Mario Testino Show Opens in Madrid

When Mario Testino titled his first exhibition "Todo o Nada" (All or Nothing), it seems, more often than not, that he means nothing.

From Claudia Schiffer to Natalia Vodianova, from Demi Moore to Sienna Miller, Testino knows his way around a nude photo. As he told WWD on the eve of the exhibition's launch, "I end up taking off people's clothes; I don't know why, maybe it's the intimacy or the element of conspiracy but in the end it's a present, it has to do with trust...we're part psychiatrist, part salesman." The fruits of such naked, therapeutic labor? Testino's first 54-photo exhibition at Madrid's Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum--fashion representing the "all," and his nude portraits the very obvious "nothing." At one end is Stella Tennant dressed as a modern-day Marie Antoinette in all her finery, a powdered wig and huge, extravagantly ruffled ballgown; at the other, a nude Sienna Miller wearing nothing but a tiny five-point star on her bikini line.

Todo o Nada is, in Thyssen-Bornemisza's words, an ode to "Testino's woman." In Mario's own, "I like strong, independent women. Women who, despite their strength, never lose their femininity and who do not use their beauty as a tool. Women with personality who can reflect their own desires and ours." One such ideal is Kate Moss, who Testino admits has been a great influence "not just because of her beauty. There are thousands and thousands of models, but very few with her attitude toward life."

Perhaps Testino should extend such respect to the other thousands and thousands of models. WWD also spoke to him on the controversy over undernourished, unhealthy models, a grave health concern he more or less shrugged off his shoulders. "I think the world has greater problems than anorexia," he said. "Fashion uses young models, it always has, and of course they're skinny. I was skinny too at their age."

Photo source: Mario Testino / Todo o Nada