Iris is wearing earrings custom made by stylist

Within These Walls

In a world that often asks beauty to perform, this story lingers in the quiet instead. Shot in the sanctuary of photographer Suleika’s home, the images breathe with a softness that doesn’t demand to be looked at, but rather invites you in. Here, skin is honored, flowers are fleeting, and fashion speaks in whispers of renewal. 

Styled entirely with emerging sustainable designers and the fragile life of real blooms, the work insists that luxury and responsibility are not opposites but kin. Constraints become catalysts; what fades becomes poetry. With an all-female team at its heart, the project reclaims beauty on its own terms - unrushed, unpolished, defiantly tender. What unfolds is a vision of what happens when care is radical, when creativity refuses compromise, when beauty is reimagined as something that heals, sustains, and dares to begin again.

PHOTOGRAPHY SULEIKA MUELLER @suleikamueller
STYLING AATHIRAI VALENTINE @aathi.rai using only upcoming, sustainable and independent designers
HAIR YUI OZAKI @yuiozakihair @saintlukeartists
MAKEUP MICHELLE DACILLO @michelle_dacillo @agency__41
CASTING TESS WILCOX @tesswilcoxcast
MODEL IRIS O @irisocarroll @presentmodelmanagement
PRODUCTION PHOEBE ASKER @freelanceasker
NAIL ARTIST HANNAH BENT @hannahbnt
PHOTO ASSISTANT JODY EVANS @jdevns
HAIR ASSISTANT SAIKO HAYASHI @saikoohayashi

In this story, creativity blooms in harmony with care. Suleika invited the team to shoot at her home, a space where vulnerability felt natural and beauty could unfold without performance. The images embrace skin and softness, not as spectacle, but as a quiet celebration of feeling at ease in one’s own body.

Aathirai focused styling entirely on emerging sustainable brands and the fleeting presence of real flowers, reflecting a mindful approach, an insistence that fashion can be beautiful without coming at the expense of the environment. Working within these limits opened new ways of seeing and making, turning constraints into invention, impermanence into poetry.

  • Iris is wearing a dress by Galushko

  • Iris is wearing a top and leggings by Raquel de Carvalho, a skirt by Isidora Duruvic and rings by Matilda Little

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An all-female team created a space to reclaim ownership of how we are seen, how we choose to dress, and how we define our own beauty. Together, we explored an approach where care for ourselves goes hand in hand with care for the world, where fashion becomes a force for creativity, responsibility, and renewal.

  • Iris is wearing an artificial flower and stylists own earrings

  • Iris is wearing a dress by Bazaree and earrings by Matilda Little

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This story holds that spirit: that beauty can be mindful, fashion can be innovative, and true creativity thrives where care, courage and invention meet. A story of a new way of being, reimagining, and reinventing.

  • Iris is wearing a dress by Shakila Thebe and rings by Matilda Little

  • Iris is wearing a bra and choker by Ugly New Cute

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@SULEIKAMUELLER