In fashion, there’s who you are and there’s how you sell it.

In this issue, we take a look at people packaging their style for fame, profit, art, survival. For Nicki Minaj, fashion is a way to be not only herself but also a man named Roman, his mother, Martha, and a Barbie from Japan. It’s a different world but a similar project for Cindy Sherman, whose artistic transformations are, in a sense, her brand. For the once-married Chris and Tory Burch, there’s the question of who gets to brand a lifestyle when it’s no longer fully shared. Clarins, the French skin-care company, found four perfect embodiments of its brand around the dinner table.

As for the clothes: This spring, designers provide all sorts of tools for self-branding. There are flapper dresses and peplumed silhouettes. Shorts that barely begin and tops that stop midway. Plus: bags so crystal clear that whatever one carries will be on full display.

We also sent photographer Pari Dukovic to the shows in New York, Paris, and Milan with a suitcase full of film (yes, film!) and a 35-mm. camera. No branding here: The results are beautiful, haunting photographs from both the runway and its attendant sideshow. read more [+]