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Beauty Is Perhaps a Matter of Distance

Sasha Konograeva with long wavy hair, seated in a black sleeveless look against a pale studio backdrop.

PHOTOS BY ALICIA DUBUIS
HEAD OF BEAUTY: NICOLA FISCHER
WORDS BY STEFANIE PONCA
MODEL: SASHA KONOGRAEVA @ WIENER MODELS

Photo Essay

What if Botticelli had been given a camera? Would he have caught Sasha Konograeva’s skin, her hair, her body in the same curving lines as Alicia Dubuis? Perhaps. But he was after the ideal, and up close the camera finds something else: the texture of skin and its shadows. Beauty doesn’t have to be perfect to feel whole.

Q&A

Stefanie

When do you feel most at home in your clothes?

Sasha

I have to feel comfortable in what I wear. Otherwise, it doesn’t work.

Stefanie

Which part of the day is yours?

Sasha

Definitely the morning. What I treasure most are those quiet moments early on, when I’m the only one awake. I take my coffee out to the balcony, wrapped in a blanket, and watch the first light come up. Wonderful.

Stefanie

Everyone seems to have an opinion on what we should like, wear and want. How do you tell what’s yours?

Sasha

There’s so much coming at us these days that you can lose track of what you actually like. That happens to me with fashion and beauty especially. But there are things in the world that hold steady and make the day better. Flowers. Desserts. The way a perfume fades. Colour. I love blue, and I don’t expect that to change.

 

Extreme close-up of Sasha Konograeva’s blue eye, with bare skin, fine lashes and traces of pale shimmer around the lid.
Black-and-white still life of a crumpled silver tube of Typology face moisturizer.

Cover: VINTAGE BLOUSE BY INES RASPORT, AVAILABLE AT CABINET VINTAGE. RIGHT: 9-INGREDIENT FACE MOISTURISER BY TYPOLOGY PARIS.

Close study of weathered dark wood, its deep grain and folds echoing the textures explored throughout Beauty, Up Close.
Wet strands of Sasha Konograeva’s hair falling across her bare back in a close study of line and texture.

RIGHT: DENSITÉ & VOLUME SHAMPOO BY CAUDALIE.

Nine close studies of Sasha Konograeva’s lips, arranged in a grid of subtle shifts in expression.
Extreme close-up of a warm rose lipstick with its textured surface visible above a silver case.

Right: Matte Lipstick in Éperdu by Byredo.

Black-and-white extreme close-up of Sasha Konograeva’s skin, eye and fine facial texture.
Four close portraits of Sasha Konograeva arranged as a grid, tracing subtle changes in gaze, angle and expression.

RIGHT: THE POWDER DUOS IN FIZZ/JAM BY WESTMAN ATELIER. 

PHOTO ASSISTANT: ESTELLE BOUCHET
HAIR: RACHEL BREDY
STYLING/SET DESIGN: STUDIO HANNA RÜCKERT
PRODUCTION: SOPHIE LEBÈGUE @ GEMINI PRODUCTION

VIDEO
DOP: ROMAN LUSSER
DIRECTOR: ALICIA DUBUIS

THIS STORY FIRST APPEARED IN Super Flattering  PRINT ISSUE N°01 / SUMMER 2026

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