Susie Cave

Fashion designer and model

“I live by the sea in England and swimming underwater clears my mind. It’s almost meditative.”

Model turned fashion designer Susie Cave is clearly at one with the element of “water” that she was chosen to portray in this year’s Pirelli Calendar, even if she admits she was amazed to be included again – for the third time…

“The first time I was photographed by Helmut Newton, aged just 18, and now being asked back aged 58 I find very interesting. I didn’t imagine I’d ever be asked again, but it’s a great honour, particularly with the other people involved. A real pinch-me moment.”

The Newton Calendar was shot in 1986, although it wasn’t released until 2014. And Cave was also captured by photographer Clive Arrowsmith for the 1991 edition. She has fond memories of that first shoot for Pirelli when she was still a teenager, even if her nerves threatened to get the better of her that day…

“I’d been working with [photographer] David Bailey and Helmut Newton had seen the photographs and asked who I was, but I looked quite different in real life, not your typical Pirelli model, so I worried he wouldn’t like it. It was a surreal experience: I’d been a fan of his for many years, but I kept thinking, ‘They’re going to send me home. What am I doing here?”

With her decades in the fashion industry, first as a model and more recently as a designer, Cave is well-placed to observe how photographic shoots have evolved. She admits she finds the larger number of crew members on set these days “a little intimidating”, but is blown away by the improvements in technology…

“I remember the photographer Nick Knight used to use huge plate cameras. He’d put a blanket over his head, and you’d have to hold the position for about 15 seconds without moving at all. It used to take about 100 Polaroids to get the photograph right and then start shooting film, so you’d probably only shoot one or two photographs in a day, now it’s super quick.”

Talking of photographs dear to her, another portrait – this one much treasured by Cave’s musician husband Nick – crosses her mind…

“There’s one of me taken by Dominique Issermann, actually taken behind the scenes when she was just testing the light, I even have my curlers in, and I was standing at the bathroom mirror in our home, but there’s something about it Nick loves.”

Married to the Australian singer-songwriter, actor and writer since 1999, Cave has long got used to heads turning at the sight of her husband’s instantly recognisable face, and delights in the fact she can go about unnoticed…

“I don’t ever feel scrutinised because my husband is so well-known, I’m in the background where I’m much happier, in a supporting role. I’m a bit of a dreamer, so I tend to go off into my own little world, dream about designs I want to make, or my dog, my husband, my son.”

In a house full of her husband’s music, poetry and tireless creativity, Cave finds her own way of expressing herself through fashion design…

“I find it really relaxing. I’m wearing one of my designs right now, and it’s based on Kate Bush’s dress in [her video for] Wuthering Heights. I’m a huge Kate Bush fan so I designed it as a homage to her.”