Of all 78 tarot cards, there is one I never had trouble understanding. From the first time I pulled the Nine of Pentacles from the Steampunk Tarot by Barbara Moore and Aly Fell, I knew instinctively what it meant, something that didn’t happen that often when I got my first deck. In fact, this is why I started to collage my way through the cards. I wanted to get to know them better and make them mine. (You can read more about my creative process and the suit of Wands/Lipstick in a previous issue of Spoilers Allowed here.)

The Nine of Pentacles features a happy singleton who stands in her own power, so exactly me. It reminds you that you don’t need to do everything alone. I was so happy to finally understand the meaning of a card without referring to the guidebook that I asked for an illustration of the Nine of Pentacles for Christmas – Eleanor Grosch’s version now hangs in my living room.

I find the suit of Pentacles/Coins the easiest to understand. In the first card, you plant a seed, and by the last, you reap the results with your community. It is a slow suit because blooming can’t be fast-tracked. You need to put in the work at every stage, and the Pentacles offer suggestions on what that might look like, from balancing priorities (the Two) to developing a creative routine (the Eight). The way the Pentacles are represented is often concrete and physical, as opposed to the Cups or Swords, which deal with water, air, emotions and brains. The Pentacles reference community and generosity – they are a political suit as they remind us of inequalities and who gets to hoard resources. 

When it came to picking an object I could find in fashion magazines to collage the 14 Pentacle cards, I chose jewels – made with precious metals and gemstones that came to be through long and complex geological processes. The pentacles correspond to diamonds in the OG jeu de tarot and general playing decks. Jewels are things of beauty that speak to craftsmanship and the imagination. They are, inherently, unequal and unfair. Historically, mining gemstones has been linked to slavery and colonialism, and today, many still risk their lives and the health of their community in the process. They are the perfect embodiment of earth and resources, just like this suit.

The Ace of Jewels

Everything starts with the Ace. The watch tells you when to plant the seeds, and after a few rotations of the Earth, the flowers will bloom. The watch is Bulgari in white gold, diamonds and mother-of-pearl (Harper’s Bazaar, April 25). ‘Summer Flowers in a Landscape’ (Cedric Morris, 1972) was part of David Bowie’s art collection (Harper’s Bazaar, Nov. 16).

The Two of Jewels

She’s busy, she’s juggling competing responsibilities by the sea (UK Harper’s Bazaar, Sept 22). From the “Life of Lila” editorial by Steven Meisel, styled by Joe McKenna (UK Vogue, May 22). Lila Moss wears Loewe with Christopher Kane shoes. I like the futuristic shape of the pink capelet and the bonnet combined with the way it looks like she might be levitating the rings. She’s got creativity in her left hand (Bibi van der Velden Big Splash ring) and work in her right one (Leen Heyne jadeite-and-gold ring). The eternity symbol is by Swarovski.

The Three of Jewels

I focused on the collaboration and community meaning of the card, but I also wanted to keep the church imagery from the Rider Waite Smith (RWS) version– here the timber frame of the chapel in Versailles, built and restored by skilful artisans working together. The photos of Raquel Willis at the Brooklyn Liberation March (Cole Vitter, US Vogue Sept 20) and John Lewis at the Edmund Pettus Bridge on Bloody Sunday in Alabama are a reminder that community is something we build every day, standing on the shoulders of previous community builders, and sometimes it’s dangerous. The jewels are: Jacqueline Rabun’s ‘A Beautiful Life’ pendant, the Black Love Bangle and JR x Georg Jensen’s ‘Mercy Ring’. I tried to play with words, something I haven’t done a lot with the cards, but I’m not sure it worked. The overall feel is a bit too busy.  

The Four of Jewels

The Four is stuck – she can’t hear, she can’t move her hands, and she can’t move her feet. Her greed and jewels are blocking her. This is Charlotte Gainsbourg in Balenciaga by Nicolas Ghesquiere, looking as she often does in his outfits, robotic and futuristic. She is as stagnant as the figures on the sofa, made with old needlepoint. With these, I liked the idea that the needle kept moving to create the image, then stopped, and the image was frozen.

The Five of Jewels

This is one of the saddest cards in the RWS – or a hopeful one, depending on whether you focus on the figures being exhausted and hurt from the journey or on the respite and community ahead. Finding snow in fashion magazines was not easy until I found this Hermes ad (November 16). The chapel is once again Versailles. I like how this links back to the Three, plus let’s face it, many poor and hurt people were outside the Chapel at Versailles, and no one let them in – see the French Revolution. The top bird is from a Frederick Mew design for Cartier; the other four are by Silvia Furmanovich. Lupita Nyong’o is stumbling out of Get Out, but a model from an Acne show (French Vogue, Nov 21) is coming to help her.

