It was Sean Thomas who suggested photographing his friend Dree Hemingway in Spain. The country was, after all, a lifelong muse to her great-grandfather. “Spain was Ernest’s inspiration for The Sun Also Rises,” says Dree, “but what I love about it is the passion the people there have for food, entertainment and just life in general.”
Dree is now in London waiting to become a godmother to Thomas’s first child. “I’m so excited!” she says. Although Dree has spent the last few years forging her own name as a model and actress in films like Starlet and the upcoming Noah Baumbach project While We’re Young, it’s hard not to talk Papa, and so it goes on location in the hills of Andalucía. Turns out José María Manzanares, the Spanish bullfighter who makes a guest appearance here opposite Dree, had two generations worth of Hemingway tales: His grandfather had been friends with Ernest and his father with Margaux. “There was a huge language gap but to hear his stories about bullfighting was incredible,” says Dree. “He’s very dedicated to his practice. It’s an art.”
Dree’s not a writer, she’s quick to admit, but she’s not without the Hemingway drive to create. In March, she was named Global Ambassador by Cole Haan, a partnership that suits her less-is-more aesthetic. A print campaign launching this fall was a collaboration in which she had a hand in all stages, from choosing the creative team (“it felt like making a family,” she says) to determining the shoot location (Idaho, where she grew up). A line of shoes and handbags will follow. “I like all aspects of what I do, so being able to get involved in more than just the modeling was exciting, with clients actually asking for and wanting my input,” she says. “I think we created something amazing together, which is exciting and nerve-wracking. It was a great adventure,” she adds, sounding like a Hemingway, indeed.
