Croatian artist and model Sanda Zikic had the idea for this Little Red Riding Hood shoot after spying a gorgeous fairy tale red cloak by designer Fairytas on Facebook. She’s always loved fairy tales, and was even called Snow White as a teenager because of her pale skin and black hair. “I always believed that all fairy tales had some truth inside them,” she says. “My family and I escaped the Balkan War in 1993 and moved to Luxembourg, and since then I’ve loved fairy tales even more, as they always had a happy ending.”
Once she had a red Fairytas cloak of her own, she imagined adding a dog or two to the vision and started asking around for huskies, wanting the “huge contrast” of their pale fur. “I didn’t want to represent the typical Red Riding Hood,” she says. Then she discovered Wäiss Schéiferhënn Lëtzebuerg, Luxembourg’s White Swiss Shepherd Association, an organization founded in 2011 to bring together lovers of the breed. “I contacted Joe Muller from the organization,” she says, “and asked if he and his members were interested in collaborating, and he said yes.” She also asked a friend of hers, photographer Lynn Theisen, to participate as well.
On the day of the shoot, nine dogs showed up. “It was magic to have these beautiful animals next to me,” Sanda says. “They’re just so majestic and powerful.” And some proved to be naturals: while many of the dogs ran about and wanted to play, “some of them acted like pros and stood perfectly still, posing for the camera.”
To learn more about Luxembourg’s White Swiss Shepherd Association, visit Wsl.lu.
Photography by: ©LYNN THEISEN
Cloak by Fairytas
