Connie Fleming
The multi-talented model, artist, coach and New York nightlife legend makes her Pirelli Calendar debut
What is your definition of beauty? What does beauty mean to you?
Beauty to me is... exploring and opening one’s mind and opening one’s eyes and heart to experience beauty in all of its forms… It’s the ability to open one’s soul to experience.
Is there an artist, an art piece, a sculpture or any sort of art that really resonates as beautiful with you?
My top three would be Andy Warhol’s Marilyn, Keith Haring’s Atomic Baby and there’s a [Jean-Michel] Basquiat piece. I don’t remember the name, but it’s so within the primitive, but it speaks on such a high level, which I love.
When you close your eyes do you have a moment or a memory of beauty that comes to mind?
For me, when I close my eyes, it’s my journey as an artist and illustrator from my earliest memories of art, which started with Disney… going into [Henri de] Toulouse-Lautrec, René Gruau, Antonio Lopez, [George] Stavrinos, [Andy] Warhol. It’s like a reel of all of the art that inspires me.
Is there a smell that you associate with beauty?
When I smell beauty, I smell… paperwhites. Or Soie Rouge by Jean Laporte. And a good chicken curry, Jamaican style.
How about a sound?
I hear Grace Jones. I hear Diana Ross. I hear Roy Orbison, Amy Winehouse, but I can’t listen to her anymore. It makes me cry.
A taste?
Chocolate. I am a chocoholic. And a good carbonara.
A touch?
As an artist, that feeling for me is working with pencil or chalk or even watercolour and making a shape. With fashion, it’s like a… bias-cut silk gown, when it has a bubble and you rub it to let it warm up and mould to your body.
What does beauty look like?
I think it’s an ever-changing experience, because sometimes you wake up and you see something from a different angle. [For me] it’s a need to experience, so that I collect more. That’s what I think of, seeing more and collecting more images and being open to experience.
What would you say is important to add to the discourse on beauty right now?
The last couple of years through the pandemic and through BLM [Black Lives Matter], the discourse has had to come to [include] everyone. It has extended and given the world such a licence to open up and be more aware of inclusiveness, not just because it’s political but because we cannot afford to exclude anyone. Everyone has a contribution to make. And these contributions are expanding us all and giving everyone a more inclusive experience.
