Opera Chic

Steamy Siem Breaks Out Paganini for Harper's Bazaar

He's been a tough sell to classical music critics, but violinist Charlie Siem has had no problem enchanting style titles, like Harper's Bazaar, who describes him as, "stupidly good looking". With the help of maximum hold hair gel (and possible tailoring hacks), Siem flays Paganini’s punishing 5th Caprice for the American glossy, filmed by Argentinean fashion photographer Felipe Sanguinetti. Like Siem, Sanguinetti crosses between fashion and classical music -- he's shot portraits of the violinist in the past (as well as Barenboim and Domingo) and snaps production stills at Glyndebourne, Deutsche Oper Berlin and The Royal Opera House.

Charlie Siem Vents

 

There are two cool things about the Esquire March piece on violinist Charlie Siem.

1. As the latest face of Giorgio Armani's new fragrance, Eau de Nuit, we'll be seeing more of him in Armani's super-sleek cuts.

2. He shares the sartorial secrets of how he manages to look so good in bespoke menswear while playing:

"To play the violin, I had to wear badly fitted jackets that allowed me to move the way I needed to move. And because I loved clothes and I loved to perform, this was a big problem. So when I was 19, I went to a tailor to get a proper tailor-made suit - something that would fix this problem of mine. And the suits he made me...no luck. So I went to another tailor a few years later - someone who made clothes for people who shoot and hunt - and he found a way to make me a structured, fairly close-fitting jacket with a slit in the back so that I could have full mobility in my shoulders to perform. It made all the difference in the world."

Steamy Siem in L'Uomo Vogue

Siem and his F-Holes* smoulder the pages of L'Uomo Vogue in Valentino-red. 

*OC likes her F-Holes like she likes her men -- stiff enough to raise the Helmholtz Resonance by five semitones.

Classic Rock, French Hip Hop and Symphony for Siem

GQ asks Charlie Siem, the 26-year-old face of Dunhill (and violinist) what's on his iPod.

It Crowd Violinist (& Classical Music Coverboy) Charlie Siem

To the fashion industry, Charlie Siem's worth more than just his musicianship. Siem's been a familiar face among fashion's jet-setters since legendary photographer Mario Testino anointed him at a book launch to premiere his portraits of Kate Moss (which can be yours for $1,385.00 /lol/).

Whether he's first row at fashion week men's shows (like he was last month in Milan to check out Calvin Klein's RTW Fall 2012 luxury-sportswear inspired collection) or at a Cartier event in Rome, you mention his name to fashionable crowds and they know his face despite knowing much about classical music.

He's been stamped a Savile Row style icon, thanks to facing Dunhill's spring 2011 ad campaign and smug or shallow, we don't care. We admire him for making classical music cool by association and for growing our list of male violinists who bring the secks (fictional or not). The 25-year-old London-born violinist feels the same way:

“As far as I’m concerned, it’s only giving exposure to the violin to a different audience — a fashion audience — that might not otherwise read about it or know about it. So it’s only a positive thing.” <-- that's what he told WWD's David Lipke in a recent interview (print out here).

Charlie Siem (in Gramophone Magazine)

March 2011's Gramophone Magazine makes our heart (and other things) throb -- and not for cover star Sir Thomas Beecham's Colonel Sanders facial hair. Below, the 25-year-old half-British, half-Norwegian, Eton/Cambridge scholar, former pupil of Itzhak Rashkovsky and Shlomo Mintz (and part-time Dunhill model) puts on a pout in an ad for his new disc.

Violinist Charlie Siem for Dunhill

Beauty isn't everything -- but it definitely helps us to remember young British violinist Charlie Siem. In addition to concert stages, Siem's appearing between the pages of fashion magazines worldwide as a face of Dunhill's Spring 2011 menswear campaign.