoes that she made were exactly the same as my dream,” recalls Susie Bick. Whether a vision of things to come or a sign of a shared aesthetic, the meeting resulted in a longstanding friendship between the model (who also happens now to be Mrs. Nick Cave) and the designer Bella Freud. Last summer Freud struck upon the idea of collaborating with Bick for her collection. “She’s dazzling in a very particular way," Freud says. "It was interesting to capture that and channel it.” After launching her line in 1990, the British designer scaled back to a capsule collection of cheeky knits starting in 2003.  For fall 2010, Freud and Bick found inspiration in Mary Quant shapes and old images of Abba, resulting in coquettish hyper-short dresses and frilled, knee-high crochet socks. Having previously collaborated with John Malkovich and Elle Muliarchyk, Freud called upon another mutual friend, the artist and director Sam Taylor-Wood, to capture the collection. “I enjoy seeing where someone else takes my ideas and how they will place their mark of artistry on them,” she says.  The relaxed atmosphere of the shoot comes across in the photographs: “Sam makes it seem really effortless,” Bick says. “It was so laid-back, and there was no stress. It wasn’t like working at all—it was just three friends together.”