August 2025

Beauty and transformation have long been connected, but in Metamorphosis, the latest photo series from make-up artist and creative director Janina Zais, this transition becomes literal. Inspired by butterflies, the shoot sees pole dancer and former ballet dancer Yvonne Wadewitz undertake a transformation through the use of body paint. “The concept is based on butterflies because they’ve always symbolised something otherworldly to me. A kind of fragile, alien beauty that feels like it doesn’t fully belong to this world,” says Zais. She cites the book Proof of Heaven by Eben Alexander, in which butterflies represent the soul’s evolution in the afterlife, as a key influence. “That idea stayed with me – the notion that metamorphosis isn’t just physical, but spiritual.” It’s a...