David Lynch

When it comes to all things surreal and strange, director David Lynch rules supreme and in recent years he has introduced his signature brand of eerie style to the world of fashion.

American born David Lynch originally wanted to be an artist but after five years of study decided to turn his attention to film and was soon producing a whole host of cult classics - Eraserhead, The Elephant Man, Blue Velvet and the much referenced Dune; the 1984 sci-fi flick has been cited as inspiration by everyone from Nicholas Ghesquiere and Alexander McQueen to Kanye West. Lynch is arguably most associated, however, with the nineties television series Twin Peaks. Set in small town America the highly stylised programme revolved around a murder mystery plot and provided the world with such style icons as Shelley Johnson, Audrey Horne and Donna Hayward (played by Lara Flyn Boyle), not to mention inspiration for countless fashion spreads across the past two decades.

Since then his film and television projects have met with mixed responses, but it is his more recent fashion contributions that we're most intrigued by. In 2007 Lynch teamed up with shoe designer Christian Louboutin on an exhibition entitled 'Fetish'. The two met when Lynch commissioned Louboutin to design some shoes for the exhibition that he was curating. They soon became firm friends and, when Louboutin decided to produce some fetishistic versions of his shoes he asked Lynch to take pictures to showcase them. The resulting highly charged pictures show the 26cm heeled shoes worn by naked blonde models. The shoes have to be seen to be believed and the photos bear the unmistakable dark, brooding and slightly sinister signature style of Lynch.

More recently Lynch directed an advert for Gucci’s eponymous perfume that featured supers Natasha Poly, Raquel Zimmerman and Freja Beha Erichsen dancing to Blondie's Heart of Glass. Not that this was the first time he has dabbled in advertising. Remember those Obsession ads featuring Benicio del Torro and Heather Graham – before either of them were famous? Lynch was responsible for those too, as well as ads for Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent, Adidas and more.

If you haven't seen any of Lynch's films, or if you're too young to have watched Twin Peaks the first time around then it might be worth while stocking up on DVD's and getting acquainted with Lynch's subversive style now - your wardrobe will thank you.

By Emma Sells