In collaboration with one of New York’s most visionary designers, RJ styled these minimalist images to highlight the sculptural precision and theatrical tension of Thom Browne’s Fall/Winter 2013 collection.

“I was thinking a lot about Irving Penn—these sparse, gray-backdropped studies where elegance and discomfort coexist in perfect balance,” RJ says. “Like Penn, Thom Browne fascinates me because his work is at once disciplined and deranged.”

Browne’s F/W 2013 collection—itself inspired by Bauhaus artist Oskar Schlemmer and the mechanized grace of early-20th-century performance—blended American prep with surreal abstraction. 

RJ’s styling and art direction paid tribute to that duality: “Whether I’m dressing a subject or designing a room, I love finding that balance between rigor and whimsy in my work.”