Ever since I saw the Sugar Plum fairy bourrée across a stage in Sacramento at the age of eight, I’ve loved the Nutcracker. My grandmother bought me my very first wooden nutcracker that day, and I’ve spent the last 20 years adding to my collection. I’ve got soldiers, kings, explorers and a bright yellow, handcarved nutcracker from Austria. But until now, I didn’t have any related to one of my other lifelong passions: fashion.
Since nutcrackers traditionally depict men (specifically, they mimic men in positions of governmental authority in order to poke fun at them), I wasn’t able to find any in the likeness of the two figures that represent the pinnacle of sartorial authority: Anna Wintour and Karl Lagerfeld. In order to pay proper tribute to the reigning king and queen of fashion, I set about making my own nutcrackers. I started with a couple of wooden blanks and began gathering materials essential to each character—a crisp white collar and a mini-me Fendi monster for Karl, loads of fur and signature crystal necklaces for Anna. A golden brown bob was also a must, and fun finishing touches like a red Starbucks cup and an oversized cameo necklace complete the looks.
Although the whole process took a couple of week of on-and-off work to complete, I really enjoyed creating these lookalike nutcrackers from scratch, and I think I might just add this project to my list of Nutcracker-related holiday traditions. Maybe next year I’ll add Grace to the collection.
