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Author Archives: 11l13
People are strange
way too much:
‘there are days when a needle, a piece of cloth, a book, a man are all the same thing’
The Group
The Group – shot by Steven Meisel for Vogue Italia, July 1999
Now working closely with professional retouchers I realize just how much photoshop-polishing goes into production of every image we see. I mean of course I knew it before but to know and to see with your own eyes is a different thing. Knowing to what extent images are edited there is no wonder that in the magazines now everybody is slim and sexy, with glowing skin, pretty faces and shiny hair. All beautiful and all boring. For me it feels like there is something wrong with the way what models are now being picked for the shoots and how they are being depicted in the editorials. It’s not a matter of size or prevailing of the exact type of beauty – anorexic or plus-size, eastern european or asian, there’s something missing from all these girls and boys.
Despite of the the triumph of prettiness it has nothing to do with over the top glamour of the mid 00s which had in itself a sort of joie de vivre quality. What I’m talking about is just depersonalisation of some kind. When all the little things that make one unique are wiped out in order to create an ideal face/body. Thinking of it I could probably link it to, for example, ancient Greek’s sculptures. There were very strict rules according to which every statue had to be made. The ancient Greek’s pantheon consisted of ideal beings – ageless and flawless, with perfect bodies and faces. Often you couldn’t tell apart one god or goddess from another judging only by their looks unless there are their ‘key accessories’ like Heracle’s lion pelt, Athena’s helmet or Hermes’s sandals. Ancient sculptors used real people as their models and turned them into gods because of the demands of their religion. Today photographers and retouchers turn models into otherworldly ideal creatures because of the demands of fashion. Also adds to the similarity recent popularity of the androgynous look which is also a quite familiar concept for the ancient Greek’s culture.
All in all I find such images to be quite dull, they fail to make an impression on me and even in those ‘provocative’ editorials there are all these languid poses and blank expressions. Speaking about the faces. Maybe that’s the point – ‘standard’ faces don’t distract from the clothes which is good for advertising.
Blame it on magazines, casting agencies, advertisers or ourselves (because maybe we want fashion to be projection of our dreams, not the reflection of reality) but I feel the lack of ‘realness’ in modern editorials.
Truth be told all I wanted to say is how refreshing for me was to see this photos made more than ten years ago by Steven Meisel for Vogue Italia. Amazing colour palette and texture combinations – styling was done by Brana Wolf, and notice the furniture used, it’s also a perfect match for this ed. And what a faces – I can’t stop watching them. I certainly miss photoshoots like this – in fashion there should be a place for imperfect, diverse, real and random)
Full-on winter beauty
One of the reasons to love Olivier Theyskens – ‘dead birds shoes’, early 00s
Body language
insanely beautiful photoset from Another mag fall10
styling – Alister Mackie, art – LucyandBart, photography – Nick Knight
Serpents et papillons
Grim, intricate and richly detailed paintings of plants, snakes and insects
by Otto Marseus van Schrieck
Once again
Black antique chantilly lace shawl
Diamonds. Theft
The new tribes
For quite a while now I’m very into ethnic jewelry – heavy, intricate and meaningful. I want to be clad head to toe in these chains, pendants, necklaces, headpieces, bracelets etc. like an ancient statue from a hindu temple. Also I’m thinking a lot about that Balenciaga fw0708 collection. Seems to me that it’s time for cyber-ethno to be back again sending a new fashion tribes along the runways (sounds so cliche – maybe I read too much runway reviews)). On a side-note: silver and piercing is also very 90s which adds to their cool factor because right now this fashion decade gets a lot of attention from the designers and stylists.
Madame Gres and blah-blah-blah
A few more of Gres gowns. I’m glad she’s now getting all the attention she deserves but at the same time I couldn’t help but think ‘where all of you have been before?’. I mean as the saying goes the history is written by the victors and in fashion this means that the history of fashion is written by the most powerful and famous brands. Using their influence they could create whatever story they want. That’s why now we have such myths as the one about Coco Chanel ‘who invented the little black dress’.
Although today it seems that we know everything about fashion it’s mostly about the big names. There are tens of books about Dior or YSL and only 3 about Gres (at least as far as I know) and one of them is dedicated to the recent exhibition in Paris. Actually it’s quite logical that the fashion biggies support their status by publishing books and sponsoring museum exhibitions, not to mention all this usual pr routine with the campaigns, videos etc. However I feel that through this activity the brands not only try to keep their clientele in the loop and attract the new ones but they also try to exaggerate their roles in the history of fashion. Though all of it is understandable I still wish more people knew about the likes of Charles James, Mariano Fortuny, Boue sisters and other great talents that remain largely unknown because their Houses didn’t last until now becoming the world renowned megabrands.