The Six of Jewels

Every time I pull this card, Chelsey Pippin-Mizzi asks me who I am in this card (applies to any card with more than one person). Here I focused on the giving aspect – is the model in Bottega Veneta (US Vogue, Dec. 24) throwing the jewels (Bulgari, Roxanne Rajcoomar-Hadden, Cartier, Sophie Breitmeyer, Cece Jewellery, Boucheron) into the open hand or vice versa?  I like how the model and the background (UK Harper’s Bazaar, Oct. 22) somewhat merge.

The Seven of Jewels

You’ve planted the Jewels in the past six cards, and now you can reap the results – hence the Cartier Grain de Café appearing again. This card is about reviewing and reflecting, and the model in this Chanel ad looks very thoughtful (UK Harper’s Bazaar, Nov. 16). The other jewellery is from Chopard (the emerald and sapphire), Yves Piaget (earrings), Dior (les Jardins de la Couture ring in white diamond, gold and sapphires) and Graff. The background is from Fantastic Mr Forquet (US Vogue, Sept. 20), an Italian garden where many seeds have been planted and have blossomed.

The Eight of Jewels

I am proud of the concept for this one – the eight is about the benefits of repetition and routine and the meditative quality of progress. I figured that if I picked a brand’s hero dress for a given season, I would be able to find it in both advertising and editorial, and probably in different sizes to illustrate the concept of repetition. The cotton dress is Prada SS25, worn by Carey Mulligan and in a Harper’s Bazaar editorial shot by Erik Madigan Heck and styled by Miranda Almond. The jewellery is by Cindy Chao, and I liked the idea of showing the evolution of a piece, as it speaks to getting things done.

The Nine of Jewels

For my favourite card, I picked an editorial with a strong personal meaning (UK Harper’s Bazaar, Nov 16) – the last collection I worked on at Burberry, inspired by Virginia Woolf’s Orlando. The novel on Felicity Jones’s knees is a nod to the snail in the RWS card, because the snails are hermaphrodite and Orlando starts the story as a man and ends it as a woman. Many people read the character in that card as trans. The nine jewels are from a Cartier Grain de Café necklace – clearly, they did a big editorial push – and the butterfly on her hand is Swarovski.

The Ten of Jewels

The Ten offers a space that feels safe and, by featuring various generations, reminds us that every second is precious. There was no question that, for me, this space was a library. The bedroom with the big windows is from an editorial on Jacquemus’ home by Matthieu Salvaing (UK Vogue, Nov. 24). The Chanel model and Vanessa Redgrave in Gucci Resort ’17 are both from ads. They’re all sharing the space – maybe they are a family, or maybe they are the same woman at different ages, or different women who have lived there.

The Page of Jewels

I had a lot of fun with this Page – she’s keen, curious and imaginative, something the mix of drawing, photography and embroidery shows well. She’s always thinking and learning, hence the bubble popping from her head. The main editorial is Kaia Gerber photographed by Steven Meisel, Fashion Editor Grace Coddington (US Vogue, Dec 24). The drawing on the right is a Van Cleef & Arpels ad.

The Knight of Jewels

I borrowed the idea of featuring a Knight in a wheelchair from Fyodor Pavlov’s deck – and I wanted to show the journey/progression, with the jewels going from big to small. That Knight is very dependable and cautious, but they are fine with it and know it’s a competency – something I wanted to show by having a figure in black and white and the rest in colour.

The Queen of Jewels

I decided early on that all my Queens would be from Beyoncé’s editorial by Rafael Pavarotti and styled by Edward Enninful (UK Vogue, July 22). Here she is wearing Area Couture with a jewel-like belt and headpiece. The rings in the background are the Macaron by Boucheron – I looked for a series of rings with many different versions to convey a sense of abundance. This is a cornucopia of what Earth has to offer, a bit like The Empress.

The King of Jewels

The King is grounded and successful. She is surrounded by nature, and there is no telling where she stops and nature begins. This is why I looked for nature-themed jewellery – Tiffany’s Bird on a Rock brooch, Louis Vuitton Fine Jewellery, a Van Cleef & Arpels palm tree (2024), a Jet McQuiston earring… Rosamund Pike looks regal and confident in this editorial by Emma Summerton, styled by Leith Clark in Dior (UK Harper’s Bazaar, June 25)

Over to you: Pick one of the cards. What happens to the character immediately before and after they are featured?