SCHIAPARELLI AND DALÍ, McQueen and Hirst, Vuitton and Murakami: Fashion designers and artists have long joined forces to demonstrate the power of creative energy in collaboration. But for Stella McCartney and Cindy Sherman, it’s more than just an industry partnership, it’s a friendship—though not without a hint of starstruck fandom. McCartney gushes about Sherman in a phone call, “I always sort of bowed down at Cindy’s feet like ‘I worship you!’ and she’s always been embarrassed.” (Sherman laughs, not denying it.)

Little artifice exists between the fashion force and the chameleonic photographer— perhaps ironically, given their mutual interest in the varied selves a woman presents. Three years ago, McCartney gave Sherman full access to her brand’s archive, and their easy rapport and resulting collaboration inspired Sherman’s latest series: an exhibition of 10 large-scale untitled works, which opened at New York’s Metro Pictures Gallery in September. In the photographs, Sherman poses as characters who challenge fixed ideas about gender, nearly all dressed in Stella McCartney.

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One of Sherman’s first questions when making the work was: “What does a man pose as?” Her experimentation often manifested as couples. “I would do the male character first and then just add a little bit of lipstick or mascara and change the outfit,” she says. “My thought was how easily one can view someone as male or female.”

“You don't know whether it’s women’s wear or menswear,” McCartney says. “The art is strangely aligned with what I do in my work. But better.” Both of them laugh at her summation. “Yours is way better.”