Pictures scanned by me from the book ‘Madame Grès, la couture à l’oeuvre’.
We use the pain
For a long time now ritual scarification has been used as an initiation rite. One have to endure pain in order to become a full member of society. In this case marks on the body are an evidence of strength and self-discipline. At the same time for these people making scars on the body is the way to beautify themselves. Also, there is an observation that scarification has been most-used among equatorial nations because it would be difficult to see a tattoo on a dark skin. So we could see that all these cultural/religious matters are closely entwined with the different aesthetic principles making the subject of ritual scarification so interesting and complex - I really wish I had a deeper knowledge of it.
On a side note – when searching for the images I just found out that Louis Vuitton once made a bag inspired by the African rituals of scarification. Maybe it’s just me being snobbish and all but somehow for me it seems to be so wrong that such sophisticated and controversial concept has been used to produce just another logo-stamped luxury bag.
Black & fragile
Antique chantilly lace.
WW2
Let it come with all its horrors
I just remembered a book I read a few years ago when doing a research for my graduate collection. It’s a novel by swedish writer Karin Boye called ‘Kallocain’. Of all the things I read and watched back then this one perhaps made the strongest impression on me. Two and a half years ago I quoted in my sketchbook:
“I have wondered for years where that place might be. If we will reach it after we have devoured our neighbor-state, or the neighbor-state has devoured us? Will roads then spring up as easily between human beings as they grow between cities and districts? Let it come soon then! Let it come – come with all its horrors! Or wouldn’t even that be enough? Will the armored tank have grown so strong before that time that it no longer can be transformed from a god into a tool? Can ever a god, even if he is the deadest of all gods, surrender his power voluntarily? – I wanted so to believe there was a green depth in the human being, a sea of undefiled growing-power that melted all dead remnants in its crucible and healed and created in eternity. . . . But I have not seen it. What I do know is that by sick parents and sick teachers still sicker children are being brought up, until the sick has now become the norm and the healthy a horror. From lone beings are born even lonelier, from the frightened come more frightened ones. . . . Where might even one seed of health be hiding away, that could grow and burst through the armor? . . . Those poor people whom we called lunatics played with their symbols. It was at least something, at least they knew there was something they missed. As long as they knew what they were doing at least something was left. But it doesn’t lead anywhere! Where can anything lead! If I should shout at a Metro station when the multitudes emerge, or at a great festival with a loudspeaker in front of me – yet my shouts would only reach a few eardrums in the million-mile Worldstate, and would bounce back as a vacuous sound. I am a cog. I am a being who has been robbed of life. . . . And yet: just now I know it is not the truth. It must be the Kallocain, I guess, that makes me unreasonably hopeful – everything seems easy and clear and peaceful. I am still alive – in spite of all they have robbed me of – and just now I know that what I am goes somewhere. I have seen the powers of death spread through the world in ever widening waves – but then must not the powers of life also have their waves, even though I have been unable to discern them? . . . Oh well – I know it is the effect of the Kallocain, but even so – why couldn’t it be the truth?”
Zhurnal Litso
the Unexplained, photo: Lee Jenkins for the Face, 1999
Feathers and layers
Now it’s time for a serious glamour: two gowns from Olivier Theyskens’s first collection for Nina Ricci (from French Vogue). Personally I prefer his works for his own label and Rochas. He was gorgeous at Nina Ricci, but his first collections seemed a bit incoherent and the last ones too showy to my own liking. Also I think that there wasn’t such strong and refined image behind his Nina Ricci collections in comparison to his previous works. Anyway Theyskens is extremely talented – just look at these two photos:
Image study 002
Made me hardcore
Fiorucci made me Hardcore, short film by Mark Leckey, 1999
hypnotic video made from the ‘found footage’ of the British nightlife in 70s, 80s and 90s. this is real. this is beautiful.
MA-1
Alpha Industries MA-1 distressed bomber jacket.
love everything about it: crinkled surface, wrinkled seams, bleached colors, damaged zip and tiny holes in the knitted hem, cuffs and collar. also I like the color palette of these photos – hues of greyish green/khaki, silver zip, dark blue of some t-shirt (?) underneath the jacket and even the bright orange silky lining (and usually I hate orange), plus this strangely tender powder pink background. and textures … well, I could go on and on). all I wanted to say is that it’s just another one great example of ‘the beauty of imperfections’ theme which so fascinates me.
p/s still under the spell of re-read Gibson, guess it’s again resonated with my current state of mind/lifestyle
