Will style matter in a post-apocalyptic world? And if it does, what will it look like? Forget the functional, dishevelled looks featured on the Walking Dead, fashion photographer Martin Tremblay’s vision is spectacularly haute couture—if somewhat less practical. After all, if the end of days were near, wouldn’t we all want to go down wearing Channel?

Tremblay’s inspiration came from the huzler.com story/hoax claiming NASA had predicted that a massive solar storm would plunge the world in darkness for six days in December 2014. “I didn’t care if it was true or not,” he says. “I just looked for the sickest place in the world to shoot.”

He found it at 4,207 metres, at the top of Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano on the island of Hawaii, and home to the most powerful telescopes in the world. Nothing or little ever grows among the cinder cones and lava rocks, but the broad volcanic landscape provided Tremblay with the perfect setting.

Captured through the telescopes of the University of California and shot with Tremblay’s exceptional eye for the unexpected, the photos of Solar Storm actually make us gasp. The models themselves seem to be straining to breathe. Is there a correlation, or a message, here, about the rarefied air of the high-fashion world? Or are we just looking for meaning where there is (and what’s wrong with that?) just pure, unadulterated beauty. After all, at the end of the day—or days as it were—it’s all any of us can hope to leave behind. Tremblay certainly will.

Solar Storm is featured in Australian magazine NOI.SE. Actually more of a high-end coffee-table book, NOI.SE showcases the best in fashion, design, culture and art from around the world.