Hunter Schafer appears in the new CR Fashion Book shot by Nick Knight, and the results have sent readers hunting for comparisons. Across the set she is lit in acid green and laser red against screens of circuitry, her skin rendered in chrome and shadow, her hair moulded into a different shape from frame to frame. The clothes do their share: a chrome collar and harness in one picture, a black bra and long red skirt in another, with a beam of blue light cutting the frame in half.
That transformation was a recurring theme in reader reactions. 'THIS is how a fashion shoot should be,' read one of the best-received comments on the thread. 'Every pic we get something different; a few pics I didn't even recognize Hunter.'
Commenters drew comparisons to science-fiction works. 'Ok blade runner!!!!!' one wrote. Another thought of Mars Attacks! for the middle images, a third saw Mystique in the first, and a fourth settled on 'sci fi queen overlord'. One reader admitted they had misread the headline as Hunter Biden and got whiplash. Another said they would frame some of the images as art at home.
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Why It Looks Like That
Knight has spent more than four decades producing fashion photography known for experimenting with technology and visual presentation. He published his first book, Skinheads, in 1982, founded SHOWstudio in 2000, a platform dedicated to documenting the creative process behind fashion imagery. According to his website, his work challenges conventional ideas of beauty. He has worked with Yohji Yamamoto, John Galliano and Alexander McQueen, shot campaigns for Burberry, Chanel and Dior, and directed music videos for Björk, Lady Gaga and Kanye West. His work has been exhibited at Tate Modern, the V&A and MoMA.
Knight has also explored digital approaches to fashion imagery. In 2022 he launched ikon-1, a digital fashion project featuring photorealistic renders of model Jazzelle. Against that backdrop, a shoot that makes a famous face hard to pin down looks less like a gimmick than a house style.
The Fall/Winter 2026 issue features several covers by different photographers, among them Charli XCX by Petra Collins, Gabbriette by Indiana Piorek and Anja Rubik by Victor Brun. Chloë Sevigny and Mariacarla Boscono appear in the issue.
The Casting Argument It Started
Further down the discussion thread, some readers shifted their focus from the images themselves to a separate casting debate. 'I am just wondering why even consider Sydney Sweeney for the role of Barbarella when Hunter is here looking like this,' one reader wrote, and the replies stacked up beneath it.
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The project referenced by commenters is Sony's planned Barbarella remake. Sweeney is set to star in and produce the film, with Edgar Wright attached to direct since 2024. In July, Wright said the project remained in the script-development stage. Readers were making the case for Schafer on their own, rather than any reported involvement in the film.
Schafer, best known for playing Jules in Euphoria, has also appeared in Prada's spring campaign alongside Carey Mulligan and Damson Idris, then returned for autumn with Troye Sivan. For some readers, Knight's photographs demonstrated Schafer's ability to disappear into an image, which is a rarer thing than looking good in one.
