August 24, 2021
Photos: Helena Christensen
Models: Audrey Louise Reynolds & Helena Christensen
Helena Christensen and artist Audrey Louise Reynolds' new collaboration The Misses is the artistic fusion we never knew we needed, but one we know to look forward to. Their project will be a mixture of artisanal inspirations and sustainable handmade objects from their travels. We sat down for a chat with the two to discuss their friendship, their mutual passion for activism, pandemic revelations and their new projects.
BROWNSTONE COWBOYS: How did you guys meet?
HELENA: We were introduced by a mutual friend at a Christmas party, she had imagined us really getting along and she was right!
AUDREY: The beyond epic, talented, kind, gorgeous, earth angel Julianne Moore introduced us. I'm eternally grateful. This was 2010 or 2011... Helena had just come home from Peru and I was about to leave for there, so we dove right into talking about that and haven’t stopped talking since. I remember leaving the party with our respective boyfriends at the time and continuing to text each other all night after we left and even said I love you. We got very serious, very fast ;)
BROWNSTONE COWBOYS: It seems like you are both very close and playful — what is at the core of your friendship? What makes it work?
HELENA: Exactly that, we can be very serious and deep but what defines us is our playfulness, the curious child within us. We live for the moments and find joy in all the little obscure and poetic things around us, and we are obsessed with nature.
AUDREY: It’s just one of those uncalculatable things, we just click. As she said, we really go from deep to curious to dying laughing and typically all centered around being outside surrounded by flowers or the ocean. There’s zero doubt in my mind we will be friends forever.
BROWNSTONE COWBOYS: What is one thing you love about each other?
HELENA: What I love about Audrey is that she is like my spirit sister. I am so grateful that someone who sees and feels the same way I do about so much even exists.
AUDREY: Helena has the biggest heart and the darkest sense of humor, all while she literally picks up trash everywhere we are going as we are just walking around. Right now, she’s probably thinking about what kind of cheese she’s going to eat later. I couldn’t adore her more.
"We live for the moments and find joy in all the little obscure and poetic things around us and we are obsessed with nature."- Helena
BROWNSTONE COWBOYS: Is there anything that the past year has changed for you/your life that you’d like to hold onto as life returns to the “new normal”?
HELENA: I realized I was very happy on my own and most at peace and grateful when in nature. Both of which I got to experience a lot more in the past year and a half. I want to hold onto that for the rest of my life.
AUDREY: I realized how much I hide in my work and it prevents me from having a real work life balance. Covid certainly made me stop in my tracks. I had days that felt long where I even forgot to eat lunch, which I never meant to skip — it’s just that every day I woke up, started working and by the time I looked up it was like magically 4:30pm and I was starving. Not nearly enough had gotten done as far as I was concerned. I’m hoping to continue to allow myself the balance I desperately needed and now have.
BROWNSTONE COWBOYS: What are the silver linings the pandemic has made you realize?
HELENA: Being with my son again, being in nature, taking my time with things I really love doing, taking photos and being creative, immersing myself in nature, all of those have made me feel extremely grateful within.
AUDREY: I met a very special boy that I fell madly in love with which would never have happened without the pandemic...
BROWNSTONE COWBOYS: Do you have any daily practices that help center you?
HELENA: Not really, except perhaps jumping into freezing rivers. It makes me feel like the truest version of myself.
AUDREY: I make paintings out of things I find on my walks, whether it be some yummy extra red mud, a flower, a piece of blue wood, an inky cap mushroom. I have never had any choice but to create. Now that most of what I create is attached to monetary means it can get a bit confusing... It’s very good for me to just make for zero reasons at all like how it began. It’s like a little reset button. I also watch Helena jump into freezing rivers and scream and I am just like, “Umm nope,” fully clothed on land probably smoking a joint.
"I have never had any choice but to create. Now that most of what I create is attached to monetary means it can get a bit confusing... It’s very good for me to just make for zero reasons at all like how it began. It’s like a little reset button."- Audrey
Photography: Helena Christensen
Starring: Helena Christensen and Audrey Louise Reynolds
Bathing suits, one piece and bikini top: Staerk Christensen
Jumpsuits, sweatshirts, bucket hats, flannel shirt: Audrey Louise Reynolds
Boots and sunglasses: Model's own
Necklaces are either Helena’s or pawnshop
Dogs are Damo (Audrey’s) and Kuma (Helena’s)
-poster-00001.jpg)
